Microsoft Surface Duo 2 unboxing: unpacking, setup and first impressions

Shortly before Christmas, Microsoft lent me the Surface Duo 2 for a test. I hadn’t held this device or its predecessor before. I receive no payments from Microsoft for this, so I can report without bias. Here I unpack the device and set it up. This is a first impression, the long-term review follows later.

Unpacking and what’s in the box

The Surface Duo 2 comes in Obsidian Black and in Glacier, that is, white. I’m glad it turned out to be the black one, because it looks a bit more elegant still. Microsoft also provided me with the Surface Slim Pen 2. It also works with the predecessor. I find the pen very handy. I loved the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the predecessors in the Note series. The pen also comes with a charger, which you need to activate the pen.

The first thing I notice: the device is heavy. I’m a fan of big phones and have a Galaxy S21 Ultra, an iPhone 12 Pro Max and a Google Pixel 6 Pro. But even at first grip, it’s relatively heavy.

In the box are:

• the usual paperwork
• a USB-C cable
• headphones with USB connector

A power adapter is missing, which we’ve gotten used to by now, but it’s still annoying. I think it’s good that headphones are included. That’s hardly ever the case anymore.

First impression and tech

The device feels very premium. You can see fingerprints, but they’re kept within limits, I’d expected worse. The folding mechanism feels very firm and high quality. The hinge holds at all angles and gives a very sturdy impression. Obsidian Black with the premium glass and the matte frame appeals to me a lot.

Technical details, as far as I understood them:

• two AMOLED displays with HDR, with Gorilla Glass Victus on the outside, which is supposed to be especially robust and break-resistant
• new compared with the predecessor: a notification bar on the outside. With the predecessor, it was a major criticism that you couldn’t see from the outside whether you’d received a notification or a call. You had to open the device first.
• fingerprint sensor in the power button
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
• 5G capable
• USB-C port on the bottom
• stereo speakers
• Android 11

Setup

Setup is very familiar and works like on a normal Android device:

1. Choose a language.
2. Set up the mobile network. The SIM tray on the bottom was a little search puzzle, but I found it.
3. Set up Wi-Fi.
4. Import data: from another Android smartphone, from a cloud backup or from an iPhone. I didn’t copy anything because I wanted to set the device up completely fresh.
5. Sign in to your Google account, agree to the terms of use and activate Google Assistant. Then the usual options follow, such as backup to Google Drive or location.
6. Choose a search provider. I take Google.
7. Software license terms and hardware warranty. You can read that over the holidays.
8. Since it’s a Microsoft device, you can also sign in with a Microsoft account.
9. Privacy settings: I only send the required diagnostic data. I allow location for local weather, which I find handy.
10. I leave out syncing my contacts with Outlook, so as not to mix private contacts from my Google account with my business account at Microsoft.
11. Set a PIN and add the fingerprint in the power button. I use the thumb of my right hand, which I mostly open the device with.

Already during setup, you notice that the camera module on the back sticks out far. When I lay the device open on the table, it wobbles heavily when typing. I find that a great pity, because with displays this big, it’s hugely annoying when writing or drawing.

Using two screens

At startup, the device suggests apps that were developed for two displays. First in line is Kindle, which I can well imagine as an e-book reader with two book pages. There are also hints about gesture control:

• Swiping from bottom to top shows all apps.
• You can open two apps at the same time and create groups that always open together. I can well imagine Teams with OneNote or YouTube with Instagram.
• An app can be spanned across both screens. How many apps are optimized for that, I still have to test.

It’s unfamiliar, you have to reorient yourself a bit, because you really have two separate screens. Preinstalled are, among others, the Google search bar and the Microsoft apps such as Teams, OneNote and Outlook. Photos and the calendar come on top. When I open Kindle, it first loads on one side and can then be dragged to the middle so that it opens across both sides.

Slim Pen 2

I’m a big fan of the Samsung S Pen and hope the Surface Slim Pen 2 is similarly good, or maybe even better. At first, the pen doesn’t work, it has to be activated. For that, you place it on the charger, then a small dot lights up and it’s ready to use. Sometimes you have to press relatively hard. It clacks a bit when writing, but that doesn’t annoy me as much as with another pen that I find colossally annoying. The response time is super fast, which I really like.

When the Surface Duo 2 is charging, the small bar on the outside shows the charging status and notifications.

Verdict

I’ll try everything else over the coming weeks, I’ll install my normal Android apps and I’m curious how the device holds up. The Surface Duo 2 is a very interesting device, far from the mainstream. I can think of other use cases for the device than a normal smartphone. More on that in the detailed long-term review.