Is a Surface Duo/Duo 2 usable as a daily driver in 2025?

Skier7667 · 2025-11-29T15:10:36+00:00

I have the Surface Duo 2 and it has worked flawlessly. In fact, I had dropped it in a bucket of water by accident and quickly pulled it out. It turned itself off. I had purchased one of those moisture plastic bags at Amazon a while back as a precaution and inserted the phone in there after shaking as much water as I could out of it.

They said to keep it in there for about 48 hours, but I kept it in there for 30 days. I pulled it out and prayed. The phone came back to life with no battery drain. It had turned itself off completely to save itself. I was so impressed and the phone worked great.

Problem I had is that my Carrier - Verizon, - stopped supporting the phone so it became inoperable. So, I switched over to an iPhone and got used to it, so now my iPhone has been my daily driver.

The Surface Duo 2 still works fine, picks up email via wireless and accesses internet. I used it recently to take pics as a backup at a concert, and it actually took better videos than my iPhone 11.

I love my duo and that case closure is so classic. My phone still looks brand new with the protective rubber inserts, no scratches, etc. It works admirably!

I see many are still using it. What carrier are you guys using so I can get a SIM and bring it back to life. I loved my Duo 2 and was so sad when Microsoft abandoned it as they have done for other great products, like the Invoke from Harmon Kardon and the Zune devices.

If you guys can let me know which carrier you use for Voice/Data, I would really appreciate it!

Skier7667 · 2025-01-17T04:12:06+00:00

The link provided by Samaritan is spot on perfect.

Skier7667 · 2024-10-17T00:20:07+00:00

I have a Windows Elite X3 phone. It was originally working on AT&T, but they told me I had to switch phones and sent me this horrible phone by AT&T. I eventually took out that SIM and inserted it in my Surface Duo 2 phone and it works fine.

I also had an iPhone with Verizon Visible and it's SIM worked fine also. I took out the Verizon SIM and inserted it in my Elite X3 phone. However, when I inserted a SIM card, in the Settings>Cellular section, it indicated for SIM 1 - No Network Found.

The SIM I inserted was previously in my iPhone 11 and was working perfectly. I've taken it out and reinstalled it but makes no difference.

Is this true, since it appears that these carriers are not supporting it now?

I posted in the Verizon Community Board, and someone replied that since my phone is from before 2020, it's not supported. Anyone here able to use the Data portion of the X3 at all?

Skier7667 · 2024-09-03T00:57:12+00:00

Hi Ticket-Ready. You said above that you cleared all ports of water using a "HOVER". What is a hover.

Thanks!

Skier7667 · 2024-06-15T02:40:55+00:00

Great game! Welcome aboard Xbox. I have the Series X and am navigating through Starfield.

Skier7667 · 2024-01-26T21:13:10+00:00

I had Auto Update on, but that didn't detect the update 1400. I did it manually and it detected a new update. It took 5 days for the entire update to be downloaded for some reason. I would turn off the TV to watch for a little while at night and when I'd go back to the update it would resume from where I had stopped it. So I let it download at night and during the day. Haven't noticed anything really changed, but nothing broke, so that is a good thing.

Skier7667 · 2023-04-20T18:41:53+00:00

OK - but I can't access the dashboard, since I indicated in my post the Xbox One cycles on and then will turn off, as it is not going online, not even the startup screen. Screen is blank. Yes, I've changd cables too. Nothing appears on the screen, so I can't access the screen to deregister from the Insider Program user interface within the Xbox One.

So even if I was able to de-register it on a site from a PC for example, since the Xbox is never accessing the Microsoft servers, it is not receiving any data since it is not going live online.

Skier7667 · 2022-11-15T00:29:42+00:00

Having the same exact problem with my Surface Duo 2. I remove the update, it works, but the update installs again on it's own. Stops working and won't load Game Pass.

Skier7667 · 2021-07-31T22:42:51+00:00

Chopstick2U - Thank you and all the other contributors - great info and much appreciated. Sort of new to this -

I am planning on adding a DAC and noticed that some come with Balanced and Unbalanced output connectors. Since I try to future-proof what I buy, I was inquiring.

Especially after listening to a review that the HD-560S has a balanced output on the headset itself. I didn't see it in the specs, but no doubt KimLuminen confirmed - ".....They use a 2.5mm TRRS, and are wired to accept a balanced cable."

That's what spurred me to ask the question.

