When Microsoft announced the Surface Duo was only available US I looked at options to get Microsoft’s dual screen device into the UK. The Duo isn’t available in outside of the US at the moment but there are few options to bring one in, and once you have a device how well does it work with the UK phone network?
You could have friend in the US that could order one and send it over to you. You will have to pay import duty (20% VAT on the device value).
A few US companies offer an import service and BigAppleBuddy.com is one of them. The process is simple, you go on their site pick your device and then enter your shipping details. The 128GB Duo costs $1399.99 (the same as the US Microsoft Store) and then you pay for delivery and their handing charge ($50). Depending on your location the shipping will be around $50-$130 depending on how fast you want the delivery.
When you import the Surface Duo once the device gets to the UK you will be asked for customs details (eg your name and address) and get charged import duty which is 20% of the item value. Once you pay that to Fedex they will deliver the device. It is a simple (but expensive) process.
Will a Surface Duo work in the UK?
Once you have a Duo will it work in the UK? I have an O2 SIM card in the device and it works fine with 4G data and voice calls. Other networks like Vodafone and EE should also work but I haven’t test them yet. The Duo isn’t a 5G device so no need to worry about that.
In terms of the setup UK English is fully supported on the Duo, you can pick UK English during the out of the box experience of the device.
Worth the risk?
There are some risks import a device like this. If the device breaks you are going to have to pay to get it back to the US to get it fixed. Online support shouldn’t be a problem but physical fixes are going to cost you.
So overall the process is simple but expensive but once you get hold of the device it should work without any issues in the UK. Worth the risk? Well that is up to you but its very interesting device.
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