Yesterday, Apple unveiled iPhone Duo, much to the dismay of the dozens of die-hard Surface Duo fans that opted for Microsoft's now defunct line of foldable phones. Of course, the name of the product was what drew immediate comparisons to Surface Duo, but as the keynote went on, it quickly became evident that it isn't just the name that Apple was interested in.

Ever since Surface Duo launched in 2020, I have heralded it as the best multitasking phone you could buy. No other folding phone, whether that be from Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, Honor, Xiaomi, or Google, have matched the Surface Duo from a pure multitasking perspective.

The dual-screen setup allowed for Microsoft to create a new user experience around the gap between the screens, and that led to a unique experience that made multitasking automatic. Open your app on one screen, and the other screen would remain on the home screen, available whenever you need it to begin another task.

If the second screen was free, opening links would open them on the other screen, allowing you to keep viewing the first app without it being obscured by your browser. You could swipe up from the bottom and drag the app across both screens, swapping them in place or spanning a single app across both screens for a totally immersive experience.

No other folding phone has ever matched this level of fluidity or multitasking prowess. Most single-screen folding phones opt to treat the large folding screen as a tablet screen, opening apps full screen and requiring gestures or modes to enter a special "multitasking view" that allows you to run the apps side by side. The OS isn't able to dynamically do this, unlike the Surface Duo.

Well, it turns out, iPhone Duo can. I've never seen another folding phone match the Surface Duo's multitasking design, but iPhone Duo does almost identically. In multiple demos, Apple shows the iPhone Duo opening an app, and letting users split it side by side with another app by dragging the app up and docking it to the left or right of the screen.

When you do this, the iPhone home screen appears on the other side, just like Surface Duo. From there, you can open another app, and swap sides with it by doing the same drag and drop gesture you do on Surface Duo. It even opens links in a browser next to your app automatically, just like Surface Duo.

Surface Duo had a lot of flaws, but one thing it got absolutely right was the fluidity and automagic-ness of its multitasking experience. Users were in control of where apps appeared, and it was easy to move apps between the two halves, and have them run side by side. In most instances, multitasking on Surface Duo was an automatic experience. I never had to cognitively initiate a multitasking mode, it automatically happened.

It looks like iPhone Duo is opting for the same design philosphy. User shouldn't need to initiate a complex gesture or mode to multitask. It should just happen when it makes the most sense. If you need to open an app next to your currently open one, just drag the app to the side and open the second app from your familiar home screen.

If you tap a link, it should open the browser next to your current app, not on top of it like so many other Android phones do. Both Surface Duo and iPhone Duo appear to do this correctly, and that's the biggest surprise in my book. It's not just the name Duo that Apple borrowed, it's the entire multitasking design ethos as well.

You can see this in action in this video:

I'm not even mad about it, I've always said that I wish another company built the Surface Duo, because it wasn't fair of Microsoft to debut the best multitasking experience I'd ever seen on a phone, only to kill the product two years later. Apple has taken the best of Surface Duo and implemented it onto its own iPhone Duo, which is a win for Surface Duo fans in my book.

And it's not just the software multitasking and windowing that Apple have copied. iPhone Duo also supports pen, another feature that was incredibly popular on Surface Duo. Many people used their Surface Duo's as a personal diary or note taking device, and it did that quite well. iPhone Duo also supports pen input via the Apple Pencil, which is awesome to see.

I think Apple even indirectly referenced the Surface Duo during their keynote. At the start of the iPhone Duo segment, Apple says "others have created foldables that just feel like two phones awkwardly stuck together." The only folding phone that was literally two phone screens stuck together was Surface Duo.

Apple is right in that you can mimic the setup of a dual-screen phone 100% on a single screen folding phone, and that's exactly what they've done with iPhone Duo. All the dual-screen multitasking behaviors have been implemented on the folding screen, and it still works great.

Surface Duo fans, I fear we may finally have our Surface Duo 3 in the form of iPhone Duo. Too bad it costs $2,000.

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Apple didn't shock the world this week by unveiling the iPhone Duo, but it has taken the tech world by storm. With Apple joining the folding phone fray, we now have millions of people considering foldables that never would have considered the category.

With the iPhone Duo sharing so much with the Surface Duo, it's natural to make comparisons. Our Zac Bowden explained what went wrong with Surface Duo and highlighted Apple copying the names of Surface products.

But the iPhone Duo announcement stood out to me for another reason. It shows what happens when a company knows its own identity and leans into it. Apple is far from the first company to make a foldable phone, but the iPhone Duo tackles foldables in a way that's quintessentially Apple.

