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What is Microsoft’s Surface Duo?

There is a straghtforward answer to that question: “an Android smartphone that unfolds to provide two screens.” But that hardly scratches the, um, surface of what has intrigued people about the device since Microsoft unveiled it at a New York City event last October, a year after a leak revealed its existence.

To some, the Duo looks like the long-delayed realization of Microsoft’s two-screened “Courier” note-taker prototype from a decade ago—probably the most famous product the company never actually shipped. To others, it’s most significant as Microsoft’s return to the phone market, years after it gave up on the admirable-but-unsuccessful Windows Phone. Still others instinctively compare it to bendable-screen phones such as Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, which also squeeze double the display into a hinged design.

And then there’s Microsoft chief product officer Panos Panay, who has been practically synonymous with the Surface line of…