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Years after Microsoft gave up on its dual-screen experiment, a determined developer has given the Surface Duo 2 a pretty surprising second life by getting Apple’s operating system running on it. The result is a once-Android device that now looks and feels a lot like the Apple’s newly released foldable, without Apple having anything to do with it.
Developer SmuOS shared photos and details of the modified Surface Duo 2 with Windows Central. Even with a cracked display, the phone is running iOS 26.5.2. Because the developer used the official iPhone 17 Pro Max restore image, the system just identifies itself as that model.
Most of the interface scales reasonably well across the two screens and ends up looking similar to what you’d see on the new iPhone Duo or even an iPad. In Settings, for example, a sidebar sits on the left while the expanded options fill the rest of the space.
It’s not perfect, of course. The physical hinge bezel that splits the two displays is still a problem. In the Phone app, the 2, 5, and 8 buttons on the dialer get completely covered by that central gap. The same thing happens with notifications or text that lands right in the middle of the screen in other apps. Touch input works fine, but the whole thing is currently stuck at a modest 37fps.
SmuOS isn’t done yet. The plan is to get the Surface Pen working like an Apple Pencil, especially timely now that Apple has added Pencil support to its own iPhone Duo. There’s also interest in porting a newer iOS 27 build made for the iPhone Duo onto the Surface Duo 2 hardware.
What makes this interesting is that it’s not just simple emulation. The project involves booting Apple’s open-source XNU kernel with a custom UEFI loader on Snapdragon dual-screen hardware that Microsoft walked away from years ago. It’s still experimental and far from polished, but it shows how creative the modding community can be.
It also gives the original Duo line a pretty ironic new chapter at a time when Apple’s own product is already dealing with early hardware and software issues, including reports of screens breaking along the hinge within hours of use.
(Sources: SmuOS | Windows Central)
Read more
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