PC Magazine - USA (2020-10)

(Antfer) #1

A SINGULAR DUO?
There was a day when Microsoft dominated handheld
computing. Back in the early 2000s, a new version of
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announcement at the 3GSM or MWC trade shows—
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the order of the day. The Windows Phone operating
system was gorgeous, and started with strong hardware
partners, but Microsoft abandoned it after
inconsistently supporting it for years.


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for example, had a lousy form of Windows—RT, which
didn’t run most Windows applications. Since then,
Surfaces have become bestsellers. The Duo has been
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some people talk about it. Sometimes you just need to
launch what you’ve got so you can move on to the next
version.


But that doesn’t mean you have to buy version one. I
cannot currently recommend the Surface Duo, because
it’s expensive, awkward to use, and buggy. I get the idea
here: Productive people multitask, so having two
screens to work on is better than one (I’m writing this
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track here. Stretching my thumbs to deal with the two
screens, trying to type while holding on to the sides of
the device, feels less comfortable and less productive
than working on a laptop or even an iPad. The various
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feel even more like a science project and less like a
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Microsoft
stumbled after
Apple and
Google made
touch-friendly
interfaces and
unified app
stores the order
of the day.
Free download pdf