Gaming on weird phones: LG Wing and Microsoft Surface Duo

Xbox Game Pass on the LG Fly (Epitome credit: Hereafter)

Xbox Game Pass, the Netflix of Xbox games, has been a greenbacks cow for Microsoft — a whopping 70% of Xbox Series X and Series S owners accept a Game Laissez passer account, according to IGN.

While many are salivating over the Series X's envelope-pushing, side by side-gen marvels, two bizarre, odd-looking dual-screen phones accept been calling my proper name — "Psst! Kim! Play with us!" — for a fascinating gaming experiment.

The LG Wing and the Microsoft Surface Duo are the dual-brandish devils singing these siren songs, enticing me to test Xbox Game Pass on their singular user interfaces. Who am I to turn down such an irresistible invitation?

I played Batman Arkham Knight — ane of the almost popular Xbox Game Pass games — on the Wing and Surface Duo using my Verizon FiOS Home WiFi network. The feel left me feeling amazed past the multitasking advantages of multiple-screen phones, but in the terminate, I'thousand left wondering if there are sufficient use cases for cloud gaming on smartphones — dual-display or not.

Xbox Game Pass: Gaming on the LG Wing

The LG Fly, equipped with a past-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 and 8GB of RAM, is the almost striking smartphone I've reviewed thus far. It sports a vi.eight-inch, edge-to-edge master display that can hinge into the device's "wing," transforming into a T-shaped posture. There is a 2d, 3.9-inch, 1240 x 1080-pixel brandish on the T's stalk.

Smooth gameplay, simply modest text

I fired up Xbox Game Laissez passer's Batman: Arkham Knight on the Fly's swiveled, 2460 x 1080-pixel, 60Hz principal screen. It took about 20 seconds to boot up, which is par for the grade for all Game Pass games. It's not as quick as Google Stadia's near-instantaneous loading times, but Game Pass (and deject gaming equally a whole) is a godsend for gamers who despise waiting an eternity for downloads.

On rare occasions, I'd tap on the Xbox Game Laissez passer app, land on the dwelling screen, and the app would crash shortly later on — I'd and then have to relaunch it (and it would work fine). This happened about four times out of 30 taps. Interestingly enough, during actual gameplay, I didn't feel any crashes at all.

As Arkham Knight began, I found myself swaying to Frank Sinatra'south "I've Got Y'all Under My Skin" as I got a bird's eye view of the Joker's cremation. I waited about 2 minutes for the cutscene to progress and realized something was wrong — zippo was happening.

Every bit it turned out, the game was waiting for me to press "A" to incinerate the Joker. The text size on the game is so ridiculously minor, it's easy to miss prompts and conversations, merely this is an like shooting fish in a barrel gear up with a patch from developers. I finally pressed A and watched Batman'southward curvation nemesis burn to a crisp.

After the Joker's cremation, you'll pace into the shoes of Officer Owens who's grabbing a bite inside Pauli's Diner on a rainy Halloween dark. At the asking of a concerned patron, you must approach a creepy customer who's unlawfully smoking. You should have just sat there and ate your food, though, because the confrontation eventually leads to a vicious massacre — the creepy customer is a demonic beast that unleashes mortality within the diner. I plant cutscenes and gameplay to exist smooth equally butter due to my fiber-optic cyberspace.

Mediocre graphics

As I watched the mayhem unfold in the diner, the graphical fidelity wasn't impressive. If I saw this game playing on a PC, I'd assume the display settings were cranked down to depression or medium.

Xbox Game Pass on LG Wing — Xbox Game Pass on LG Fly (Image credit: Future)

In 1 scene, I had to interrogate an injured Scarecrow goon later chasing him down with the Batmobile. Although he was on the floor correct in front of me, I had difficulties finding him considering he seemed to blend right into the road. Colors could be more vivid, too; the Wing'south principal brandish covers 105% of the DCI-P3 gamut, co-ordinate to our testing, which obviously isn't sufficient.

At first, I chalked upward the so-so graphics to Gotham's dark and rainy setting, but when I played Ori and the Will of the Wisps — typically a visually stunning game — graphical details lacked crispness and item, too. I admit that this is nitpicking, though; I shouldn't await loftier graphical fidelity on a 1080p, 60Hz smartphone.

Another display setback with Game Pass is that, although the Wing has half-dozen.eight inches of screen real manor, games just make full a measly 5.5-inch expanse of the display. The Wing also has an unusual 20.5:9 aspect ratio, which may exist the culprit of this issue.

Multitasking while gaming

While playing Arkham Knight in swivel mode, I can engage with a number of different apps on the second screen. I zipped through the Laptop Mag website while waiting for a cutscene to finish. I looked up YouTube gameplay walkthroughs while driving the Batmobile effectually Gotham. I played reggae on Spotify every bit I kicked a henchman's ass. Hell, I fifty-fifty sent a quick text to a friend as I flew across a dystopian city. I browsed the web, played YouTube videos, listened to music and sent texts — all without interrupting the game. Pretty badass, right?

The just hiccup is that, subsequently you're done interacting with the second screen, y'all have to tap the primary display to "tell" the device that you're fix to recommence your main-display appointment. Otherwise, it will not respond. After tapping the screen, I could apply my Bluetooth-continued controller again to swoop back into the game.

I also tried to make calls on the 2nd screen while playing Arkham Knight on the chief display. It works, however, the game's audio will mute while y'all're playing. In order to hear my friend on the other line, I tried to turn on Speaker Mode during gameplay, but strangely enough, all that does is unmute the game. Callers will be able to hear you, just you will not be able to hear them unless you bring the device to your ear.

