Yesterday, Apple unveiled iPhone Duo, much to the dismay of the dozens of die-hard Surface Duo fans that opted for Microsoft's now defunct line of foldable phones. Of course, the name of the product was what drew immediate comparisons to Surface Duo, but as the keynote went on, it quickly became evident that it isn't just the name that Apple was interested in.

Ever since Surface Duo launched in 2020, I have heralded it as the best multitasking phone you could buy. No other folding phone, whether that be from Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, Honor, Xiaomi, or Google, have matched the Surface Duo from a pure multitasking perspective.

The dual-screen setup allowed for Microsoft to create a new user experience around the gap between the screens, and that led to a unique experience that made multitasking automatic. Open your app on one screen, and the other screen would remain on the home screen, available whenever you need it to begin another task.

If the second screen was free, opening links would open them on the other screen, allowing you to keep viewing the first app without it being obscured by your browser. You could swipe up from the bottom and drag the app across both screens, swapping them in place or spanning a single app across both screens for a totally immersive experience.

No other folding phone has ever matched this level of fluidity or multitasking prowess. Most single-screen folding phones opt to treat the large folding screen as a tablet screen, opening apps full screen and requiring gestures or modes to enter a special "multitasking view" that allows you to run the apps side by side. The OS isn't able to dynamically do this, unlike the Surface Duo.

Well, it turns out, iPhone Duo can. I've never seen another folding phone match the Surface Duo's multitasking design, but iPhone Duo does almost identically. In multiple demos, Apple shows the iPhone Duo opening an app, and letting users split it side by side with another app by dragging the app up and docking it to the left or right of the screen.

When you do this, the iPhone home screen appears on the other side, just like Surface Duo. From there, you can open another app, and swap sides with it by doing the same drag and drop gesture you do on Surface Duo. It even opens links in a browser next to your app automatically, just like Surface Duo.

Surface Duo had a lot of flaws, but one thing it got absolutely right was the fluidity and automagic-ness of its multitasking experience. Users were in control of where apps appeared, and it was easy to move apps between the two halves, and have them run side by side. In most instances, multitasking on Surface Duo was an automatic experience. I never had to cognitively initiate a multitasking mode, it automatically happened.

It looks like iPhone Duo is opting for the same design philosphy. User shouldn't need to initiate a complex gesture or mode to multitask. It should just happen when it makes the most sense. If you need to open an app next to your currently open one, just drag the app to the side and open the second app from your familiar home screen.

If you tap a link, it should open the browser next to your current app, not on top of it like so many other Android phones do. Both Surface Duo and iPhone Duo appear to do this correctly, and that's the biggest surprise in my book. It's not just the name Duo that Apple borrowed, it's the entire multitasking design ethos as well.

You can see this in action in this video:

I'm not even mad about it, I've always said that I wish another company built the Surface Duo, because it wasn't fair of Microsoft to debut the best multitasking experience I'd ever seen on a phone, only to kill the product two years later. Apple has taken the best of Surface Duo and implemented it onto its own iPhone Duo, which is a win for Surface Duo fans in my book.

And it's not just the software multitasking and windowing that Apple have copied. iPhone Duo also supports pen, another feature that was incredibly popular on Surface Duo. Many people used their Surface Duo's as a personal diary or note taking device, and it did that quite well. iPhone Duo also supports pen input via the Apple Pencil, which is awesome to see.

I think Apple even indirectly referenced the Surface Duo during their keynote. At the start of the iPhone Duo segment, Apple says "others have created foldables that just feel like two phones awkwardly stuck together." The only folding phone that was literally two phone screens stuck together was Surface Duo.

Apple is right in that you can mimic the setup of a dual-screen phone 100% on a single screen folding phone, and that's exactly what they've done with iPhone Duo. All the dual-screen multitasking behaviors have been implemented on the folding screen, and it still works great.

Surface Duo fans, I fear we may finally have our Surface Duo 3 in the form of iPhone Duo. Too bad it costs $2,000.

