Yesterday’s Apple product launch, where we saw the review iPad Mini, made me think of Microsoft’s long-rumored Surface Duo 2, which we could see on Surface next week event. The new Mini looks like the original Duo when it bends backwards and now I can’t help but think what I want from the Duo 2.
Let me back it up for a minute: The Surface Duo was a unique Android phone with two screens separated by a hinge. It was not a folding phone with an external screen that opened to reveal a giant flexible screen, but rather a book-like phone that opened to display two separate screens. Sounds weird, it was weird and I think I have an idea of why. The Duo 2 should be a tablet, not a smartphone.
Despite the failures of the original Duo, Microsoft could leave the park if it grabs a few pages from Apple’s iPad playbook. This is what I really want from Duo 2.
The perfect size
The iPad Mini 6 caught my eye because it seems to be the right size for a tablet you rely on every day. It has an 8.3-inch OLED display with 500 nights of brightness so you can see it in the sunlight in the outdoor cafe. Apple finished with the dedicated home button with Touch ID at the bottom and moved the fingerprint sensor to the side of the chassis to preserve space on the screen. It also has smaller bezels, which provides a lot of real estate on the screen, and it’s enough to hold it with your thumb if you approach the tablet with one hand. The iPad Mini remains Apple’s smallest tablet, despite the increase in screen size.
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TThe original Surface Duo is a bit more compact. When open like a tablet, the Duo has an 8.1-inch screen that measures approximately 5.7 inches by 7.4 inches. It is only thicker than the iPad Mini. The Duo also has a kind of built-in foot stitch, so don’t rely on any holsters to support it. When I saw the iPad Mini propped up, I thought of the Duo 2 and the built-in support mode shown in recent leaks, which means you don’t have to buy any extra accessories like you do with the iPad.
Tablets are well needed Cameras, too
Apple enhanced the camera capabilities of the iPad Mini 6, so you can use it to take photos without taking out your smartphone. The improvements made parents from all walks of life cheered in unison and remember how many people use the tablets to take these candid photos. The big improvement is an ultra-wide 12-megapixel camera, which supports the Apple Center Stage feature to refocus on the location of people in the camera frame. After all, there is nothing worse than a virtual family reunion without seeing everyone present.
One of the drawbacks of using the original Surface Duo was his heavy, underperforming camera. Microsoft placed it in the corner of the device, just above the screen on the right side, so you could use the device both horizontally and vertically to make a call. This would be ideal on the iPad, where the camera is located it is still placed on the left side when used in portrait orientation (really a horrible experience for video calling). But the Duo’s camera itself wasn’t worth using for photography. You should open the Camera app in selfie mode and then rotate the device to use the Duo’s average 11 MP camera, which could barely capture anything in low light. To wait for Surface Duo 2 to be equipped with better lensesrumors they are pointing to an external triple camera system with telephoto lens and ultra wide camera.
Better productivity functions
Apple adjusted the Pad Mini 6 to make it a more capable device. It now has a USB-C port at the bottom, instead of the usual Lightning connector. The tablet can now be charged faster than before and quickly connect to peripherals, such as cameras, to edit photos. But the reason you can choose the Mini for something cheaper from an Android maker is its support for Apple Pencil. You can use the Apple stylus in apps like Procreate to draw on the go with the iPad Mini, and you can use the iPad to charge your second-generation Apple Pencil when not in use. The new iPad Mini also works with Apple’s latest A15 Bionic chip, which combined with Apple’s iPadOS 15 should make it a powerful multitasking-optimized device.
The selling point of the first generation Surface Duo was the amount of work you could do with its two screens. A Gizmodo review, we highlighted the features and multitasking gestures that made it work between the two screens, even though Microsoft had the Android interface as Windows. This is where Duo 2 could have a chance, as long as Microsoft and Google continue to work together on optimizing applications (the latest Microsoft news killing Android app support for Chrome OS also makes us think otherwise, but you never know!).
Microsoft’s biggest mistake with the original Duo was to position it as an Android phone and cut corners to make it work as such. The Duo is not a rival to the Samsung Galaxy Fold and I think Microsoft would be more successful in positioning it as a tablet. I love the idea of a Duo 2 that can close like a book to protect itself and open up to two big screens to get the job done.
Surface Duo 2 rumors suggest that the next device will have a larger screen than the iPad Mini 6. It could have 5.8-inch dual screens, which would make it the size of some professional-grade tablets when opened. se. And the Duo 2 doesn’t seem likely to be a tablet instead of a phone, and a trio of external cameras are expected to add a camera shot to the body of the device. It is rumored that the second generation Duo will be shipped with Android 11, which is also disappointing, as Android 12 is just around the corner and who knows how long Microsoft will introduce the newest version of Android to your device .
We’ll see if the Duo 2 will be the Android tablet of my dreams — which can happen by making phone calls — on September 22nd.