Usually, a 7 a.m. door buzzer wake-up call is not a good thing. Today, however, it wasn’t so bad. I just received a loaner Surface Duo device from Microsoft, which I will be putting through its paces as a “normal” reviewer for the next couple of weeks.

See the image above for what came in the box. (Microsoft’s packaging claims that I got one of the first 50 externally released review units.)

The Surface Duo is Microsoft’s newest Surface device which the company first introduced last October. This is a phone, but also a new kind of dual-screen, hinged productivity device, according to Microsoft’s positioning. 

The device is true Android, with the Google Play Store, plus a bunch of preinstalled Google apps — Search, Assistant, Calendar, Drive, Photos, Maps, YouTube, Gmail and more. It also comes loaded with a bunch of Microsoft apps, including Office, Teams, Authenticator, Bing Search, Intune, LinkedIn and Your Phone (some of which require subscriptions in order to use all the features). Microsoft has customized its Office/Microsoft 365 apps for the Duo, meaning they can handle Duo-specific postures and interactions, like “spanning.” 

Here’s how the Duo compares in size to my 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 3 and the original Kindle Paperwhite.

Microsoft is allowing us to post our reviews of the Duo on the morning of September 10, which is also the date when these devices start shipping (starting at $1,400) in the U.S. I’ve luckily got my trusty assistant on hand to help me check out how the Duo fits into my workflow. 

In the meantime, I’m curious what questions you have about this device, readers? Let me know below and I’ll try to answer as many of your questions as possible when I post my “non-reviewer’s review” on September 10.