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Apple didn't shock the world this week by unveiling the iPhone Duo, but it has taken the tech world by storm. With Apple joining the folding phone fray, we now have millions of people considering foldables that never would have considered the category.

With the iPhone Duo sharing so much with the Surface Duo, it's natural to make comparisons. Our Zac Bowden explained what went wrong with Surface Duo and highlighted Apple copying the names of Surface products.

But the iPhone Duo announcement stood out to me for another reason. It shows what happens when a company knows its own identity and leans into it. Apple is far from the first company to make a foldable phone, but the iPhone Duo tackles foldables in a way that's quintessentially Apple.

In normal Apple fashion, the company bided its time and waited for Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, and other companies to work out the biggest issues with foldables. Through years of trial and error, other manufacturers have determined the best form factor for a folding phone. They've also figured out use cases for folding screens and the large displays provided by what are essentially tablets that fold into phones at this point.

Apple's patient approach does more than give its engineers real-world feedback about a product category. By waiting until foldables became normal, Apple has left potentially the most difficult task to be completed by other companies: getting people to even consider a folding phone that costs a fortune.

Every time Apple introduces a new product or feature that's been seen elsewhere, people online joke about Apple "inventing" things. I get it. It's an easy joke and some Apple heads are smug and ignore advances made by other companies. But Apple's strategy works. In addition to making Apple money hand over fist, it creates good products.

Apple knows what it is. The leaders at Apple have a clear strategy and know how to make new products. Microsoft is lost when it comes to Surface, and the iPhone Duo shows that.

Before you jump to the comments, I am fully aware that Microsoft had a foldable phone years before Apple. The buggy mess that was the Surface Duo launched in 2020. After silently fixing a few bugs and realizing people want NFC and good cameras in a smartphone, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Duo 2. But Microsoft abandoned the Surface Duo lineup and never even released the Surface Duo 3, so I'm not going to give it the benefit of the doubt.

By not sticking with the Surface Duo lineup, Microsoft gave up its pioneer status. The company could have made a Surface Duo 3 that addressed concerns and then unveiled a model with a folding screen by now. But instead, Surface Duo is dusted.

When it comes to tech, you need to carve out a niche. That's often done by being the first, the best, or the most affordable. You can also succeed by being unique or by being over the top. Surface used to check some of these boxes, but it rarely does anymore.

What is Surface in 2026? It's no longer the innovative hardware maker that drove the 2-in-1 form factor. Experimental projects have been pushed to the wayside, leaving Lenovo to pick up the slack. Surface PCs were never the most affordable, and I'd argue they aren't even the best options in their respective categories anymore.

Microsoft has shown some small signs of moving in the right direction with the Surface Laptop Ultra, but I still have my reservations. Surface still seems lost, and I don't see Microsoft returning to the experimental roots of the product family.

Microsoft no longer pushes the limits of computing with experimental hardware. But it also does not wait long enough to see a category fully mature and then swoop in with a perfected version. Surface is stuck in the middle of a crowded PC space and feels like a leftover appendage of a bloated company.

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Ever since the MacBook Neo launched earlier this year, Windows OEMs have scrambled to ship devices that match it from a design and price perspective. Until this year, most Windows OEMs weren't all that interested in insuring their sub-$1,000 laptops were pretty, but that has all changed in recent months.

OEMs like Dell and Acer have come out with $799 laptops that match the MacBook Neo in design and premium build quality, and now ASUS is joining the fray with their own $799 Windows laptop that also looks the part. The new ZenBook 14 with Snapdragon X is one of the better $799 Windows laptops we've tested, thanks to its premium design and excellent OLED display.

I've been daily driving the ZenBook 14 over the last few weeks, and this is my full review.

This review was made possible via a sample unit supplied by ASUS. The company had no editorial input and did not see the contents of this review before publication.

What I love

Any laptop that wants a running chance at being competitive with the MacBook Neo needs to focus on design and build quality. Luckily, the ASUS ZenBook 14 is a device that looks and feels the part. It features a premium metal chassis with a coating that does a great job at hiding fingerprints and remaining light.

