Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review: A two-screen phone that’s not quite ready

Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley joins the Yahoo finance live panel with the latest tech support review of the new Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review.

Video transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Well, if you're like me, you might be getting tempted by all the offers out there to maybe upgrade to an iPhone 13 right now, and begs the question, is that the best model out there for you? Is it the best version of a smartphone on the market for you? Of course, Microsoft has also been stepping up their game with their own phones. And for more on a look at the competition heating up there, happy to bring in Yahoo Finance's tech editor, Dan Howley, in this week's Tech Support to take a closer look at that. Dan.

DAN HOWLEY: That's right. Microsoft, believe it or not, has their own smartphones, although it's a smartphone in the sense that you shouldn't call it a smartphone, at least according to Microsoft. It's in the form of the Surface Duo 2. It's the second generation of the Surface Duo. And I just kind of want to give you a quick rundown of it.

As you can see, it's got two screens. We're looking at Yahoo Finance here on one. And then we've got "Squid Game" on the other. That's really the appeal of this, is that you can do two things at the same time. Two apps, run them side by side. You can copy something from this side and bring it over to this side. So if you have a Notes app or an email, you can go back and forth no problem. It's really interesting to see how Microsoft has made that work.

It's also, believe it or not, running on Google's Android. So, as you can see, I can swipe up, and there's the regular Android operating system. I can also swipe up here, and you can see the full screen piece.

Now, there are some big drawbacks, though. The software is clunky and can be buggy. At times, I've had to find myself readjusting it several times to get the orientation right. Not all apps work across the screen. So, for instance, if you want to watch something like a "Squid Game," and you want to have it on a larger screen since this is an 8.5 inch display, you actually end up with this crease in the middle. So you can't actually see anything that you really want across both screens very well.

I think the other thing is that the camera is lacking very much so. And the prior generation of this, they had a single camera. Now they have a three camera setup, similar to what you would find on other high end phones. But compared to the iPhone 13 or the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3, it just doesn't hold up. Everything looks darker. As you can see here, the images aren't as vibrant. They don't really pop as much as you would expect from a high end smartphone. And also, as Zack points out, gigantic. I mean, fitting this in your pocket is not really very doable.

So overall, I would say that it's an interesting design. It's an interesting device. I like where Microsoft is going. It really is nice to be able to use this. In fact, I was using it to watch Monday Night Football on Yahoo Sports, by the way, where you can stream it free, and doing some work. And when you want to just stream something, you can turn it into tent mode and use it like this. So I do think that it is a good device. It is interesting to see Microsoft going this way. And it's good to see them iterating on it. But right now, for 1,500 bucks, I don't think you should buy this yet.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, those things are huge. And also, the folding thing, I just never got it. It seems like something that we did the last decade. I'm just having flashbacks to everything else that used to fold. But Dan Howley bringing us the latest there on the tech front. Appreciate that.