Microsoft’s Surface Duo dual-screen smartphone coming Sept. 10 for $1,399

Yahoo Finance’s Tech Editor Dan Howley joins The First Trade with Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi to discuss Microsoft's new smartphone offering.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Microsoft out with the new Android phone. It is called the Surface Duo. It's set to arrive September 10, and it's got a pretty hefty price tag to go along with it.

Our tech editor Dan Howley is here with this one. Dan, have you had your-- a chance to check out the Surface Duo? And what is this hefty price tag we speak of?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah. They had us do a virtual press briefing. Basically, we just did a video call with Microsoft's chief product officer, Panos Panay, and we got to see him using the product as well as other individuals at Microsoft use the product. Obviously this would have been a hands-on opportunity had we not been in the midst of a pandemic, but what are you gonna do?

Anyway, it is a dual-screen device. It's Microsoft's first smartphone since they killed off their own smartphone brand Windows Phone several years ago. This is running on Google's Android, though, and it's basically Android built for foldable and dual-screen devices.

You can use multiple apps at the same time. If you have one app on the left screen and one app on the right screen, you can copy and paste across the two. You can also open up apps on-- one app on both screens at the same time.

So say you're using your mail app, you can have all of your mail on the left side and then the full message on the right side. It really is an inventive kind of way to use a smartphone. And what's really interesting, though, is Microsoft managed to do this in a really thin device. This is much thinner than you would get out of Samsung's own Galaxy Fold or Z Flip. That's their devices that are bendable, not dual screen.

Microsoft said they specifically went with dual screen because they could make it a little bit thinner, and it would allow them to have more durable glass. And, you know, according to Microsoft, when it's folded, the device is only a little bit thicker than apple's iPhone 11 Pro Max regularly. So it's not a giant, thick piece of technology, but it is large.

The display, when unfolded at 8.1 inches. So that's gonna be pretty big for a lot of people. That price tag, by the way, $1,399 for a starting price.

Now, it's crazy, yes. But when you look at other phones on the market that are using this kind of technology or foldable, it's basically in the right ballpark. And then if you look at the iPhone 11 Pro Max, that starts at $1,099 and has a single screen. So we're really kind of pushing up against the upper limits of, I think, what people are willing to pay for a smartphone.

But, you know, for Microsoft, this is interesting just because it's an Android device. It's their first hardware smartphone innovation in years. And I think it might be a way for them to get a foothold back into the mobile market if they can get the advertise behind it.

Now, it doesn't come with 5G. That's a letdown. That likely has to do with the fact that the price is already high, and components might not have been available for the custom design that they have for this device. But you would imagine, going forward, they would iterate on it and eventually have 5G technology with this device.

But it really is interesting to see Microsoft work on this. You can use the S-- sorry-- the Microsoft pen-- the Surface pen stylus with it. And it should be really cool once we get our hands on it.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right. Lots of cool bells and whistles. We'll see if people are willing to-- to, you know, pay up for it. Dan Howley, thank you.