The design of the laptop is notably rounder than the MacBook Neo and other laptops in this price range, which gives it an edge in ergonomics too. Carrying this laptop around in your hands is very comfortable, and it just looks great when sitting on a desk or on your lap.

The texture of the chassis is nice and smooth, and cold to the touch which helps with that premium feeling. It's also super lightweight, coming in at just 2.87lbs, making it a touch heavier than the MacBook Neo but still plenty light, especially at 14-inches. The chassis does flex a tiny amount, but not enough for it to take away from the overall premium experience.

Opening the laptop up, we're greeted with what I'd arguably describe as the star of the show. This laptop is rocking 14-inch OLED display that looks great for $799. It is a 1080p panel, which is notably lower resolution than what you might find on the MacBook Neo and Dell XPS 13, but the OLED colors make up for that slight drop in sharpness.

You don't often find OLED displays on laptops at this price bracket, especially not with a Snapdragon chip on the inside. This laptop is powered by the Snapdragon X 8-core SoC, which delivers good performance for day to day tasks while being incredibly energy efficient, meaning this device will last you all day on a single charge without breaking a sweat.

The configuration that starts at $799 includes 8GB RAM, which is a little on the low side in 2026, but if you're only planning to use your laptop for lightweight productivity tasks and a bit of multitasking between a web browser, Spotify, Teams/Slack, and an email client, it should be more than enough. If you need more, ASUS does offer the laptop with more RAM and storage at a higher price.

Turning out attention to the chassis once more, we have plenty of ports for a laptop at this price bracket. It features a full size USB-A port on the right, and two USB-C ports, a full-size HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio jack on the left. The USB-C ports are used for both data and charging the device.

I also want to take a second to shout out the great keyboard on this laptop. The ZenBook 14 has one of the best feeling keyboards I've ever typed on at this price point. For $799, this keyboard is lush. It's tactile yet quiet, and my fingers just glide across the keys. Actuating the keys is also easy and weightless.

Lastly, the audio and webcam on this device are surprisingly good. The webcam is a XX shooter which looks great in well lit rooms, but gets a bit noisy in low light. It's perfect for Teams calls and video calling friends, and the built-in microphone is more than cabable for the same tasks.

What's really nice about the webcam is that it also features IR sensors for Windows Hello face unlock. This level of biometric authentication isn't something you'll find on the $799 MacBook Neo, but it does match the $799 Dell XPS 13.

What I hate

There's not much to dislike about the ASUS ZenBook 14, but there are a few things I noticed during my time with it that I wasn't a fan of.

First of all, I don't like the trackpad. It's nice and smooth, and plenty large, but that's about as much good as I can say about it. I don't know if this was just an issue with my review unit, but the trackpad feels notably tougher to actuate than other trackpads I've tried. The MacBook Neo's trackpad is effortless, but the ZenBook 14 trackpad is a little tougher to press down.

I'll also say that the tracking of the trackpad itself is also not great. When people say Windows trackpads suck, I suspect it's trackpads like this that they're referring to. It just doesn't feel very accurate, often over or under shooting where I intended to move the mouse. The keyboard also doesn't feature a backlight, which kind of sucks. I know the MacBook Neo also doesn't have a backlight, but it also sucks on that laptop too. At $799, the laptop should have a backlight in my opinion.

The only other annoyance I found with the ZenBook 14 is that I found its fan spins up a fair bit, and it can get quite loud under super intensive load. It's not normally an issue in day to day use, but if you're susceptible to fan noise, I'd be weary of the ASUS ZenBook 14.

Conclusion

The ASUS ZenBook 14 is the latest MacBook Neo competitor to hit the scene, and it's one of the better ones. Yeah, the trackpad isn't amazing, but everything else about this laptop is great for a $799 starting price.

I think it's one of the better looking $799 laptops you can find right now, complete with a thin and light profile and plenty of ports to boot. It also has all day battery life, and good performance for the day to day tasks you'd be expected to want to complete on a device in this price bracket.

