Microsoft Surface Duo is great for Game Pass, but it sucks at just about everything else

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Microsoft Surface Duo is great for Game Pass, but it sucks at only about everything else

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The Microsoft Surface Duo is a beautiful device with a unique dual-screen premise (versus a true folding one like the Milky way Z Fold 3). But with so many caveats, the Surface Duo is not a phone/tablet anyone in their right mind would recommend as a main device.

If, notwithstanding, yous're actually into the deject gaming attribute of Xbox Game Laissez passer, the Surface Duo is one of the best phones for that. The reason being that, in games with touch controls enabled, the second screen can act equally a touchpad, turning the Surface Duo into a Nintendo DS-like gadget.

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At that place are merely two bug. The first being that it requires actually using a Surface Duo in any capacity (whatsoever amount of money is too much for this thing), and the second beingness that non all games that work on the Android version of Game Pass support touch controls. Many still require an external controller, something I call up Microsoft should have improved past this point. You're therefore left in a worse spot than if you just used a controller.

I used the Surface Duo as my sectional Game Pass device for a couple of weeks — I couldn't wait to go dorsum to a regular phone. Here are my thoughts.

Using the Surface Duo for Game Pass

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I similar to play Game Pass games on my phone, by and large Maneater and NieR: Automata. The latter works with the Surface Duo'southward secondary screen setup, as do several others like Hades. But yous're withal limited, notably in shooters like Halo: The Primary Master Collection, Destiny ii, and fifty-fifty Halo v.

Even if those were supported, I think I'd take trouble adjusting to bear upon controls in those fast-paced moments. The benefit of a concrete medium like a controller or keyboard is the tactile response to input. There's no such matter on the touch controls for Game Laissez passer games.

It also doesn't help that the layout on the Surface Duo'southward second screen is dissimilar for each game. Hopping betwixt NieR: Automata and Hades, for case, required re-learning the whole control scheme. Information technology baffled me that Microsoft has not instituted a universal input layout for Game Pass on Android. It's downright disappointing.

At the stop of the couple of weeks I spent with the Surface Duo, I was itching to get back to a traditional smartphone with a controller. Role of that had to do with the tactility thing, just likewise for ergonomics — holding the Surface Duo like a DS and reaching for the buttons can exist quite tiring, if yous're even able to hit them all.

The problems with the Surface Duo

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Equally cool as this whole dual-screen thing is, it doesn't have away from the fact that the Microsoft Surface Duo simply sucks at most everything a phone/tablet should do.

Hell, it doesn't even have Android xi yet and Android 12 is right around the corner. This is a botched attempt by Microsoft to get into the Android space after the failure that was Windows Phone. I know some of you fans of Microsoft's dead mobile Bone might detest me for that, but I used it and it was never expert. I digress.

But some might argue that the Surface Duo is meant to be more of a tablet than a phone, and I'd agree. Just when you look at something like the Galaxy Z Fold 3, which is both a phone and a tablet, you beginning to wonder where in the world the Surface Duo fits in. The Fold iii is far more pocketable than than Microsoft'due south device, also.

The Surface Duo has little going in its favor. From underwhelming performance to no 5G and a bad camera, it fails to make a case for itself. Information technology nonetheless has glitches and oddities and so long afterwards its release, and it was far likewise expensive when it launched.

Outlook: Look for Surface Duo 2?

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I don't remember anyone should buy a smartphone or tablet for one purpose but — that's just an poor apply of money for most people. As information technology stands right at present, the Surface Duo is a one trick pony, offering the best Game Pass feel for the titles that back up bear upon controls.

Just if you spring for something like the Razer Kishi, you can turn the best Android phones into powerful Game Laissez passer devices. They'll also be meliorate at virtually other tasks, as well, similar beingness phones.

I call back the Surface Duo is groovy and I capeesh Microsoft trying something new. But novelty lonely does not make a good device, and the Surface Duo is far from a expert device. Information technology's a bad phone, and it's a lackluster tablet. Information technology could have been OK somewhere in the eye, simply information technology even failed to achieve that.

If the rumors are true and Microsoft is readying a Surface Duo 2, we would like to see better cameras, a faster processor and the latest version of Android. Maybe then the Surface Duo can exist more than a gaming device.

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Hashemite kingdom of jordan is the Phones Editor for Tom's Guide, covering all things telephone-related. He'southward written about phones for over five years and plans to continue for a long while to come up. He loves nothing more than relaxing in his habitation with a book, game, or his latest personal writing project. Jordan likes finding new things to dive into, from books and games to new mechanical keyboard switches and fun keycap sets. Jordan tends to lurk on social media, but you tin can best reach him on Twitter.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/microsoft-surface-duo-is-great-for-game-pass-but-it-sucks-at-just-about-everything-else

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