ZDNET’s key takeaways

• For years, Microsoft has rolled out brilliant ideas and failed to execute.
• The Surface Duo (2020) was a good-looking but flawed foldable phone.
• Apple used a similar idea to release what looks like a great product.

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For almost as long as I can remember, Microsoft has been chasing the dream of a foldable computing device. Back in 2009 — nearly two decades ago! — the device was the ill-fated Courier project, with a pair of 7-inch tablets hinged together to replace the day planner that every successful MBA used before smartphones made those bulky paper products obsolete.

Courier was never publicly released, but a decade later Microsoft shipped an Android-powered, dual-screen phone-tablet it called the Surface Duo. I paid $1,500 for it (adjusted for inflation, that would cost $1,934 today).

Also: iPhone Duo hands-on: The $2,000 foldable has some magical touches

After six weeks using the device, I took advantage of Microsoft’s generous return policy and got my money back. I explained why in “Five reasons why I returned my Surface Duo.”

This was the Surface Duo:

Today, I watched Apple’s reveal of its new foldable phone-tablet, and then I went back and reread my 2020 critique. If I didn’t know better, I would swear someone in Cupertino was using my review as a spec sheet for what a perfect foldable device should be.

And in the cruelest irony of all, they revived the brand that Microsoft failed with, calling it the iPhone Duo.

Look familiar?

This won’t be the first time Apple has built a successful product based on a brilliant idea that Microsoft failed with years earlier. Microsoft’s Tablet PC beat Apple’s tablet to market by nearly a decade. Apple today sells 20 iPads for every Surface Pro that Microsoft ships.

Also: How to preorder the new iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro

Back in 2004, Microsoft released its first SPOT watch (SPOT stood for Smart Personal Objects Technology), then killed it four years later. The company was filing smartwatch patents as late as 2012, but never delivered a successor. Apple shipped its first watch in 2015, and so far, they’ve sold between 200 and 300 million.

And here we go again.

After watching the iPhone Duo demo, I’m ready to place a preorder with Apple. Will I return this one, too? I don’t think so. Apple appears to have avoided all the mistakes Microsoft made.

The engineering looks exquisite

No doubt about it, Microsoft’s Surface Duo was well-designed and well-built for its time. But that ugly hinge in the middle made the full-screen experience imperfect. In the intervening years, Samsung and others have worked out how to make a display that can open and close without creasing.

I expect the iPhone Duo to feel as good as it looks. This is where Apple’s engineers shine.

There’s a ready-made app ecosystem

Microsoft built its Duo on Android with some enhancements to take advantage of the side-by-side displays. As I wrote at the time, “I eventually learned how to get everything working, but I never felt comfortable with it, and the ‘snap’ actions failed enough of the time to be more frustrating than fun.”

Apple already has a ton of experience arranging apps on iPadOS, and the design of the controls for the Mail app in iOS 27 looked very nice on the iPhone Duo. Here, too, having one continuous display instead of two separate side-by-side screens makes an enormous difference.

The size seems to make sense

My experience with the Surface Duo was that it was both too big and too small:

The trouble is, it was too big (or, more accurately, too wide) to fit comfortably in my hand. I have average-sized hands, and I never felt that the grip was secure, and accomplishing anything in single-screen mode was awkward without getting both hands involved.
…
[The] Kindle software … seemed like a perfect application to me, with the option to read a book using a device that’s roughly the size of a paperback. Alas, the reality was disappointing. Although the Kindle app does support this side-by-side arrangement of pages, the surface area is just too small for it to be practical.

The iPhone Duo offers one continuous 7.6-inch display when opened. There’s no hinge to interrupt the full-screen display, so it should make a good reading device. In fact, the unfolded iPhone Duo’s screen seems not much smaller than an iPad mini, with a similar aspect ratio.

And it looks like the folded phone will fit in my front pocket. But maybe not. In ZDNET’s live blog, Taylor Clemons said: “This honestly feels too big to be a phone and too small to be a tablet.” Hmmm.

Even the price seems right

This kind of engineering doesn’t come cheap. As I mentioned earlier, the Surface Duo’s starting price, adjusted for inflation, would be almost the same as the iPhone Duo’s base model: $1,999 versus $1,943. And that cost already includes the inflated storage and memory prices that we consumers are paying in 2026.

Also: iPhone Duo or 18 Pro? 8 reasons why I’m skipping Apple’s first foldable

The iPhone Duo won’t fill the same niche as a MacBook Air or an iPad Pro. But if it can replace my phone and my Kindle Paperwhite, it just might be a keeper.

Meanwhile, if you want to figure out what Apple’s next hit product will be, look toward Redmond. Whatever Microsoft is flailing with today will be starring in an Apple keynote in five years.