Surface Duo launch could be days away: What we know so far

(Image credit: Microsoft/YouTube)

The long wait for a Surface phone could soon be over. Microsoft's Surface Duo dual-screen smartphone will reportedly be revealed sometime this month, and some people could get a sneak peek later this week. 

The news comes from Microsoft enthusiast Paul Thurrott who stated that Microsoft MVPs were invited to attend a virtual Surface briefing on August 12. The Surface Duo will reportedly be the subject of the briefing, which suggests its imminent release.

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There is the off-chance that the news is bad, and that there has been some delay, but that seems unlikely considering the Surface Duo is rumored to be ahead of schedule. Moreover, the Surface Duo was originally set to launch in Holiday 2020 and sources have told Laptop Mag that the Surface Duo is on-schedule to be released this year.

We've already seen the Surface Duo out in the wild over the past few months, so we know Microsoft has working units. The phone may have been found on the FCC website and in March the Surface Duo was spotted on the desk of Frank Shaw, Microsoft's corporate vice president of communication.

Earlier this week, reliable leaker Evan Blass shared renders of the Surface Duo and said it will be arriving on AT&T. And according to a recent Windows Central report, the Surface phone will launch next month, although it claims to be on the week of August 24. 

Surface Duo: What to expect

We first learned about the Surface Duo at Microsoft's big Surface event last year. While we weren't allowed to go hands-on with the device, we did get some important details about it. 

The Surface Duo is a dual-screen smartphone that runs Android 10. It has 5.6-inch OLED displays, each with a resolution of 1800 x 1350. These glass screens are attached by a thin hinge and fold out to one large 8.3-inch panel. The phone supports Microsoft's Surface Pen and there will be a bunch of Microsoft software packed in.

According to Windows Central, citing unnamed sources, the Surface Duo will ship with a Snapdragon 855 SoC, 6GB of RAM and either 64GB or 256GB of storage. There will be a single 11-megapixel sensor above the right display for selfies and world-facing photos and videos.  

Phillip Tracy

Phillip Tracy is the assistant managing editor at Laptop Mag where he reviews laptops, phones and other gadgets while covering the latest industry news. After graduating with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin, Phillip became a tech reporter at the Daily Dot. There, he wrote reviews for a range of gadgets and covered everything from social media trends to cybersecurity. Prior to that, he wrote for RCR Wireless News covering 5G and IoT. When he's not tinkering with devices, you can find Phillip playing video games, reading, traveling or watching soccer.