Microsoft Surface Duo grabs May 2022 update: Improves stability, in-app camera experience

By Daniel Rubino
published

The May update is now out for Surface Duo, and besides some security fixes, it improves a few other areas.

Surface Duo March2021 Update
Surface Duo March2021 Update (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft's Surface Duo is receiving its May 2022 update.
  • The update is 97.85 MB in size and bumps the version to 2022.215.137.
  • The changes include improving device stability and the in-app camera experience.

Today, Microsoft is pushing out its monthly update for the original Surface Duo. The update is just under 100MB in size and brings the usual assortment of Google-approved Android security patches.

But besides security fixes, Microsoft is continuing to improve the user experience. According to the changelog (opens in new tab), software version 2022.215.137 brings the following additional modifications:

  • Improves device stability.
  • Improves in-app camera experience in dual-screen modes for applications with dynamic orientation requirements.

The first change is quite vague, but Surface Duo could always use more tweaking for the software experience. The second one refers to when the Surface Duo's camera is engaged in spanned apps, not the camera app itself. We'll have to see if we can find some scenarios where the camera is involved in such a way to test it out.

To grab the update yourself, use these steps:

  1. Connect to a Wi-Fi network.
  2. Select Settings on your Surface Duo's home screen.
  3. Select System.
  4. Select System Update.
  5. Select Check for update.
  6. Select Restart now.

This update should also work for AT&T-branded Surface Duos as Microsoft does not mention it as pending approval.

There is no May update live for Surface Duo 2. However, we expect that to be appearing in the next few days.

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

12 Comments
  • Hoping the performance and stability improvement fixes some lingering touch oddities (I know that there is a hardware limitation here, but fingers crossed for something). I've also noticed since the last update; orientation has not been working great and it often gets stuck in landscape when using it in single screen mode. Updating now to see if this update makes any of these oddities a bit better.
  • I think any outstanding bugs of the original Surface Duo at this point are hardware limitations.
    It's mostly been fixed and very smooth, but as you mentioned it occasionally gets stuck or switches screens randomly etc. I think some of the internal hardware sensors have a few bugs the software is unable to compensate.
  • It's FIXED!!!!! My biggest gripe of the SDv1 has been if you engage the cam app by pressing the power button while the phone is folded completely open, only the screen with the lens is active, which is fine only if you are taking a selfie. The workaround for this problem, for me, was to unlock the phone in book mode, engage the cam w/ power button, and only then fold the phone open. Now I no longer need to do these gymnastics. Now, if the phone is folded open, the opposite screen is engaged by default to act as a proper viewfinder. Also, speed is faster. At some point, a lag as long as 1 second for me was present. Now the lag is still noticeable but much better.
  • Yes, works well now... this was indeed a much needed improvement.
  • 100% agree. That had always been a major pain point with me - camera always wanted to do selfies, not photos. You had to be very careful and particular how you turned and folded the phone. So glad that's finally fixed.
  • You know what I did not know you could do that until I saw your message about the camera. Phone definitely feels alittle more robust too no screens going off ect as of yet. But time till tell. Great to see this device getting more updates.
  • Hopefully this helps fix the issue I've been having lately where several apps (especially Textra and Photos), won't open and I have to terminate/clear the cache.
  • I wonder if the flickering Messenger app issue is resolved.
  • I'm still waiting for the fix of the 2 screens activating together when in phone mode... I understood it is related to the Microsoft bumper (tha doesn't make the phone perfectly close) and will never be fixed... It is a pity because it is the real worst bug of the surface duo v1... Maybe in v2 it is fixed..
  • I've always read comments blaming the bumpers for various bugs, but I've never read an explanation as to how they cause the bugs. I'm having the random screen shut off bug happen quite often on my Duo 1 and I am using the bumpers. Don't want to take them off if the bumpers can't be proven as the cause. Is there any official explanation?
  • I am also interested in this answer.
  • For the 2 screen issue I think it is related to the sensors that mess things up when the phone is not completely closed (due to the thickness of the bumper on the back of the phone)... But it is incredible that Microsoft didn't realize that during design of the phone... Bad engineering I suppose...