Surface Duo 2 Could Finally Have Upgrades It Needed Last Year

Some say that timing is everything and the Microsoft Surface Duo is perhaps a testament to that. Had it launched a year earlier than it did, some of its lapses wouldn't have been so glaring, especially in the hardware department. Those could be addressed by a Surface Duo 2 and, judging by some job listings, Microsoft might indeed be heading in that direction, though, again, its success will depend on when the Surface Duo 2 will hit the market.

When the dual-screen Android-powered Surface Duo launched in 2020, it was running on a two-year-old Snapdragon 855. While the chip could hold its own in terms of performance, it lacked some features that its peers had thanks to the latest silicon available. Granted, 5G may not yet be as widespread but simply having that forward-looking capability could have improved the Microsoft phone's first impressions.

A job listing posted late last year seems to be taking that criticism to heart by looking for someone knowledgeable with LTE and 5G technologies on the hardware side. The Surface Duo is explicitly named, throwing away the possibility that this hire could have been for other Surface products.

Another listing spotted by Windows Latest looked for someone with expertise in computer vision, machine learning, and AI as those apply to mobile photography. Although the Surface Duo wasn't named this time, Microsoft was specifically looking for an Android developer familiar with Qualcomm's processors.

Together, this almost gives the assurance that the next Surface Duo will at least have a 5G-capable Qualcomm processor and improved camera firmware. Then again, Qualcomm started bundling a 5G modem in the Snapdragon 865 which would be two years old should Microsoft decide to go with that processor. That is, of course, presuming it even launches the Surface Duo 2 this year, which is almost unlikely given it just started rolling out the first Surface Duo to other countries this month.