The weird and surprising Surface Duo 2 changed how I work.
Out of the box
Just holding the Surface Duo 2 was quite a marvel. I remember someone from The Verge once joking that Microsoft are really just a hinge company that also make software. Well, it does not disappoint… the hinge is sublime. I switched off my beloved Google Pixel 5, took out the SIM card, and put it away in a drawer.
…it felt alien in every way.
I powered up the Duo for the first time, set up the device from my last Android backup with ease, and got going: all my familiar apps, all my contacts, all my logins. Yet it felt alien in every way. I didn’t know what side to tap, or how to type, or which way to swipe, or even how to hold it. What have I done? I want my slab back.
I had initially thought that reading books with the Kindle app would be the Killer App. It really does look great, and feels awesome to turn the pages on the book-like form factor. I showed it to my wife — an avid reader and Kindle user — and she quipped “you only need one screen to read, seems pointless”. It was immediately obvious to me that my initial reaction was nothing more than nostalgia.
Weird and wonderful
Then, over the coming days, weird things started to happen: I started using it in ways I’d never used a phone before.
I took more meetings on the Duo in the first two weeks than I’d taken on my slab phone in the past two years.
The first was when I got a call to pick up my daughter from school early. I sat in the car waiting at the school, and realised I had a Teams meeting. I joined, there were technical drawings on one screen and faces on the other. I could open the chat without missing what was going on. It was a near-flawless experience.
Then I started actually *choosing* to take meetings on my Duo over my trusty laptop. I could easily sit it on a bench with one side folded up like a laptop, having the front facing camera pointing at me. And it’s a phone, right? data anywhere, meetings anywhere throughout my multi-tasking day.
On the train to work one day I actually read an entire academic paper on my phone at a comfortable distance. You know, the PDF ones formatted with 10pt font.
When on campus, I took a Teams meeting on site where I’m designing a new hybrid classroom. The architect talked through the markup of the latest architectural schematics on one screen, while I could see the rest of the design team on the other. I sat the phone on a window sill up high, front facing camera adjusted so they could visualise the room with me standing at the front as stand-in presenter.
In the final week of semester, I gave my last class lecture. Some might have seen my lecture studio: I teach, I solve problems with digital ink, I also self-produce, switching between multiple cameras and screen share, and I clumsily try to read the student chat (a laptop on a stand) and following my notes (a printed PDF). Before my class, my laptop decided it would start an epic Windows update… so I picked up my Duo in a lightbulb moment and those two clumsy things were replaced by the duo: Teams meeting chat on the left and OneNote mathematical notes on the right. Once again, the phone went from being my time-wasting pocket device to a valuable part of my workflow.
The next week, I invigilated a three-hour digital exam while at the park with my son, monitoring posts scrolling by from 400 engineering students in Teams on the left screen and responding when necessary, while reading and answering emails on the right screen. I would have been dizzied switching back and forth between apps on my old phone. Actually, I just wouldn’t have taken my son to the park. This thing gave me back life.
After two-weeks, I was messing with some settings and I noticed the screen time data:
Number of times phone unlocked: down
Number of hours phone used: up
What’s it mean? More in-depth work, less time wasting.
I took more meetings on the Duo in the first two weeks than I’d taken on my slab phone in the past two years. I was actually leaving my precious laptop behind throughout the day.
I want this thing, refined.
Is there a future for Surface Duo?
There are a ton of problems with the device. I’m not going to dissect it, this is not a review. Yep, taking photos is awkward. Software is far from perfect, I had to do more than a few hard restarts. The two screens had some wild rendering errors. Software will fix most, but will there be a Duo 3, 4, or 5? I really, sincerely hope that Microsoft stick with this form factor. I don’t want a single folding screen like the Samsung Fold. I want this thing, refined. I want this thing with a Google Pixel-quality camera. Outlook and Teams are sooo good on a split screen. I want this thing with more native two-screen apps, like a TweetDeck version of Twitter, Google maps with destinatons on the left and the map on the right, LinkedIn with notifications/chat on one side and the feed on the other.
For me, making work more productive on the go does not mean more work, it means more life.
So here is the takeaway: Taking your phone out of your pocket and unfolding it… It’s more effort, impossible with one hand, more intentional, and more productive. It’s not weird as a phone, or maybe I just have a large head? Ultimately, it is all about form factor, it changed my relationship with my mobile device. In the same way no one sits down at their desktop PC and thinks “time to flick through TikTok”, the form factor of this device changes the way you use it by lowering some barriers and raising others. That’s not going to suit most people, but for some — like me — it really does.
I don’t use TikTok, my Twitter feed is 100% people who inspire me at work, I’d rather scroll LinkedIn than Instagram… why? because if I’m using a device, I want to be getting work done.
For me, making work more productive on the go does not mean more work, it means more life. The Pixel is staying in the drawer.
