9-Inch Dual-Screen Windows Tablet Surface Neo Prototype Boots Up Thanks To Enthusiasts

The Microsoft Surface Neo was a dual-screen tablet concept that Microsoft announced when it also unveiled the dual-screen Android smartphone Surface Duo, on October 2, 2019.

But while we have been treated to two generations of the Surface Duo smartphone, the Windows computer Surface Neo never materialized.

That is to say, it never materialized publicly, but there were prototypes around, and these have been gathered by some enthusiasts this year.

Surface Neo
Surface Neo

Just about all of them had previously looked like they had been picked apart deliberately.

But now it looks like some enthusiast have actually been able to puzzle together a semi-functional version of the Surface Neo made out of spare parts. Which is no small feat, since finding spare parts for a prototype takes some dedication.

The Surface Neo supposedly had 9-inch screens, and we can see that someone has been able to boot it up with two of the screens powered on.

This would have been interesting dual-screen notebook that would have acted almost like a foldable tablet.

But it's not the first Windows computer to experiment with folding dual-screen design. Even Acer had done so earlier with a full-sized laptop, and Lenovo had the dual-screen 10.8-inch laptop Yoga Book C930 on the market before the Surface Neo was even announced.

But all of these still resembled a laptop more than a tablet. So it wasn't until Lenovo launched the formidable 13.3-inch powerhouse Lenovo Yoga Book 9i this year that we finally got a dual-screen laptop-tablet hybrid that was made in the spirit of the Surface Neo.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i
Lenovo Yoga Book 9i

And the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i even has a trick that Surface Neo probably never had, which is a vertical dual-screen mode with the keyboard underneath, due to its ingenious tablet stand. The screens are thin, have beautiful OLED displays, and lots of power, so Lenovo really went all in on the Yoga Book 9i, making it one of the best new computers of 2023.

Now let's see if someone will make a smaller version of this too, since the users are there.

– Tom Bowen