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: 3, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Monday August 17 2020, @05:48PM
Most people's perceptions regarding what they really need and what they want have been sharpened. This is having a ripple knock-on effect through large swathes of the economy. After all, if you're working from home, you can't show off this overpriced device, so you'll look for something that better meets your home office needs, like an ordinary laptop with a big external monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Or even a desktop.
It's under control here and nobody I've spoken to is going to sit in a restaurant. The 15 cent movie promo got two customers. Airplanes are no longer flying at capacity despite reduced schedules, there's much less traffic on the streets. Once you get out of all the consumer habits, there's inertia to returning to the old ways, especially when large chunks of the population don't have jobs to return to.
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