In normal Apple fashion, the company bided its time and waited for Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, and other companies to work out the biggest issues with foldables. Through years of trial and error, other manufacturers have determined the best form factor for a folding phone. They've also figured out use cases for folding screens and the large displays provided by what are essentially tablets that fold into phones at this point.

Apple's patient approach does more than give its engineers real-world feedback about a product category. By waiting until foldables became normal, Apple has left potentially the most difficult task to be completed by other companies: getting people to even consider a folding phone that costs a fortune.

Every time Apple introduces a new product or feature that's been seen elsewhere, people online joke about Apple "inventing" things. I get it. It's an easy joke and some Apple heads are smug and ignore advances made by other companies. But Apple's strategy works. In addition to making Apple money hand over fist, it creates good products.

Apple knows what it is. The leaders at Apple have a clear strategy and know how to make new products. Microsoft is lost when it comes to Surface, and the iPhone Duo shows that.

Before you jump to the comments, I am fully aware that Microsoft had a foldable phone years before Apple. The buggy mess that was the Surface Duo launched in 2020. After silently fixing a few bugs and realizing people want NFC and good cameras in a smartphone, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Duo 2. But Microsoft abandoned the Surface Duo lineup and never even released the Surface Duo 3, so I'm not going to give it the benefit of the doubt.

By not sticking with the Surface Duo lineup, Microsoft gave up its pioneer status. The company could have made a Surface Duo 3 that addressed concerns and then unveiled a model with a folding screen by now. But instead, Surface Duo is dusted.

When it comes to tech, you need to carve out a niche. That's often done by being the first, the best, or the most affordable. You can also succeed by being unique or by being over the top. Surface used to check some of these boxes, but it rarely does anymore.

What is Surface in 2026? It's no longer the innovative hardware maker that drove the 2-in-1 form factor. Experimental projects have been pushed to the wayside, leaving Lenovo to pick up the slack. Surface PCs were never the most affordable, and I'd argue they aren't even the best options in their respective categories anymore.

Microsoft has shown some small signs of moving in the right direction with the Surface Laptop Ultra, but I still have my reservations. Surface still seems lost, and I don't see Microsoft returning to the experimental roots of the product family.

Microsoft no longer pushes the limits of computing with experimental hardware. But it also does not wait long enough to see a category fully mature and then swoop in with a perfected version. Surface is stuck in the middle of a crowded PC space and feels like a leftover appendage of a bloated company.

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I loved my Surface Duo a lot. It was a unique folding phone with two screens instead of a single foldable display, supported pen input, and was the thinnest of its kind when it launched in 2020 (see our original review). It was a mesmerizing bit of kit, but it failed to gain any real mainstream attention.

And although it never shipped, its bigger brother, the Microsoft Surface Neo PC, was also something a lot of us Windows fans were looking forward to at the time. A dual-screen laptop, to complement my dual-screen phone? Sign me up! In 2020, it really did seem like Microsoft was building out its own unique device ecosystem to compete with Apple, Samsung, and Google.

The Neo and Duo were clever names for these devices. Both names had dual meanings to them, too. Neo, meaning "new," referred to the form factor, as well as being a reference to "The One" from The Matrix. And Duo, obviously signifying the device's unique "duo" screen setup, but it was also a reference to the fact that it was a surprise second device in a pair, alongside Neo.

When Duo was announced, it was a true one more thing moment during the event. There had been rumors that Microsoft was working on a folding phone for years prior, but recent reporting at the time had suggested the project was dead. So when Duo was announced alongside Neo, it was a rare true surprise to those in attendance and watching online.

Cut to 2026, and it's all dead. Microsoft gave up on Duo after just one iteration (Surface Duo 2 review), and it never even gave Neo a chance. The company's boneheaded shortsightedness led to the death of unique Surface hardware, and now today we're left with boring laptops and tablets from the Redmond giant.

It was inevitable that the Neo and Duo would forever be relegated to the history books, a hall of fame of unique devices that tried and failed to capture the market. Now, Apple has stormed in and stolen these names for their own products, which will only serve to further bury Microsoft's efforts.

I'm sure there are some Apple fans out there who think Apple never even thought about Microsoft when it named the MacBook Neo and iPhone Duo, but I think that's a lie. Apple is clearly aware that Neo and Duo were strongly tied to the Surface brand, but decided that didn't matter, which is the correct decision.

