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Microsoft has turned the Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox

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Re: Microsoft has turned the Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox

#11
post #4

Touchscreen buttons? No thanks.

Just pair a controller.

Thus defeating the entire purpose of having a two screen setup where one screen acts like a controller. You'd be better off getting a larger screen phone and a bracket to clip the phone to a physical controller. Especially with one that has as many buttons as the XBox controller does.

Re: Microsoft has turned the Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox

#12
post #8
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that point, why use the surface duo over some phone that doesn't take up that space with another screen? This does bring up that a good gaming controller meant to mount to a phone might have a lot more use these days with the cloud gaming services than it would a decade ago though. A high quality Xbox or PS4 like controller that could mount a phone might sell well. Or an adapter for the real ones.

> A high quality Xbox or PS4 like controller that could mount a phone might sell well. Or an adapter for the real ones. These adapters exist today.

I picked one up for the PS5 controller, and it works great and costs less than $10.

Re: Microsoft has turned the Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox

#14
post #5

This is screaming for Microsoft to release a gaming Surface, possibly one that looks/acts a lot like a Nintendo Switch.

There's something like that called the Aya Neo[0].

It runs Windows. It runs emulators. It's reasonably powerful and compact. And it has hardware buttons.

It's also a bit pricey if you think of it as a portable game device, and it also probably falls down a bit on battery life comparisons.

Would you want a gaming Surface to have two screens and touchscreen buttons, or hardware (perhaps as a Surface keyboard-like magnetic accessory)?

[0] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ayaneo-world-s-first-7nm-...

Re: Microsoft has turned the Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox

#16

What's pretty clear is that the small form-factor multi-screen device needs a compelling story to establish value and utility. The Surface Duo looks like a very cool device that I would probably never use over a phone with one good screen, more power and a great camera. Similar to tablets, I personally just reach for the phone or the laptop or my TV, and never a tablet. But a Duo released with some more power and som…

I've considered getting a larger Android tablet for the purpose of playing games on GamePass /xCloud with a paired xbox controller. It works quite well on my phone, but the screen is kind of small or my eyes are bad. The piece missing for me, currently, is the lack of vibration support. I did not appreciate how many tactile cues today's games have until it was missing.

For example, in Sea of Thieves, there is a "clunk" vibration when your ship's wheel is centered. It's very difficult to grab the wheel and straighten your heading without the clunk. Visually, the wheel had a center spoke which looks different than the rest, but the wheel rotates several times in a given direction before stopping.

If they ever add vibration support, I may purchase an Android tablet with a larger screen.

Re: Microsoft has turned the Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox

#17
post #5

This is screaming for Microsoft to release a gaming Surface, possibly one that looks/acts a lot like a Nintendo Switch.

It would be dead on arrival. Nintendo is just too good in the handheld department. I'd look at the PS Vita as a cautionary tale.

Re: Microsoft has turned the Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox

#18
post #5

This is screaming for Microsoft to release a gaming Surface, possibly one that looks/acts a lot like a Nintendo Switch.

It would be dead on arrival. Nintendo is just too good in the handheld department. I'd look at the PS Vita as a cautionary tale.

The Vita is an amazing piece of kit (I own two!) and I think the main fault with the system was Sony's lack of support and the garbage proprietary storage medium that was worth its weight in gold. If Microsoft made a Vita with xCloud, I imagine it'd be a pretty popular device and further enhance the value of the Microsoft gaming ecosystem.

Also, even though the Vita was not a smash hit for Sony, developing for the Vita was apparently pretty lucrative. The attachment rate for Vita was very high and Vita owners bought a lot of games. Granted, that was probably due to Sony's abuse of its Vita buyers.

Re: Microsoft has turned the Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox

#20
post #5

This is screaming for Microsoft to release a gaming Surface, possibly one that looks/acts a lot like a Nintendo Switch.

There's something like that called the Aya Neo[0]. It runs Windows. It runs emulators. It's reasonably powerful and compact. And it has hardware buttons. It's also a bit pricey if you think of it as a portable game device, and it also probably falls down a bit on battery life comparisons. Would you want a gaming Surface to have two screens and touchscreen buttons, or hardware (perhaps as a Surface keyboard-like magne…

It's too much money, so it doesn't matter. They've priced themselves out of relevance.
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