The OLED display is a great addition, and while I wish it was slightly higher resolution and higher refresh rate, the panel itself is perfectly acceptable at this price point. In fact, I'd say the punchy colors are worth the slight decrease in resolution.

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I loved my Surface Duo a lot. It was a unique folding phone with two screens instead of a single foldable display, supported pen input, and was the thinnest of its kind when it launched in 2020 (see our original review). It was a mesmerizing bit of kit, but it failed to gain any real mainstream attention.

And although it never shipped, its bigger brother, the Microsoft Surface Neo PC, was also something a lot of us Windows fans were looking forward to at the time. A dual-screen laptop, to complement my dual-screen phone? Sign me up! In 2020, it really did seem like Microsoft was building out its own unique device ecosystem to compete with Apple, Samsung, and Google.

The Neo and Duo were clever names for these devices. Both names had dual meanings to them, too. Neo, meaning "new," referred to the form factor, as well as being a reference to "The One" from The Matrix. And Duo, obviously signifying the device's unique "duo" screen setup, but it was also a reference to the fact that it was a surprise second device in a pair, alongside Neo.

When Duo was announced, it was a true one more thing moment during the event. There had been rumors that Microsoft was working on a folding phone for years prior, but recent reporting at the time had suggested the project was dead. So when Duo was announced alongside Neo, it was a rare true surprise to those in attendance and watching online.

Cut to 2026, and it's all dead. Microsoft gave up on Duo after just one iteration (Surface Duo 2 review), and it never even gave Neo a chance. The company's boneheaded shortsightedness led to the death of unique Surface hardware, and now today we're left with boring laptops and tablets from the Redmond giant.

It was inevitable that the Neo and Duo would forever be relegated to the history books, a hall of fame of unique devices that tried and failed to capture the market. Now, Apple has stormed in and stolen these names for their own products, which will only serve to further bury Microsoft's efforts.

I'm sure there are some Apple fans out there who think Apple never even thought about Microsoft when it named the MacBook Neo and iPhone Duo, but I think that's a lie. Apple is clearly aware that Neo and Duo were strongly tied to the Surface brand, but decided that didn't matter, which is the correct decision.

The MacBook Neo is an almost polar opposite of the Surface Neo. While Surface Neo was supposed to be a super expensive dual-screen flagship laptop, the MacBook Neo is Apple's cheapest laptop, undercutting much of the market. I don't know why, but that feels like an F.U. to Microsoft's vision for its Neo.

And now, there's iPhone Duo. This one hits much harder, as they're both playing in the same game. Surface Duo was a thin folding phone with pen support, and the iPhone Duo is pretty much exactly that. Of course, Apple's iPhone Duo refers to the fact that it's both an iPhone and an iPad, but seeing the Duo moniker on an Apple product just stings.

If anything, it's just reminded me of what was possible had Microsoft pushed through and continued to innovate on the Surface Duo. The company had started working on a third-gen Surface Duo in 2022, which was going to pivot to a single-screen folding setup not dissimilar to the iPhone Duo.

But Microsoft just can't see a good thing through. Because Surface Duo 1 sold poorly, and Surface Duo 2 sold even less than that, the company decided that it was not worth continued investment in this category, which is just wrong. Folding phones were and still are the future, but Microsoft decided to pack it all in.

Now, Apple has just stolen the crown for the Duo moniker, with a product that seemingly does everything the Duo set out to achieve, but better in every way because Apple isn't going to give up after just one iteration. I get the impression that Duo is here to stay in Apple's lineup, unlike the Duo in Microsoft's lineup.

I'm mad that Apple has stolen the Neo and Duo moniker, but frankly, they deserve it. Microsoft clearly isn't doing anything with them, and they are cool product names for devices that stand out. MacBook Neo and iPhone Duo certainly do that, even if they're not in complete harmony like the Surface Neo and Surface Duo were supposed to be.

Congratulations on the launch of iPhone Duo, Apple.

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