Microsoft Surface Duo could be out in under 2 months – but don’t expect Surface Neo until mid-2021

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Duo might just emerge in July, perhaps, to beat Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 2 to the punch

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft’s Surface Duo dual-screen phone (or pocketable PC, as it’s positioned) could be shipped at some point in the next two months, if the latest chatter from the rumor mill is on the money.

This fresh speculation comes from trusted Microsoft source Zac Bowden, who believes that Microsoft will want to beat Samsung to the punch, and launch the Surface Duo before the Galaxy Fold 2 is out.

We’ve already heard rumors from multiple sources that Samsung is planning to launch the Galaxy Note 20 and the Galaxy Fold 2 on August 5, so Microsoft might be looking at a late July launch for the Surface Duo if it wants to get in ahead of Samsung’s foldable sequel.

As Bowden clarifies in the tweet, this is at least Microsoft’s plan, though there is no guarantee that the company will be able to stick to it. At any rate, this is certainly a promising sign that we’ll see the Duo sooner rather than later. (And previously, we were expecting it very much later – at the end of 2020 in fact, going by Microsoft’s initial indication, until Bowden said that the plan had changed to get the device out sooner).

Of course, ultimately the exact release date could still pan out to be later in the year, so we shouldn’t get carried away with this speculation.

Neo delay

What of Surface Neo? Well, this dual-screen offering has reportedly been postponed to 2021 (initially, it was also expected to arrive for holiday 2020, like Surface Duo). And furthermore, when asked about Neo in the above tweet, Bowden said that we shouldn’t expect the device until mid-2021 – at the earliest.

So seemingly Neo might even be over a year longer in development than Surface Duo, which certainly wasn’t the plan originally. Although as ever, we need to exercise a sensible degree of caution about what’s coming from the rumor mill.

Via Neowin

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Darren Allan

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).