Alas…

…my Surface Duo 2 slid off a bookcase yesterday and fell on the floor.

I thought at first it was OK – it was still working and the two screens were intact – but later I noticed that although WiFi and Bluetooth were present, it had lost contact with the SIM card so there were no mobile phone services showing.

It was not simply a case of reseating the SIM card – I tried that after cleaning the card and slot as best I could. And the SIM worked when I put it into an old Nokia smartphone that I have. The physical shock of hitting the floor must have severed an internal connection to the SIM in the Surface Duo 2.

So I’m going to have to get a replacement smartphone, and it won’t be a new Surface Duo 2 because Microsoft discontinued it in October 2024 and has stopped development of the Surface Duo line of devices.

The problem is, there’s nothing on the market as far as I’m concerned that matches the user experience of the Surface Duo, with its dual screens, form factor, support for multitasking and pen support…

It made an ideal device for reading Kindle books…

And with its pen support of my chicken scratchings and OneNote it was my Moleskine notebook…

I will still keep it around since I can continue to use it as my book reader and digital notebook – and when it’s connected to the internet, it functions as fully as it always did. I just can’t use it as a mobile phone any more so when I’m out and about I’m going to have to carry a device to fulfil that function and which can connect to mobile data services.

Sigh.