Surface Duo 2 may fix one of the original's biggest flaws Last fall, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Duo, its first cell phone in four years It was a completely different take on the foldable trend, with a clamshell design that opened to reveal two screens with a clear divider between them

Judging by the discounts that followed, the product did not set the world alight The phone's $1,400 price was quickly slashed, at one point dropping to $410 And as the Surface Duo review points out, part of the reason may have been the underwhelming specs: powered by the 2019 Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, it felt like the internals had not kept up with the innovative design

However, it appears that Microsoft has listened to feedback with the Surface Duo 2 According to a new entry in Geekbench, the Surface Duo 2 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 chip, the same processor found in the Samsung Galaxy S21 and OnePlus 9 Pro It also has an additional 2GB of RAM compared to last year, bringing the total to 8GB; it comes with Android 11; and it has the same processor as the Samsung Galaxy S21 and the OnePlus 9 Pro

While not the latest chipset, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus, these specs will certainly make the Surface Duo 2 more competitive than the previous model Other leaks suggest that this generation of Surface Duo will be a revision rather than a revolution, and leaks from earlier this year witnessed a similar design, albeit with a triple camera this time around The camera was another weak point of the original Surface Duo, so it is certainly encouraging to see Microsoft focusing on improvements for the Surface Duo 2: NFC will be introduced for contactless payments, the screen will offer a "higher refresh rate" and a larger battery should be seen Plus, of course, the new chipsets mean that the phones will also support 5G

The million dollar question, however, is how much Microsoft will charge for the new handsets The first generation could not be called competitively priced until Microsoft began aggressively cutting prices, but now Samsung's new and sleek foldable handset will be priced lower The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is $200 cheaper than the previous generation (though still very expensive at $1,800), and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 starts at $999

Hopefully, we'll know Microsoft's plans soon Rumor has it that it will be announced at the end of September or early October, perhaps along with a radically redesigned Surface Book 4