SURFACE DUO: THE OPERATING SYSTEM OF THE MICROSOFT FOLDING TO THE TEST
After the Windows Phone project, which did not go exactly as hoped, Microsoft is ready to return to the smartphone market with its Surface Duo . Perhaps also by virtue of the past, the Redmond company is actually trying to never associate the product with the world of phones in official communications, defining it as a "dual-screen device" . However, we are actually talking about a smartphone with two screens.
Another aspect that Microsoft has left only
"guess" during the presentation of the Surface Duois the operating
system used. It almost seems that the Redmond company is trying in some way to
"omit", or in any case not to explicitly say through the official
portals, that one of its most innovative products actually mounts Android.
However, although Microsoft eventually decided to switch to
the competing operating system, the Redmond company will carry out heavy
customization of the OS, similar to what many other manufacturers have done.
The confirmation comes directly from our direct test of the Surface Duo SDK ,
which makes us better understand how this device works.
Launcher, features and applications
An SDK is the set of all the tools designed to allow
developers to become familiar with the smartphone and, in this case, adapt
their applications to dual-screen. For the listening insiders, Microsoft has
provided developers with a QEMU-based emulator that runs through the classic
Android Studio and Visual Studio (remember to enable virtualization from the
BIOS, but you should already know everything). We stop here with the technical
details, we promise: now let's go immediately to see the aspects that interest
the final consumer that emerged from our first contact with the Surface Duo
operating system.
Well, the first aspect to take into consideration is that
the emulator runs on Android 10 . We are therefore talking about the latest
version of the green robot and all the features that are expected from this OS
are present. However, Microsoft has gone to build its own launcher, that is a
graphical interface that modifies some elements of the operating system, from
the main screen to the app drawer (the page where all the software installed on
the smartphone appear).
The launcher implemented in the emulator is clearly a
preliminary version, but if you want to get an idea that is closer to the final
result, we recommend that you download the Microsoft Launcher application from
the Play Storeand take a look at how the Redmond company is doing. Probably the
launcher dedicated to Surface Duo will be a little different from the one you
can download freely, but Microsoft's vision is that.
In any case, once the Surface Duo emulator is launched, the
first thing the developers are faced with is the Launcher Settings icon . By
tapping on the latter, you can configure the settings relating to the search
bar (search engine and country), modify the app drawer (choosing whether to
show recent apps or group them in alphabetical order rather than keep the
classic view), activate the notification badges (the indication that appear at
the top right of the app icons, you can choose whether to use the numbers or
just the dots), show the page indicators, lock the home screen (in order to
prevent changes to the layout) and enable the ability to add applications to
the home screen.
Put simply, it looks like Microsoft wants to implement its
own custom launcher on the Surface Duo, a customized version of what it
released on the Play Store. Also interesting are the changes made to the
settings page, in which it is noted that the Redmond company is redesigning,
obviously in pure Microsoft style, the classic icons found on Android. Part of
the notification curtain has also been given a new look for the occasion.
Also note the presence of an already functioning Dark
Modefor system apps accessible directly from the Display tab. In the Security
tab there is also an indication relating to the fingerprint sensor, an aspect
that confirms the presence of the latter on the Surface Duo. According to those
who have had the opportunity to see one of the first prototypes live, it seems
that the reader is positioned sideways.
One of the most interesting aspects is the presence of a tab
named Microsoft , marked with a profile icon. Unfortunately this section is
still in the works and we have not been able to get more details, but it seems
that the Redmond company is working to integrate Microsoft accounts with the
operating system.
It is not yet clears how this association could be used, but
the company will likely use it to allow users to access their ecosystem of
applications, just like with the Huawei ID.in the smartphones of the Chinese
company. However, the Microsoft Launcher available on Android uses the account
mainly to insert custom items such as calendars and documents directly into the
feed, so at the moment we can't say too much about it.
As for applications, the Redmond company pre-installed the
mobile version of the Edge browser and the Beta version of the SwiftKey
keyboard in the emulator . The latter is the same that is implemented by
default in Huawei's smartphones and enthusiasts have now learned to know it, so
Microsoft's choice seems to make sense. Instead, the reason behind the
implementation of Edge is obvious, since it is a browser made directly by the
same company from Redmond.
Another information we have found are the gestures that will
be implemented on the Surface Duo. In fact, from the settings we were able to
activate the navigation system through gesturesthat will be used by the
smartphone. Well, in reality this aspect is managed in a very classic way: a
swipe from bottom to top leads to the Home, a prolonged swipe from bottom to
top allows you to change apps and manage multitasking and to go back you use a
swipe from left to right or vice versa.
In short, the gestures seem to be what many users are used
to, but the image that shows how they will be implemented on the Surface Duo
still provides us with a visual indication of how we will see the operating
system on the dual-screen smartphone.
About the dual display, during our test we discovered that
it will be enough to simply hold down on the line at the bottom and drag the
application window in the area halfway between the two screens to make it view
in its entirety on both . Clearly the "hinge" present between the two
displays will remain visible, but we are still talking about a line that
according to Microsoft is thin (even if on the emulator it seems quite large).
Microsoft seems to have handled this functionality well
overall. For example, by opening the Settings app in this mode, the various
tabs are displayed on the left screen, while on the right display you can
already change the settings relating to the selected section. This allows the
user to quickly switch between tabs, without even having to go back to the main
settings screen.
The Edge browser instead adapts the website you are viewing
to both screens, allowing the user to have a view similar to desktop mode. On
the other hand, Surface Duo will have two 5.6-inch screens each , which
combined essentially form the size of an ultrabook.
To test third-party apps, we installed and configured Twitch
on the Surface Duo emulator.
Well, the operating system is already able to display the
entire app, using both screens to show multimedia contents. In short, Microsoft
is certainly aiming to do something very interesting, even if the
"hinge" present between the two screens could make someone turn up a
little.
For the rest, it is obviously possible to open multiple
applications at the same time and move a software from one screen to another at
will. Microsoft has also already implemented some nice transitions that make,
for example, the icons move from one side of the screen to the other when you
decide to move an app. In short, the Redmond company is developing a
customization that seems to have several interesting ideas. Will the final
result convince users? We'll see.