The MacBook Neo is an almost polar opposite of the Surface Neo. While Surface Neo was supposed to be a super expensive dual-screen flagship laptop, the MacBook Neo is Apple's cheapest laptop, undercutting much of the market. I don't know why, but that feels like an F.U. to Microsoft's vision for its Neo.

And now, there's iPhone Duo. This one hits much harder, as they're both playing in the same game. Surface Duo was a thin folding phone with pen support, and the iPhone Duo is pretty much exactly that. Of course, Apple's iPhone Duo refers to the fact that it's both an iPhone and an iPad, but seeing the Duo moniker on an Apple product just stings.

If anything, it's just reminded me of what was possible had Microsoft pushed through and continued to innovate on the Surface Duo. The company had started working on a third-gen Surface Duo in 2022, which was going to pivot to a single-screen folding setup not dissimilar to the iPhone Duo.

But Microsoft just can't see a good thing through. Because Surface Duo 1 sold poorly, and Surface Duo 2 sold even less than that, the company decided that it was not worth continued investment in this category, which is just wrong. Folding phones were and still are the future, but Microsoft decided to pack it all in.

Now, Apple has just stolen the crown for the Duo moniker, with a product that seemingly does everything the Duo set out to achieve, but better in every way because Apple isn't going to give up after just one iteration. I get the impression that Duo is here to stay in Apple's lineup, unlike the Duo in Microsoft's lineup.

I'm mad that Apple has stolen the Neo and Duo moniker, but frankly, they deserve it. Microsoft clearly isn't doing anything with them, and they are cool product names for devices that stand out. MacBook Neo and iPhone Duo certainly do that, even if they're not in complete harmony like the Surface Neo and Surface Duo were supposed to be.

Congratulations on the launch of iPhone Duo, Apple.

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A Windows 11 update appears to break Microsoft Teams and Outlook on Windows on Arm PCs. Issues started popping up after the rollout of KB5121003, which began shipping this month on Patch Tuesday.

Brian Stringfellow shared details about the problem through a Microsoft Learn report. Several people in that thread have similar issues.

PCs affected by the issue, including Stringfellow's Surface Laptop 7, see Microsoft Teams and Outlook close almost immediately after being opened. Specifically, the new Outlook is affected. Classic Outlook still works on PCs affected by the bug.

The problem seems to affect a variety of Windows on Arm devices. Julius Heng shared their experience:

"I have the exact same issue on Omnibook 3 running snapdragon. After the initial setup, Ms Teams works, but next day it doesnt work. It will have a white screen on teams and it will close right after it open. I tried various method, including reinstall webview 2 etc. None of it works. I tried to roll back all the update and it doesnt work. After did a factory reset Ms Teams works again. But to my dismay, the windows update itself and it breaks Teams again. right now, i'm back to square. Really hope that there's some way to rectify this."

It's not clear at this time why the issue is occuring or why the problem is limited to Windows on Arm PCs.

User Alex-L, who is listed as a moderator and Microsoft External Staff on Microsoft Learn, reported that similar issues are occurring on a variety of Windows on Arm systems:

"At this point, very similar symptoms on different Snapdragon/ARM64 systems. While these reports suggest a possible common factor, no one in this public forum can confirm Microsoft's internal investigations, determine the root cause, or verify whether this is a known issue affecting all ARM64 devices. Microsoft does not currently list a known issue for KB5121003 in the official release notes."

While we wait for official confirmation from Microsoft and a fix for the issue, users with Windows on Arm PCs may have to fall back to other versions of Outlook and Teams that are unaffected by the bug.

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Join Zac Bowden and Jez Corden on this week’s Windows Central Podcast as they dive deep into unreleased Microsoft hardware, AI developments, and big Xbox announcements!

• The Lost "Surface Phone" Prototype: Zach and Jez dissect newly leaked images and video of an unreleased 2013-era Microsoft-built Windows Phone prototype, reminiscing about the Lumia era, Nokia’s acquisition, and what could have been.
• Microsoft Copilot’s Super App & AI Disillusionment: A look at the rollout of the new unified Copilot experience (merging consumer and Microsoft 365 features), dropped functionalities (Group Chat, Podcast mode, Deep Research), and a frank discussion on AI hype, practical workflows, and "AI psychosis".
• Xbox Backward Compatibility Coming to Windows PC: The hosts break down the official announcement of original Xbox/Xbox 360 emulation on Windows, potential licensing hurdles, Play Anywhere integration, and upcoming achievement support.
• Gaming Rumors & Franchise Future: Updates on The Elder Scrolls VI codename rumors (Sentinel), long development cycles across Bethesda/Obsidian, and a candid critique of the state of the Halo franchise following Halo Campaign Evolved and project cancellations.
• New Xbox Console Features & Live Q&A: A discussion of the upcoming "Platinum Trophy" achievement equivalent, party/mic audio in Game DVR captures, and a live Q&A touching on Windows K2 progress, mobile shells for Windows on ARM, MSN's automation, and modern foldable vs. slab phones.

