Key Takeaways
- Microsoft has ended support for the original Surface Duo, as its three-year period for receiving Android operating system and security updates has expired on September 10, 2023.
- The Surface Duo had a troubled lifecycle, facing delays for software updates and struggling to find success in the consumer market.
- Despite its shortcomings, the Surface Duo gained a cult following among homebrew software developers, who attempted to run unreleased versions of Android and Windows on the device.
Microsoft announced the Surface Duo and Surface Neo back in October 2019 and while the latter device was canceled ahead of release, the Duo became available in September 2020. We reviewed the dual-screen Android handset and praised its hardware while still acknowledging its limitations, high price tag, and the very specific market niche that it targets. Today, Microsoft has ended support for the Surface Duo.
This end of life for the original Surface Duo doesn’t exactly come out of the blue. In its support documentation as well as the launch phase, Microsoft mentioned that the smartphone would get three years of Android operating system and security updates. As spotted by Neowin, this period has now expired, with September 10, 2023 marking the end of support for the Surface Duo.
The Surface Duo did have a rather troubled lifecycle; it launched with Android 10 but missed its planned 2021 date to receive Android 11, with the update arriving in 2022 instead. Eventually, the phone also received Android 12L, but that is the last official update it received. Over the years, the Surface Duo also received massive discounts on its original retail price of $1,400 as the hardware failed to create traction among the consumer space.
In the past couple of years, the Surface Duo has garnered a sort of cult status among the homebrew software development community. Dedicated developers have attempted to run Android 13, the unreleased Windows 10X, and Windows 11 on the device.
The original Surface Duo has since been succeeded by the Surface Duo 2, which is a major improvement over its predecessor but has still faced an arguably lukewarm reception. As it currently stands, the former handset will no longer 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 is yet to confirm any specifications.