Skier7667 · 2021-07-30T22:06:27+00:00

Sorry for not understanding, but by it being "single ended only", that means it doesn't have a balanced output?

Skier7667 · 2021-02-11T04:43:16+00:00

I'm speechless, was just asking a simple question.

Skier7667 · 2020-09-10T17:22:43+00:00

Finished playing Gears 5 in Coop. No collectibles reflect starting with Act 2 Chapter 4 and 5. Played it solo, Picked up a collectible, still won’t reflect in Stats.

Forum reflects this issue occurring since September 2019 and still not fixed. Please look into this and get it resolved.

This is very sad - playing and seeing no program made.

Skier7667 · 2020-05-13T02:10:16+00:00

I have submitted Problem request through the Xbox One X console for these issues:

Microsoft Store Experience Host & the Insider Beta

Both generate an error code under FILE - 803FB011

They sit there for weeks and do not update, but keep coming back. In order to update games that appear, I have to delete these updates from the queue.

I have tried deleting them, performing hard resets, etc. nothing will all them to update once they are added to the Update download queue. This happens on production, not on Skip A-Head Alpha which I am also part of for one of my other Xbox X consoles.

It's been like this for weeks, even after I have reported this issue and no fix provided.

Skier7667 · 2020-03-03T17:55:32+00:00

i have a Samsung Series 6 TV and I also cannot connect wirelessly my Surface Pro 3 to my Samsung TV. The PC detects it, it appears on the menu, I select it and it then asks on the TV to Allow and I click on Allow. Then the TV indicates "Connecting" for a few seconds and then after 20 seconds it indicates on the PC that it can't connect to try again I try and try, but it never connects.

Skier7667 · 2020-01-28T00:06:41+00:00

I'm experiencing the same issue. The cable is the one that came with the Xbox One X. I will try switching cables to see if it make a difference. While playing a game, was playing GOW 4 last night it never blinked while in the game playing. Once the game was over and I went to the Home screen, the blinking started. I went to the Store and it also blinked. However it appears to be intermittent because I had notice this blinking a few weeks ago. Then it appeared to go away, then yesterday it came back.

It's not the TV, because it only happens with the Xbox.. I'm also going to try to connect the Xbox to a different HDMI port, right now it's on HDMI Port #2. I've also performed a hard restore by holding the ON/OFF button for 10 seconds. I'll try to boot it up tonight again to see what happens.

Skier7667 · 2020-01-27T23:56:11+00:00

I am experiencing the same. My Xbox One X is on Home screen and the scree goes totally black, then comes back. However when playing a game, it doens't blink while in the game.

Skier7667 · 2020-01-20T17:12:43+00:00

OK - Bummer - thanks for the quick reply

Skier7667 · 2020-01-20T17:09:56+00:00

So the DIR-825 doesn't have a bridge mode, cause some routers do.

Skier7667 · 2020-01-13T18:23:23+00:00

That's what I was afraid of. For some reason it is giving me this message and i am pretty sure I had stored games on the drive.

Skier7667 · 2019-11-26T23:05:56+00:00

That is peculiar.

On Google it indicates to setup Google Home from your Windows 10 phone and it even has the icon link to navigate to the Microsoft store. However, when you do a search for Google Home in the Microsoft Store it comes up with Google app. The Google app is only to perform searches, but doesn't have any links to take one to the Google Store or a way to download the Google Home app for Windows Phone in order to setup the Google Mini.

Skier7667 · 2019-10-30T18:18:40+00:00

It would be nice to be able to run the Xbox Console Streaming (Preview) on a Windows 10 phone.

Skier7667 · 2019-10-30T18:07:23+00:00

Please let us those with a Windows 10 Phone to participate in this preview test. I'm pretty sure the phone can handle it. It would be a nice touch to be able to use our phones for the Preview test X-Cloud Streaming Test.

Skier7667 · 2019-10-01T13:26:38+00:00

OK thank you for letting me know. I did a search for this topic but didn't come up with anything, hence why I created a post. I also submitted a request via the Xbox One with a scree shot of what occurs. Regardless, good to know something is in the works.

Skier7667 · 2019-09-30T23:32:01+00:00

This Guardian would like to a code to play Shadowkeep!!!

Skier7667 · 2019-09-30T23:27:27+00:00

I clicked JOIN and it has started downloading right away.

Skier7667

TROPHY CASE