The design process and story of Surface Note...

The first 3D model below was created in February 2017 - The approach to the design of Surface Note was as an aspirational design for a future device. The design has shifted a few times, it started as a folding screen design below that focused more on a phone that becomes a tablet with a pen that tucks neatly into the device. The folding display would double the Surface Note's display. The form factor was similar to my Lumia 950 XL (I miss that phone) and when opened would double the display area. Ultimately this design had its challenges with reality in this size of device and forced the folding display to be too thin. I iterated on it a few times giving it a Arc Mouse looking hinge but again it was too thin and favored the phone form factor over the tablet. The kickstand also seemed unnecessary given the space it ate up in the internal stack up.