There is also a few seconds of gameplay stutter afterward transitioning from the 2nd screen to the main display, just it doesn't last long enough to be a concern.

Dual-display positioning while gaming

While the LG Wing's T-shaped design offers access to dual-screen multitasking, it isn't ideal for gaming. I had to prop the Wing against an object on a table to brand it stable plenty to stand on its own.

On the plus side, the LG Wing can be swiveled dorsum into bones mode. With this position, the Wing looks like a typical, single-screen 6.8-inch smartphone. From here, y'all can hands adhere the Wing onto a controller without any hassle.

Xbox Game Laissez passer: Gaming on the Microsoft Surface Duo

Xbox Game Pass on the Microsoft Surface Duo (Image credit: Future)

The Microsoft Surface Duo is a book-like, ultra-sparse device equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor and 6GB of RAM. It has two 60Hz, 5.vi-inch displays with thick bezels. Cheers to its spectacular 360-caste hinges, the Surface Duo tin can be transformed into a number of different postures, including tent mode, compose way and book fashion.

Depression latency, high letterboxing

I powered upward Batman: Arkham Knight on the right hemisphere of the dual-screen Microsoft Surface Duo, which, like the left hemisphere, sports an AMOLED, 1800 x 1350-pixel display. Like to the Wing, loading fourth dimension took about 20 seconds. Arkham Knight's tiny font issue is also nowadays on the Duo.

I censured Game Laissez passer for not filling all of the Wing'southward half dozen.eight-inch display goodness, but in book mode, the letterboxing is far worse on the Duo with the app merely occupying a third of the screen.

Thankfully, yous can rotate the Duo into tent style and etch fashion for a screen-filling experience. You can also fold the Duo and hook information technology up to your controller.

Sharper graphics

The rusty gears that rolled Joker into the incinerator for cremation looked slightly sharper and more than detailed on the Surface Duo. Every bit Batman swooped to the top of a building in Gotham's Chinatown, I could see the intricate, Asian-inspired designs carved on the wooden-built structure — a visual treat that was harder to see on the LG Wing.

The Surface Duo, according to our testing, covers a whopping 199% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is 94 percentage points more than the T-shaped device. Unlike the Wing, equally long as the Duo is in tent way or compose fashion, the games make full the entire display, which has an aspect ratio of 4:3. Although the Wing has a 6.viii-inch display, games on the Duo appeared larger on the five.6-inch screen compared to the 5.v-inch resource allotment on the Fly.

I too tested Ori and the Volition of the Wisps on the Duo'southward screen. I found that the Metroidvania platformer was more brilliant on the Duo than the LG Wing. Graphical fidelity seemed slightly college on the Duo, simply don't look to find PC-quality graphics on the dual-screen phone.

Multitasking while gaming

Like to the LG Wing, you can browse the web, ringlet through social media, watch YouTube, listen to Spotify — without interruption — while playing Xbox Game Pass games. Texting is a little tricky, though, because the keyboard takes upwardly the whole screen while in tent manner and compose way (the most optimal postures for gaming on the Duo), disappointment users from seeing what they're typing.

I tested calls while gaming on the Duo as well. This multitasking feature was the nearly irksome. Calls are launched on the screen where the Xbox Game Laissez passer app "lives," causing Game Pass to shutdown. I had to drag the Phone app to the left screen and re-launch the Game Pass app on the right. Luckily, the game continued from where I left off — what a relief.

Dual-display positioning during gaming

The Microsoft Surface Duo's blueprint is perfect for smartphone gaming. Equally mentioned, the best positions for gaming are tent manner and compose manner, which tin can be set atop a surface without needing to adhere the cumbersome smartphone to your controller.

You tin also use Duo's cool feature called "spanning," which allows you to span the Xbox Game Pass app beyond both displays. However, this is not platonic because that pesky divider volition arrive the way. In ane instance, I had to shoot down tanks in Arkham Knight, but I couldn't see the on-screen target to aim and nail 'em into smithereens considering information technology was hiding behind the divider.

Bottom line

Although I prefer the Surface Duo for Xbox Game Pass, I don't see why many would opt to play made-for-panel games on smartphones. I often found myself squinting for love life on both smartphone screens — something I wouldn't accept to practice on a monitor or a gaming laptop.

Perchance smartphone cloud gaming could be beneficial for on-the-go folks who can afford a tiptop-of-the-line cellular network, merely frequent travelers are becoming more extinct due to our pandemic-affected world. Another scenario is a greenbacks-strapped gamer who can't afford expensive hardware and consequently must use their smartphone until they can purchase a higher-cease motorcar. Just other than these use cases, I don't see the advantages of the Xbox Game Pass mobile experience.

On the plus side, the Wing and Surface Duo provide special features that other unmarried-screen smartphones cannot offer: beastly multitasking on dual-screen displays. I ofttimes run to YouTube if I can't effigy out how to complete a level, then I could certainly see the usefulness of having a secondary screen for reference while gaming. Still, I can only see smartphone cloud gaming equally a last-resort alternative — non a primary platform for playing your favorite IPs.

Kimberly Gedeon, holding a Master's caste in International Journalism, launched her career every bit a journalist for MadameNoire'due south business crush in 2022. She loved translating stuffy stories most the economic system, personal finance and investing into digestible, piece of cake-to-understand, entertaining stories for young women of color. During her time on the business beat, she discovered her passion for tech equally she pigeon into articles about tech entrepreneurship, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the latest tablets. After viii years of freelancing, dabbling in a myriad of beats, she's finally found a home at Laptop Mag that accepts her as the crypto-fond, virtual reality-loving, investing-focused, tech-fascinated nerd she is. Woot!