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ProBeat: Microsoft's Surface Duo is dead on arrival, regardless of price
Microsoft this week pulled back the curtain on the Surface Duo's price and availability: 128GB for $1,400 and 256GB for $1,500, both shipping on September 10. Too bad the dual-screen Android device is dead on arrival.
The price tag is tough to swallow, especially during a pandemic. After all, 2020 is seeing a resurgence in good, cheap phones. Most notably, Apple launched a $399 iPhone SE, to which Google responded with a $349 Pixel 4a. But if you are interested in a folding phone, a grand and a half is not going to be the deal breaker, especially given the starting prices of this year's Galaxy Z Flip ($1,380), Galazy Z Flip 5G ($1,450), Motorola Razr ($1,500), and Huawei Mate Xs (€2,499). The real problem is what you get, or rather don't get, for the price.
See also: Duo-take: Here's what the media is saying about Surface Duo
Previously: Microsoft Demonstrates Dual-Screen Device Running Android Apps, Announces Windows 10X
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Marand on Monday August 17 2020, @02:19AM (2 children)
Carrier subsidies will likely either hide the cost from people or make it more palatable via long-term payments just like every other ultra-expensive phone. Unfortunately that's also why the prices are so exorbitant, because they know the costs get hidden by the carriers so everyone's happy to jack up the prices as a result.
Still, in a general sense, if you're going to be using a device for a sufficient length of time and get a lot of use out of it, a high-end device is arguably not that bad of an investment to make. This one specifically, dunno. I like the idea of it because the extra screen space could be useful for side-by-side app use, and the bezel's thin enough that some apps might benefit from using it as a single big screen. Plus the possibility of having a much larger keyboard on one half and an app on the other half, which could be nice for people that hate the tiny keyboards as much as I do.
LG has a similar phone called the V60 ThinQ that does something similar but is a bit lower-tech (and about half the price). It looks like a normal phone but has an optional case accessory with a second screen attached that uses the USB-C port to run in a dual-screen configuration when connected. They seem to be pushing its use case as being primarily for double app split-screen or using the second screen as a keyboard or gamepad. That one seems a bit clunkier than Microsoft's version, but that's not surprising considering the price difference.
The problem with both devices is they're not really useful as phones because of size and the inconvenience of having to open them up to take calls, stuff like that. Still, as a more portable tablet or a PDA-esque device that happens to also be able to make calls in a pinch, there's some potential for the idea. Maybe useful for people that don't take/make calls much and primarily use their phones as portable computers.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by barbara hudson on Monday August 17 2020, @02:45AM (1 child)
But it's not just Microsoft mistaking the market for high end Android devices. Especially in a recession. Don't they understand that the whole "hipster" thing is SO over? Same as spending hours at Starbucks using their wifi and buying a few lattes because of covid so get your hipster coffee and GTFO?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @06:21AM
My thoughts on this were fairly similar to yours, but then I read the androidcentral link, and came across this in one of the quoted reviews.
'..The good news is that the company didn't turn its Surface line into a billion-dollar business by throwing in the towel after a single generation.'
Firstly, I've never actually run into anyone locally who owned/used a Surface..not too bad, I suppose, for a device family that's only eight years old. I'm not saying there aren't any here, just that they're such a niche market device as far as the local market is concerned I've not run into one of them (and I do usually get to see a fair number of niche devices when they go fubar...I'm the one with the reputation for repairing the oddball devices that the other places won't touch).
Secondly, if there is actually a '..billion-dollar business..' for Surface devices (I wouldn't know, they don't appear on my radar so I tend to ignore anything to do with them), then I'm assuming the sort of person/demographic who buys them is the target market for these unholy 'Mandrosoftoid' beasties, it would not surprise me in the least if there exists out there 'Surface cultists' (à la 'Apple cultists') who'll unthinkingly purchase the buggers.
The general public won't fall for this, especially not after the Windows phone debacle burned so many and left them with next to useless phones they can't even give away, Corporate however.....ah!, never underestimate the stupidity that drives corporate IT purchasing and policies...a lot of software/hardware/service companies haven't, and have grown fat upon the largesse that is corporate idiocy.