Reply to post: Re: How much whelm depends on the user.

Microsoft's underwhelming, underpowered dual-screen Surface Duo phone arrives in the UK this month for £1,349

Paul S. Gazo

Re: How much whelm depends on the user.

My main reason for buying the thing was to use it in the physical shape of a laptop.

I use "Hacker's Keyboard", which is a full QWERTY keyboard with number keys on the top and Shift and Alt, so I can Shift-3 to get a number sign. None of this "press a key to go into symbol mode" stuff. Only that makes the keys very small since there's so many of them. For any lengthy data-input, I just rotate and the keyboard's on the bottom while whatever I'm typing into is on the top. Even with two thumb input, it's fast.

At the time I got mine, the only software update was the day-1 release from Microsoft, so it's been able to do this since product release.

The "giant" vertical gap isn't giant. But yes, if you were to just span software not Duo-aware, there's a 20 or 30 pixel strip missing in the middle. For video, it'd be annoying, but I can't stand the bubbly creases of the Samsung ZFold either. If I go landscape and web browse, the missing pixels don't matter as I scroll since whatever's there shows up above or below easily.

I wouldn't expect the gap to go away. It actually makes more sense to have it. If you take a two-monitor computer and span a video program over the two displays, the bezels and space between monitors make things look weird. I know "missing stuff" sounds like it makes no sense, but... the offset some of the image by a quarter inch or so actually makes less sense. An option wouldn't suck, but I wouldn't expect it.

In-hand, as a productivity device, I'm really not displeased with my purchase. I wanted this form-factor and the features it has. I knew what I was buying and it's what I wanted. That said, I absolutely know it's not for everyone, or most people.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon