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Surface Duo Continues Its Worst-in-Class Update Record, Ships Android 12L (arstechnica.com) 34

Posted by msmash from the for-what-it-is-worth dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft is still struggling to learn what exactly it takes to be a successful Android manufactuer. The company's first self-branded Android phones, the dual-screened Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2, have tried to resurrect Microsoft's mobile ambitions after the death of Windows Phone. They leave a lot to be desired, though, and the first version went through some embarrassing fire sales. An ongoing knock against the devices has also been Microsoft's very slow OS updates. Unlike, say, Windows and Windows Update, Google's expensive and labor-intensive Android update process puts the responsibility for updates on the hardware seller, and a big part of being a good Android OEM is how quickly you can navigate this complicated process. Microsoft is proving to not be good at this.

This week, Microsoft announced the Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2 are finally getting Android 12L, an OS update that came out in March. That puts that company at a more than seven-month update time, which is worst-in-class for a flagship device, especially for one costing the $1,499 Microsoft is charging for the Duo 2. The company took a prolonged 14 months to ship Android 11 to the Surface Duo, so at least it's improving!
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Surface Duo Continues Its Worst-in-Class Update Record, Ships Android 12L More

Surface Duo Continues Its Worst-in-Class Update Record, Ships Android 12L

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  • Buy Microsoft, get screwed (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:47PM (#63003089)

    What else is new? This has been the "industry standard" since forever.

    • Google's expensive and labor-intensive Android update process puts the responsibility for updates on the hardware seller, and a big part of being a good Android OEM is how quickly you can navigate this complicated process. Microsoft is proving to not be good at this.

      It's funny how folks will ignore Google's "expensive and labor-intensive" update process and attack MS for (apparently) struggling with this "complicated process".

      MS is new to the Android world, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that folks at Google were actively working against MS , making them jump thru hoops other, more established device manufacturers, don't have to.

      A seven month delay on a phone OS update? The horror! [twitter.com]

      • It's funny how folks will ignore Google's "expensive and labor-intensive" update process

        Everyone can do it but Microsoft

        MS is new to the Android world, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that folks at Google were actively working against MS , making them jump thru hoops other, more established device manufacturers, don't have to.

        I would be less surprised if Microsoft thought they were special

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Well, I am constantly amazed I get an update for my phone every few months. These Fairphone people must be wizards that they can do things on a small budget and with a small team that MS can only do much, much slower!

  • For the 12 people who bought one.
    MS history with handheld devices is horrible. You would have to be a fool, or have some really specific use case to buy one.
    The only hardware worth buying anymore is the MS mouse.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TWX ( 665546 )

      Yeah, I learned my lesson with the HP Jornada. Windows outside of an experience with a traditional keyboard and mouse/trackball/trackpad experience is awkward at-best, and atrocious at-worst.

      I could not expect Microsoft to do a good job of supporting a product that in their eyes is the bastard-stepchild they didn't really want.

    • I bought a windows phone back when they being dumped for $20. It honestly wasn’t that bad. The live tiles interface makes sense on a phone screen and not a desktop. Nokia made the phone and it was pretty responsive. Not slowdowns or major bugs. The lack of apps and users killed it.

    • Windows Mobile / CE was pretty good at the time. Windows Phone probably better than any of the alternatives but it was too late and with no app compatibility was kind of DoA.

      This is just Android being its usual Android self just a bit worse.

    • I hear that M$ Surface tablets bounce nicely on the sidelines of American football games. Not even Tom Brady can destroy them.

      I guess the NFL bans nerf footballs on the sidelines?

      /s

  • I have one of these and I couldn't be happier with it.. having two side by side screens let you research something while taking notes on the other side. These will improve your work productivity and are a bargain if you can still find one on Amazon For under $300. Microsoft comes up with monthly security updates which is well ahead of just about any other manufacturer.. I really love mine i would never give it up.

  • I never thought that I would hear that someone is worse at updating their Android distribution than OnePlus, but apparently that really is possible.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Virtually no manufacturers do more than security updates to their Android phones after they ship them.

        Really? That's sad, Moto generally does 1-2 Android versions even on cheapass phones. That's still not much, I've kept them going for two more versions by using CM or Lineage. I did get to have the experience of getting screwed by Sony (surprise!) on updates for the SEMC Play, though. They promised ICS and left it at GB. Fuckers.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Scoth ( 879800 )

        I still miss the physical button Android phones. Especially the four-button ones. I liked the Home, Back, Search, and Context/"right click" buttons. I got used to the navbar, and even came to appreciate the customizability and context-sensitive stuff it could do. I've always hated gestures and their ambiguity, and whenever I used my wife's then-new Pixel with them I kept accidentally going home or back or other stuff instead of what I was trying to do, especially if an app also operated on swipes. Once I up

  • Adopting ARM has been a mistake for Microsoft every time, except for mobile phones. The ARM power efficiency is entirely mythical for laptop level workloads (and Surface is closer to laptop than tablet).

    SOC integration + MCM memory integration and process node are where x86 lags hardware wise. Also the software is dragged down the massive complexity of the win32 legacy, lack of focus on the part of Microsoft and the hardware design process (Google does a lot better with Chromebooks because of their high lev

    • Adopting ARM has been a mistake for Microsoft every time, except for mobile phones.

      They made piles of money licensing wince for ARM-based devices. A lot of stuff you don't even think about ran wince, for example it absolutely dominated auxiliary LCD "displays" on slot machines (which are whole computers in their own right, basically thick industrial tablets with a bezel but no case plastics, they kind of look like a car stereo.)

      the software is dragged down the massive complexity of the win32 legacy

      NT is plenty portable and has appeared on several architectures. It's only trying to provide compatibility with x86 that causes that problem.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Scoth ( 879800 )

        Not to mention Windows CE in GPS units, voting machines, those handheld price scanner thingies that could look up prices or manage inventory that retail store workers use, mid to higher end weather station thingies, Sega Dreamcast, I think a couple early "smart" appliances like fridges... It may have always been slightly clunky on PDAs and Palmtops but it did very very well overall. And I personally preferred it to PalmOS back in the day.

  • Tab Active Pro, still under warranty, with promised 4 years of updates, ... it's been downgraded to quarterly updates (which is usually close to the end), never mind that because the last update was more than 6 months ago and it's on Android 11 and will probably die there (probably for the best as I've heard horror stories about Android 12 background task killer).

    S3 Tab, absolute flagship from Samsung and Android in general got hit in the same year by the BlueBorne vulnerability around September; mostly eve

  • How can a company with so much cash be SO CONSISTENTLY BAD at marketing?

    I see "Surface Duo" and my first thought is "some sort of laptop" (and that took a while... for a long time I would think "large sorta high tech table"). Next I saw "Android" and thought maybe this was some weird Chromebook competitor. But no... it's a phone!

    I realize there are still a few Windows fanboys left (fewer than there used to be, though), and they probably have Microsoft's entire lineup memorized - but that's not most of the p

  • I'd honestly never heard of this until reading this article. I had no idea Microsoft was trying to get into the cell phone space again.

    So a bit of investigation shows that they really are a whopping $1500 list, but can be found for around $600 on ebay.

    Why anyone would own one is I guess the big question.

    Windows aficionados might have purchased Windows Phone because they like the interface, or like the idea of running the same OS as their other devices. But this device runs Android, which invalidates that.

    • It's a similar multitasking use case as a Samsung Galaxy Fold. Biggest downside vs a Fold is a terribly camera (at least on the first one, I think the second has improved). Upside is it is much thinner than a Fold.

      • I'm not a fan of Microsoft, and I think they make a lot of missteps in this space, but I have to say, I like the Duo 2 hardware much more than the Samsung fold. Speaking as someone who is carrying a Samsung Note right now. As you said, the Duo 2 is thinner, and I think the hinge instead of a folding screen has the potential to be more durable.

        The fold just didn't seem like a good idea to me. I'd be concerned about longevity. I've heard reports that the screen lasts one year to three years depending on w

        • Yeah my wife and I got Duos coming off old iPhones, as I wanted to move us to Android and had concerns about the Fold longevity at the time. And none of the other flagship phones seemed compelling e.g. just another rectangle (although the Note with the stylus would've still been an upgrade). The 12L on the Duo1 has actually made it feel like it should've been at launch, as it'd been fairly buggy and occasionally frustrating. My wife broke her Duo by dropping it one too many times and just got a Fold4. T

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Scoth ( 879800 )

            I've personally never been in a position of really needing/wanting to use a mobile phone (or mobile phone-esque) device for any kind of real productivity work. But I could definitely see the attraction of a side by side screen and good, proper multitasking. I've made some use of the side by side/top and bottom functionality on my standard phones but it's usually a little too small to do anything useful. I actually was really intrigued by the "webtop" feature of the early Atrix phones and the Dex functionali

            • I usually also go to a real computer when I need to multitask but being able to do so on the go is nice or other times where the sky is falling and I have the laptop on a dock with all the screens full of important stuff and can pull two more screens for email and Teams to triage communications during the dumpster fire is nice. Also if you bring a stylus you can markup into OneNote very easily at a doctor's appointment or so on; while Samsung has their own protocol, the Duo uses the same protocol as Surfac

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