Pour one out for the Surface Duo 2. As , Microsoft has pushed out what will almost certainly go down as the device’s final software update, a security patch, ahead of its October 21 end-of-support date.
When Microsoft debuted the Surface Duo 2 in October 2021, the company pledged to provide three years of software updates for the foldable. Since then, the company has released just one platform update for the Duo 2, upgrading it from Android 11 to Android 12L. By comparison, Surface Duo users were more fortunate. They got to see their devices make the jump from Android 10 to Android 11 and then later to Android 12L. I’ll note here that the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system is .
By modern standards, the Duo 2’s run is particularly bad. Some Android manufacturers, including and , now promise to provide up to seven generations of platform updates. Consider also that Microsoft priced the Surface Duo 2 at $1,500 on release. Most of all, it’s a shame since software was always the Achilles heel of the Duo line. As Engadget Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low noted in her of the foldable back in 2021, the device offered more compelling hardware but was still plagued by an inconsistent user experience.
Of course, none of this is surprising if you’ve been following Microsoft in recent months. As the company has shifted its attention to AI, its Surface portfolio has seemingly fallen to the wayside. In fact, according to a published last year, part of the reason was because the company had canceled some of his unit’s more ambitious projects.
