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00:00Hey what's up guys, MKBHD here. Techtober continues, second video of the day today. And this is
00:11a bit of a different sort of video. Typically, what I'd be covering in impressions and first
00:17hands on is things that are coming out right now, or about to come out. This video is a
00:23little more of what Microsoft has showed me that's not coming out this year, it's coming
00:28out next year, and it has sort of a still being worked on status, so there are no official
00:33specs yet, but this is future stuff. And Microsoft is a huge company as you know, so I went up
00:39to Redmond near Seattle in their headquarters, and there's dozens and dozens of labs and
00:44experimental areas that are not normally shown to the public. I saw material labs where they
00:49come up with things like the exact thickness and texture of their fabric on the Surface
00:54laptops, and the rubber on their headphones, where they make prototypes and new iterations
00:59of products that they're putting together, and I even got to spend some time in the Guinness
01:03World Record quietest room in the world, one of several anechoic chambers they've built
01:09and used to do noise testing. So out of these Microsoft labs, they've showed two things,
01:13two future products for next year. One is Surface Pro Neo, and the other is Surface
01:19Pro Duo. So let's start with the Surface Neo. It's a tablet-sized, dual-screen, foldable,
01:27super thin, and with this 360-degree hinge. So just taking a step back for a second, we've
01:32seen different ways to do foldables, right? We have the Galaxy Fold way, which is the
01:36folding screen on the inside, and you put a screen on the outside, that's the way Samsung's
01:41chosen to do it. Or maybe folding out, like the Huawei Mate X that doesn't quite exist
01:45yet, or the Royal FlexPai that barely exists, or even vertical foldables like the Motorola
01:51Razr mock-ups. But the real magic here with the Surface Neo is this 360-degree hinge.
01:57So this is a different way of thinking about it. So it goes from folded shut to open, but
02:02then folds all the way around, so you can use it as a single screen, or you can fold
02:07it out flat and use both screens at the same time. There is a bezel in between, so it's
02:11not a true foldable display, but the device itself is foldable. And as they're showing
02:16it to me and explaining it to me, you know, this is Microsoft's chief product officer
02:19and legendary presenter, Panos Panay, and he's showing it to me, and I'm realizing even
02:25though this isn't technically a folding screen, it has a lot of the other upsides of various
02:30versions of foldables we've seen. So if you can deal with that bezel, you get the inside
02:36screen also being the outside screen, and the outside screen is the inside screen,
02:40and it avoids having to do really any of the complicated folding display magic altogether
02:45that's been so tricky. And then durability is also safer, because you can cover both
02:50sides and protect it when you're done using it and throw it in a bag or something. And
02:54then you don't have to worry about folding it too far in the wrong direction, because
02:59it folds completely all the way around, 360 degrees. I think I would only really have
03:03to worry about, and you saw it, it's super thin, like twisting durability, and I wasn't
03:09gonna test that just because this is a super precious prototype, and we're just getting
03:12our first look at it, but the thinness really made me think about that, and battery life.
03:17No idea what a device this thin could possibly pack in terms of battery when you're looking
03:22at mostly screen. But those are the two things I worry about. This prototype also had magnets
03:26in it, and they talked a lot about these magnets on stage. You can have this handy little tiny
03:31keyboard that you slap onto the bottom and carry around with it, and anytime you wanna
03:35use it, you can swing it around to the front, and now you have a real physical keyboard.
03:40And the OS detects what you did with those magnets and gives you a special sort of UI,
03:44like a touch bar on the bottom display, or you can use it as a trackpad. That's really
03:48clever. And this is all coming from what's called Windows 10X, so basically a fork of
03:53Windows designed specifically for this new dual screen form factor. I think I'm just
03:58gonna call it dual screen. So it's gonna manage continuity between the two sides, if you open
04:03something on one side and it windows out to the other screen, all the sorts of things
04:07like that. And the magnet is also good for holding that Surface Slim Pen as well, which
04:11has magnets inside so it can be clamped on the outside if you just wanna keep it there,
04:16but it also can just sit there and chill on the back if you're not using it. So this
04:19is fascinating. I was impressed by and intrigued by the whole 360 degree hinge Surface Neo
04:25dual screen folding action idea. It kinda reminds me of something a lot of you guys
04:31have been sending me. I think it's a sort of phone designer mock-up of like the dream
04:35form factor for laptops over the past couple days. But there was one more thing too. There's
04:39room for something a bit smaller, more portable, pocketable even, and that would be where
04:45we saw the Surface Duo. So the Surface Duo is like a pocket version of the Neo, so now
04:51it's a pair of smaller, relatively 5.5 inch screens next to each other, again with a small
04:56bezel in the middle that make it sort of taller or longer or wider, however you wanna
05:01say it when it's unfolded. But same idea here. 360 degree hinge, fully protected, no screen
05:07on the outside so it's totally safe in your pocket like a normal phone or maybe in a bag.
05:12And again, it's super thin, which who knows what that means for battery, but it looks
05:16really sleek and the hinge weight was what struck me the most about this prototype form.
05:21Really if the hinge is a little too loose, folding it out will not feel secure and it'll
05:25fall over if you try to put it on a table. But if the hinge is too tight, it's not comfortable
05:29to fold and unfold. So the hinge weight was great, felt, looked kind of like a bigger
05:34version of that Motorola Razr concept. And possibly the most interesting thing they told
05:38us is it runs Android. So that means Microsoft and Google working together to create a version
05:44of Android or some modifications to Android that again work better with this dual screen
05:48folding phone concept the same way that they worked on Windows for the Surface Neo. And
05:53that's again to have dual screen apps, you know, one app on one screen, one app on the
05:58other. Android is already building in features now for foldables, but I assume this is another
06:03continued step in that direction as Microsoft sets its sights on this new future form factor.
06:09So I don't know about you, but I love this. I love the commitment. I want to see them
06:13really make this. You know, we had a little hiccup there in the beginning of folding phones,
06:17but it seems like now we're back to full steam ahead as we start to get folding phones shipping
06:22right now. We have Galaxy Fold shipping. We have the Huawei Mate X delayed, but hopefully
06:26coming soon. And now we have this commitment from Microsoft and it seems like we're back
06:30on this wave. So we had, you know, folding phones with flip phones and now the form factor
06:36of the future may actually be big screens getting small and then getting big again.
06:41But I'm curious what you think of this 360 degree hinge as a foldable phone concept.
06:46Again, it's not really truly a folding screen and there is a tiny bezel in the middle and
06:51the way they use that might be interesting, but let me know what you think in the comment
06:54section below. Either way, that's been it. Just a quick video to share some of this fun
06:59future new stuff. And again, like I mentioned, that interview talking tech with Microsoft
07:04CEO Satya Nadella is coming up. So Techtober continues. Thanks for watching. Catch you
07:10guys in the next one. Peace.