Microsoft’s Surface Duo reaches end of life

Microsoft announced the Surface Duo and Surface Neo back in October 2019, and while the latter device was canceled before release, the Duo became available in September 2020. We’ve reviewed the dual-screen Android phone and praised its hardware while still acknowledging its limitations, price and the niche market it’s targeting. Today, Microsoft ended support for the Surface Duo.

The end of life for the original Surface Duo doesn’t exactly come out of the blue. in it Support documents In addition to the launch phase, Microsoft stated that the smartphone will get three years of Android operating system and security updates. As I spotted it NewenThis period has now ended, and September 10, 2023 marks the end of support for Surface Duo.

The Surface Duo has had a somewhat tumultuous life cycle; It launched with Android 10 but missed the planned 2021 date to receive Android 11, with the update arriving in 2022 instead. Eventually, the phone also received Android 12L, but this is the last official update it received. Over the years, the Surface Duo has also received massive discounts on its original retail price of $1,400, as the device failed to create traction among consumers.

In the past couple of years, the Surface Duo has attained a sort of cult status among the homebrew software development community. Dedicated developers tried to run the unreleased Android 13, Windows 10X, and Windows 11 on the device.

Since then, the original Surface Duo has been succeeded by the Surface Duo 2, a huge improvement over its predecessor but still facing a lukewarm reception. As it currently stands, the former phone will not receive any OS or security updates while the latter will continue to receive both until October 21, 2024. The next iteration of the Surface Duo is rumored to ditch the hinge design in favor of a “true” foldable, but Microsoft has yet to confirm any specifications.