This episode of the Windows Central Podcast is sponsored by Surfshark VPN. Unlimited devices, access your content from anywhere, and auto-block malware on Windows, Edge, and other platforms from $2.50/mo, with 3 months extra FREE. Sign up today!

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Hosts:

• Jez Corden
• Zac Bowden

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Before Microsoft acquired Nokia, the company was heavily rumoured to be working on its own in-house Windows Phone device that was expected to ship in 2014 under the Surface moniker alongside its Surface Pro device. Unfortunately for Windows Phone fans, such a device never saw the light of day, but newly published images of a mysterious prototype might have just given us our first and only look at what Microsoft was exploring internally.

Possibly codenamed Raven, there isn't much information available about this prototype, other than the fact that it’s from the 2013-2014 time frame and is running an early pre-release build of Windows Phone 8.1. It’s powered by an unknown Qualcomm chip, has a 720p screen, features a Microsoft logo on the back, and a silver metal frame that matches the colour of the Surface 2 that released that same year.

We can see in the photos that it has dedicated hardware keys for navigation, which are also coated in the same silver color as the chassis. The build of Windows Phone that it’s running appears to be from September 2013, and is from an internal development branch building towards what eventually became Windows Phone 8.1.

While not viewable in the images, I understand the device features individual up and down volume buttons and a camera button on the right-hand side of the device, and a power button on the top of the device. It also features a micro-USB port and headphone jack on the bottom side, and a SIM card slot on the left side.

This is likely one of dozens of prototype designs that Microsoft’s hardware teams cooked up during this era, but it’s certainly a fascinating look at what could have been, and it does look so clean. Development on this device was likely paused once Microsoft moved to acquire Nokia in 2014.

Back in 2013, I remember hearing from sources that Microsoft was experimenting with the concept of a "Skype Phone," a Windows Phone device with mobile data that utilized Skype for calls and messaging instead of traditional carrier networks. Perhaps this device was going to be that? Who knows.

The Surface Phone we eventually got arrived as the Surface Duo, which started development in 2016 and launched to the public in 2020. In that time, Microsoft shipped Nokia designs in the form of the Lumia 640, 650, 950, and 550 running Windows Phone, before abandoning the platform in 2017.

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Microsoft's Surface Pro is on sale just in time for back-to-school season. The flagship 2-in-1 runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite or Snapdragon X2 Plus processor, both of which promise a significant performance bump over the last generation.

A bunch of Surface Pro models are on sale right now across various retailers. I've listed the biggest deals below, starting with the 21% discount on the Surface Pro with Snapdragon X2 Elite, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage.

Why buy a Surface Pro

The main reason to grab a newer Surface Pro is the processor you'll get. The Snapdragon X2 Plus and Snapdragon X2 Elite offer over a 50% graphics improvement over the last gen.

That performance bump helps everything from photo editing to everyday productivity tasks feel smoother.

Microsoft refined the design of the Surface Pro over more than a decade, resulting in a premium device that defines the category. There are good reasons why Apple and other companies try to copy the Surface Pro.

While imitation is a form of flattery, the Surface Pro still stands out because of its built-in kickstand that makes it easy to prop up. That kickstand-centered design is best taken advantage of with the Surface Pro Flex Keyboard, which happens to be discounted right now.

The Surface Pro Flex Keyboard that's on sale is compatible with the new Surface Pro that launched this year. If you're worried about compatibility, you can double-check your device on Microsoft's support document about Surface Pro keyboards.

The Surface Pro Flex Keyboard can be used wirelessly or when physically attached. If you've ever tried to use a laptop or a 2-in-1 on an airplane tray table or tiny desk, you'll know the struggle of feeling cramped. The Surface Pro Flex Keyboard lets you have the keyboard on your lap or a table while the PC sits elsewhere.

Like other PCs, the Surface Pro has crept up in price over the last year or so. The high price tag of the Surface Pro was the main complaint about the PC when it was announced. The current deals on the Surface Pro alleviate that issue, at least temporarily.

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