Very few of those ideas have stuck around, however. Microsoft’s attention is firmly set on selling its vision of artificial intelligence. The Surface Pro was eventually followed by the Surface Book, a creator-focused laptop with an odd flexible hinge and gigantic detachable touchscreen the Surface Studio, an easel-like all-in-one desktop with a unique dial accessory and the Surface Laptop Studio, the company’s desktop form factor repackaged into a laptop. It took multiple years of hardware iterations and Microsoft giving up on some of the wilder ideas of Windows 8 - for example, the Live Tiles and emphasis on touchscreen interactions - before the Surface Pro really clicked, and Surface hardware didn’t become truly popular until the launch of the more approachable Surface Laptop in 2017.Įven if traditional laptops became Microsoft’s bread-and-butter, it never quite gave up on novel form factors. Their mixture of touchscreen tablet with a kickstand, stylus, and detachable laptop-style keyboard might have been well constructed, but they were far from perfect. The launch versions of the 2-in-1 Surface and Surface RT were built to sell the radical redesign of Windows 8. The whole idea of a Surface started as a real long shot. The Surface Pro was an odd piece of hardware when it came out. ![]() Microsoft’s attention is firmly set on selling its vision of artificial intelligence, and while that might help the future of Windows PCs look bright, Surface hardware might not survive without a serious reimagining. (Taking a loss on Xbox consoles to sell Game Pass subscriptions is a whole different story). Mix in serious spending on OpenAI, and an intense focus on integrating the Copilot AI assistant across Windows 11, Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365’s suite of productivity apps, and it’s becoming harder to see where first-party hardware fits in the overall Microsoft strategy. Rather than try anything exciting like a new form factor or the custom silicon chips Apple is exploring, Microsoft played it safe - really safe. The mix of laptops, 2-in-1s, and desktop computers had a good 2022 - the Surface Pro 9 was arguably the ideal version of its flagship device - but 2023 saw not only no new Surface Pro, but a focus on half-hearted updates to Microsoft’s “affordable” Surface Go and Surface Laptop Go lines and the pricier Surface Laptop Studio. I guess using the Surface Duo finally has been a transformative experience.Microsoft’s Surface hardware is in a weird place exiting 2023. The ASUS folding ZenBook also looks incredible, and there's bound to be even more selection coming in the future. Lenovo is already well into it, even now experimenting with rollable displays for its laptops. While Microsoft may not be getting into the larger devices itself, we are in good hands it seems when it comes to getting these types of devices from others. Especially if the Surface Duo 3 is going to go down this path. I'm still a little unsure about the longevity of folding displays for the length of time I traditionally like to keep a device that would cost so much, and I guess I'm going to have to get over the crease that inevitably seems to follow these things. I still think that I would personally prefer to have two separate displays over a single folding one. While that might not be happening anymore it does at least give me hope for the future to see folding devices from the likes of Lenovo and ASUS. The Surface Neo was always interesting to me and I was really disappointed when it got canned. Lenovo is already established with folding Windows PCs. ![]() I guess I really did just need to bite the bullet and try it for myself to see that. The fact it runs Android, the fact it can seamlessly run two apps side by side, is incredibly portable, and has huge screen real estate when required has been a game changer for me. These little details mean the Kindle has now retired to a drawer and the Surface Duo is the main reading device now.īut it's not just a fancy e-reader. Naturally, it still has many advantages, but the Kindle app is properly optimized for the Duo and so you get two pages on it at a time. That's the other device that has been replaced by the Duo. I can't say the same for an iPad Mini or my Kindle. Those things drive me crazy.īut the Surface Duo fits in any pocket on any of my clothing. And I, for one, am glad it isn't a folding display with an unsightly seam down the middle. The real gem of the Surface Duo is that it folds in half. The Kindle app is a perfect use case for the Surface Duo.
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