Take a look at Microsoft's brand-new foldable Android phone, the Surface Duo, which has two screens and can fold in half like a book

• Microsoft is launching the Surface Duo, a $1,400 foldable Android smartphone that has two screens, on September 10.
• After getting a closer look at the Duo's design, I came away impressed with the phone's premium glass build and flexible hinge.
• Microsoft's approach differs from that of rivals like Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola, indicating that major tech companies are still figuring out what the next major evolution of the smartphone looks like.

Microsoft is the latest tech giant to enter the foldable phone race with its Surface Duo, a $1,400 smartphone that comes with two screens joined together with a 360-degree hinge.

The phone launches on September 10, coming just after Samsung unveiled its third foldable phone and major phone makers like Huawei and Motorola have launched devices with bendable screens.

The Surface Duo runs on Google's Android software, and the company is positioning it as a mobile productivity machine, much like its other Surface products. During a press briefing earlier this month, Panos Panay, Microsoft's chief product officer, showed how the phone can be used in a variety of different poses, demonstrating how apps can automatically adjust to whichever orientation the device is being used in.

Microsoft's approach differs from that of rivals like Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola, all of which have created phones with screens that physically bend and fold rather than attaching two screens to create one device. Some devices aim to offer a more modern version of the flip phone, as the Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola Razr do, while others like the Huawei Mate X, Surface Duo, and Galaxy Z Fold 2 combine the elements of both a phone and a tablet.

I just got my hands on the Surface Duo, and it feels like a well-built, premium phone that could serve as a promising entrant in the foldable phone space. But I'll have to wait until I've actually spent time using it to really weigh in on its value and what it brings to the market.

Here's a closer look at the phone's design.

The Surface Duo measures 93.3 millimeters wide, or about 3.7 inches, making it feel a bit big for one hand. That's bigger than other larger-sized Android phones, like the Samsung Galaxy Note Ultra, which has a width of 77.2 millimeters.

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Its glass body also makes the Duo feel like it lives up to its high price tag.

But the Surface Duo is really about what you can do with the phone when it's open. It's capable of bending and folding into a variety of different shapes, all thanks to its 360-degree hinge, pictured below.

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You can, for example, prop up the top display and use the bottom screen as a sort of kickstand, which could be helpful when watching videos on one screen.

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Or you can open it up like a laptop to make use of both screens at once.

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The Surface Duo also opens up like a book, and Amazon has optimized its Kindle app specifically for the device so it feels like you're turning the page when using the app.

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The device has two 5.6-inch screens that, when combined, offer an 8.1-inch tablet-sized display — slightly larger than the 7.9-inch iPad Mini. You'll also notice the Surface Duo's 11-megapixel camera is situated above one of the screens.

When opened flat, the Surface Duo measures 4.8 millimeters thin, making it slimmer than the 8.1-millimeter iPhone 11 Pro, 7.9-millimeter Samsung Galaxy S20, and even the 6.1-millimeter-thin iPad Air.

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All told, the Surface Duo is another sign that tech giants are still experimenting with different designs to figure out what the next major evolution of the smartphone could look like.

Lisa Eadicicco/Business Insider

With its clamshell-like design, glass body, and dual screens, the Surface Duo is different than any foldable phone we've seen yet. But it's too early to tell whether this will be enough for the Surface Duo to gain mass appeal the way the original Surface tablet did, or if it will become just a niche device.