Microsoft discounts Surface Duo by $1,000 in Canada

Microsoft’s Surface Duo is on sale in Canada for $1,000 off, bringing the smartphone down to just $934.99.

If you’ve been eyeing the dual-screen disappointment but haven’t bought one yet due to the insanely high price tag, well, it’s marginally more affordable now. That said, forking out just shy of $1,000 is still a lot of money, and most Canadians could probably get a much better phone for the same or less.

Microsoft also dropped the price of the Surface Duo in May, bringing the dual-screen phone down to $1,319.99 in Canada. The new sale is a much more reasonable price.

That said, I still think the Duo is a tough sell. I think the Duo idea still has a ton of potential, but having used the Duo myself (I reviewed it earlier this year), I’m just not sure it makes sense for most people.

Microsoft cut too many important corners with the Surface Duo and then charged far too much money for the phone. It’s nice hardware in general, but the build quality isn’t the best. The Duo can be awkward to use, Android doesn’t always play nicely with multiple displays, and the older Snapdragon chip doesn’t help with performance issues.

Still, if you’re the type of person to multitask a lot on your phone, having two screens helps a lot. For a select group of people, the Duo is a game-changer. For most everyone else, it’s probably a waste of money.

It’s not clear if the Duo will get much cheaper in Canada — in the U.S., customers can buy the Duo through Amazon’s Woot platform for as low as $409 USD (about $509 CAD) today only. Unfortunately, the phone is locked to AT&T, so buying a cheap Duo through Woot isn’t ideal for Canadians. Plus, rumour has it a Surface Duo 2 is on the horizon, which may mean the O.G. Duo will get even cheaper, but I’m just not sure.

If you’re really interested in dropping almost $1,000 on the Duo, you can buy it here.