Exclusive: Microsoft's dual-screened Android phone shoots for practicality and productivity.

Product reviews are weird in 2020, and no device I've seen this year has been weirder than the Microsoft Surface Duo.

Microsoft's return to phones takes the form of a dual-screen, hinged, foldable Android device that looks like two tiny iPads bonded together.

There will be two 5.6-inch OLED screens that together form an 8.1-inch display, bound together by a unique hinge that Microsoft says has been in the works for years.

I've been skeptical about dual-screen devices, and I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the Surface Duo?

The see-through Surface Duo next to a Nintendo 3DS XL, a dual-screen device my family has used a lot.

I think about that Nintendo DS whenever I see a product with dual screens or folding screens.

The Duo is a phone, but Microsoft clearly doesn't want to call it a phone.

My oldest son looked at the folding nonworking device and said, "That's weird." But my youngest son was totally into it?

Here's what Microsoft's proposition could mean for transforming the foldable device space -- a space that clearly hasn't taken hold yet, but which Google, Microsoft and a lot of other companies are trying to compete in, using physical folding devices and even wearable virtual ones.

Or is Microsoft's work on functioning, practical dual-screen apps the sort of necessary work these devices needed in the first place.

Microsoft's Duo team operates from research that says two screens are more productive than one, so Microsoft treats the dual screens like a portable pair of monitors.

But that's been the pitch we've heard from every other dual-screen phone- and tablet-maker.

Microsoft's angle is aiming to get those screens looking as work-friendly as possible, and make the whole thing feel easy and comfortable to use.

But other Android apps won't immediately get that extra level of detail.

A few other third party apps are being courted to make Duo-optimized dual-screen Android versions, most notably Amazon's Kindle app, which will have two-page reading.

The Duo, running Android 10, is a sort of living concept car for future dual-screen apps and devices.

The dual-screen ideas and the way Microsoft handles them in apps will influence where the Surface Neo goes next year.

"When dual screens come, even on folding screens, we want those APIs to flow into Android so developers can build for every dual-screen phone." .

It's unclear, though, whether Google's plans for dual-screened devices will be in sync with Microsoft's, or if this is a momentary marriage of convenience before the relatively small group of dual-screened and folding phones maybe expands to a larger scale next year.

"I can't tell you what Google's working on," Panay adds, "But I do believe that if companies want to pick up dual-screen or move forward, we're setting groundwork foundationally for applications to expand, to rotate the right way, to span those screens to use both screens."?

Microsoft focused on display quality, hinge mechanisms, device size and battery life over bezels and 5G.

Thinnest dual-screen folding device we've seen.

The device uses Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 all over, but Microsoft wouldn't give any claims on drop test reliability.

"The Surface Duo hinge is designed and tested to function well beyond the lifespan of the product," Microsoft promises us.

The Surface Duo doesn't seem to be about its camera, which is a surprise when just about every other phone has many of them?

I don't know what the camera will be like, but Microsoft is clearly downplaying it as a core feature on the Surface Duo.

It's an Android phone.

I also wonder: In a world where screens may be everywhere and increasingly virtual through VR and AR headsets and glasses (or TVs and displays that can sync seamlessly with your phone), what is the purpose of a dual-screen pocket device

Steven Bathiche, a Microsoft Technical Fellow who heads the Applied Sciences Group, has a farther-ranging view of where devices like Surface Duo fit

But as a concept car to test-drive apps and build out a road where other devices will follow, it makes perfect sense