Microsoft unveils Surface Duo 2 with 5G support and improved cameras

Microsoft is giving its dual-screen "phone" the old college try once again.

At its Surface product launch event on Wednesday, Microsoft announced the Surface Duo 2. Like its predecessor, it's sort of a mix between a phone and a tablet with two 5.8-inch AMOLED displays that you can use for gaming, multitasking, or anything else you might want to do with two conjoined screens. When fully opened, the screen size balloons to 8.3 inches. It does all of that using Android 11, making it stand out among other Surface products that largely run Windows.

The Duo 2 starts at $1,499.99 and is available for pre-order now in two colors: Glacier and Obsidian. It's set to launch on Oct. 21.

Last year's Surface Duo debut was more "proof of concept" than a device we'd actually recommend to people, as the phone lacked some basic features we're used to seeing from high-end mobile devices these days. Microsoft is addressing that this time around by adding 5G support (both mmWave and sub6 speeds) as well as NFC for contactless payments. The camera array has been considerably beefed up, too, with a triple lens array (12MP wide, 12MP telephoto, and 16MP ultra-wide) replacing the single lens that was present on the last model. It'll also shoot videos in 4K.

Tiny notifications. Credit: microsoft

And in what's likely the Duo 2's biggest upgrade, you'll be able to (finally!) see notification previews. These will appear on the phone's hinge while it's closed. This is crucial, as there was no front notification panel on the first Surface Duo. You basically had to open the phone all the way to get much use out of it, but that should hopefully be fixed now.

Powering all of that will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G processor, the likes of which you may have experienced in recent powerful flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S21 line and the ASUS ROG 5. One last addition on the networking side is the inclusion of WiFi 6 support, so if you're an early adopter with a WiFi 6 router in your home, you may get some extra internet juice out of the Duo 2.

Microsoft's additions here all sound great on paper, but the original Surface Duo suffered from multitasking software bugs that hindered the experience. We won't know how the Surface Duo 2 fares in that regard until we get our hands on it. So maybe hold off on spending $1,499 on this somewhat experimental phone until then.