Thursday, September 10, 2020
Best answer: The Surface Duo does not have a feature similar to Samsung DeX or Microsoft's Continuum. It does, however, have some ways to get Android apps onto a larger screen, including app streaming through Your Phone and projecting the entire screen onto a monitor.
- Dual-screen fun: Surface Duo (From $1,400 at Microsoft)
Does the Surface Duo have Continuum or a similar feature?
The Surface Duo does not have a feature similar to Samsung's DeX or Continuum from Windows 10 Mobile. Those technologies allow you to plug your device into a monitor and have a desktop-like environment powered by your smartphone. Plugging the Surface Duo into a monitor will not switch the device into a special mode or allow you to work in a desktop-like environment.
While the Surface Duo does not have a feature like DeX or Continuum, it does have some features that allow you to bring your Android apps to another device, including full support for Microsoft's Your Phone.
Using the Surface Duo with Your Phone
Microsoft's Your Phone application allows you to connect your smartphone to your Windows 10 PC in various ways. You can sync text messages, photos, and notifications across devices. On select devices, you can also stream apps from your smartphone to your Windows 10 PC. The video above is from Microsoft's press briefing showing off the Surface Duo.
The app streaming feature, simply called "Apps," only works on certain phones, including several Samsung devices. It also works on the Surface Duo. You can run any app that's on your supported Android smartphone on your Windows PC, though the actual app is powered by your smartphone, not your PC. In fact, in the video it's shown that you can run two apps at once, thanks to the Surface Duo having two screens to project to the Your Phone app.
You can pin shortcuts to your smartphone's apps on your Windows 10 taskbar or Start Menu. The feature allows you to open up apps and interact with these apps as if they were running on your PC. However, the Android apps running through this feature don't scale in the same way that apps running through Samsung's DeX do.
The Apps feature for the Your Phone app is currently in preview but should roll out to the public later this year. The feature should also support the ability to run multiple Android apps on your PC through your smartphone at once later this year.
Projecting the Surface Duo to a monitor
If you don't have a Windows 10 PC around or just want to connect your Surface Duo to a monitor, you can, but it will be limited. Instead of transforming into a desktop-like environment, the Surface Duo will just mirror its screens onto a monitor. This isn't as elegant or useful as Samsung's DeX or running apps through Your Phone, but it can be done without a PC.
Preorders Live
Microsoft Surface Duo
From $1,400 at Microsoft From $1,400 at Best Buy
Two screens are better than one.
Microsoft delves into the future of foldables with an ambitious dual-screen device, featuring two ultra-thin 5.6-inch AMOLED displays bound by a 360-degree hinge. This pocketable inking-enabled Android smartphone marks the latest in the Surface lineup, geared for mobile productivity.
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