A few Microsoft patents published this week covered the Reinvention of their Surface Duo foldable smartphone and future Smartglasses
|Microsoft took a big leap back in September 2020 when they released a two-display foldable smartphone branded Microsoft Surface Duo. It was different than the first Galaxy Z Fold from Samsung that introduced a large single display that folded. Samsung’s foldable styled smartphones have now been copied by Xiaomi, OPPO, Google and others and so the 2-display form factor from Microsoft was rejected by developers.
Back in June 2023, Microsoft announced that it was dropping support for Surface Duo in September (2023) – and they did. Yet the question becomes, is it really dead or simply being reinvented so to take on the same approach that Samsung took by using a single flexible display that folds over?
A new Microsoft patent published last week in Europe would suggest that Microsoft is preparing to resurrect the Surface Duo with the new single folded display approach as noted in the patent figures presented below.