Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

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…

The dual screens of the Surface Duo 2

It made an ideal device for reading Kindle books…

Kindle on the Surface Duo 2

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

OneNote on the Surface Duo 2

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.

Addendum – well, something odd – I put a new SIM card in the Surface Duo 2 just to see what would happen, and lo and behold, it was detected. So the Surface Duo 2 is fully functional – just not with the original SIM card, which it refuses to recognise any more.

I don’t really want to go through all the hassle of getting my mobile number changed in hundreds of places, so I’ll keep the old SIM card and number. I’ve decided I’ll put it into a Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which has a camera co-engineered by the German company Leica and they have been in the camera business for more than 150 years. That certainly scratches my amateur photographer itch.

The Surface Duo 2’s camera is OK at a pinch, but if I wanted to take good photos, I would have to pack my Canon M6 Mk II. That now has serious competition from the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, as this review shows.

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6 responses to “Alas…”

  1. Neal Rennie Avatar
    Neal Rennie

    Maybe the original SIM card was damaged from the drop, so perhaps get a new one with your old Number and see if that works

    Reply
    1. Geoff Coupe Avatar
      Geoff Coupe

      Neal – the point is that the old SIM card works perfectly well in other Smartphones (I’ve tried both an old Nokia One and a Xiaomi 17 Ultra), and a new SIM card works in the Surface Duo 2; so I have no clue as to what is going on…

      Reply
      1. Neal Avatar
        Neal

        I understand that. What occurred to me is that I had a similar thing happen, maybe 10-12 years ago. After exhaustive inconclusive checks, I went to my telco, and got them to make me a new SIM on the spot, they inserted it, and, bingo, it worked perfectly again. They did that no charge. That was after a long period of frustration and angst, as that was my work phone and I really needed that number to remain viable. Maybe the drop had a subtle effect on the SIM’s data which affected recognition such that inserted in a different phone, the SIM was seen as a fresh one. Just a thought and simple to do and test. Take care and have fun. Neal

        Reply
        1. Geoff Coupe Avatar
          Geoff Coupe

          Nope – swapped the old SIM card back to the Duo 2 after proving it worked in other smartphones and Nada – it refused to work in the Duo. And trying to persuade Vodafone to give me a new prepaid SIM with the same number as the old one is not possible…

          Reply
          1. Neal Rennie Avatar
            Neal Rennie

            I presume that you’ve power cycled and jiggled the SIM around, done telco reset, etc. Knowing you, you would have done all of that. These things try our resolve and lateral thinking unfortunately. Best wishes with it

            Reply
          2. Neal Rennie Avatar
            Neal Rennie

            Yes. Different from a standard paid account unfortunately. Not a fun situation at all. Big pity. Well, I suppose it can only be onward and upward from here. Best wishes and thanks for all your help. Take good care of yourself

            Reply

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