Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2 has been rumored to be underway since July 2020, and the latest from the grapevine suggests that it will be a 5G device.
The purported sequel to Microsoft’s dual-screen phone – codenamed ‘Zeta’ apparently – will benefit from an improved camera, and will also support 5G connectivity as mentioned, going by a report from Windows Latest.
The tech site spotted these details in some Microsoft job listings. One job ad for a software/firmware engineer in Taiwan, which went live back in September 2020 (and is now closed), describes job responsibilities including “designing and coding RF drivers, RF board … including LTE and 5G technologies … mobile operator certifications and PTCRB/GCF certifications on Surface Duo devices.”
That certainly seems to indicate that 5G support is something which is planned for the next incarnation of Surface Duo, or at least that’s what Microsoft is looking towards – remember, heavy pinches of salt all round (including regarding whether Surface Duo 2 will ever see the light of day, of course).
Snappy improvements
Another job listing points to camera improvements, specifically around the use of machine learning and AI on incoming Android-powered Surface products (meaning Duo 2).
The ad for a principal Android camera system architect/engineer talks about the ability to deliver “great customer experiences on our future Surface products”, and mentions: “You will define customer experiences through expert end to end camera pipeline knowledge of the Android platform on QC [Qualcomm] processors. The candidate will develop pipeline architect features that integrate output of the hardware ISP and supplemental image processing algorithms utilizing computational photography and AI/ML [machine learning] algorithms from various partners.”
It sounds like this position is all about driving forward with image processing chops, then, and working with third-party app developers in the delivery of image processing features. All towards an end goal of improving camera performance with the sequel dual-screen device.
We still don’t have an indication of when the rumored Surface Duo 2 might launch, and whether we might expect it this year, if indeed it is in the pipeline from Microsoft.
