Article · AI translation
IT Home reported on October 28 that tech outlet Windows Latest published a post yesterday (October 27) sharing more images from developer @none24smu showing a Microsoft Surface Duo 2 phone successfully running iOS 26.
The Microsoft Surface Duo 2 is a dual-screen Android phone Microsoft released in 2021. It is the second and final product in the Surface Duo series. It has two 5.8-inch OLED screens connected by a hinge, which, when unfolded, provide a roughly 8.3-inch “dual-screen tablet” experience.
It should be noted that this was not achieved through an emulator: the developer is running Apple's iOS 26 natively on a Surface Duo. In a post published today (October 28), the developer also said they are working on adapting iOS 27.
To make the port work, the developer used Apple's open-source XNU kernel and a custom UEFI loader, and made the device identify itself as an “iPhone 17 Pro Max.”
The developer needed to compile the XNU kernel from source, write drivers for the Qualcomm processor, and build a translation layer from the Metal graphics API to Vulkan so that the Surface Duo 2's Adreno 660 GPU could run iOS graphics instructions.
Because the Snapdragon 888 does not support Apple's pointer authentication mechanism, the developer also removed about 29.6 million pointer signatures and rewrote some arm64e code as arm64. IT Home has included the relevant images below:
In images shared by the developer, the “About” page in Settings on the Surface Duo after iOS 26 was ported to it shows the system version as iOS 26.5.2, the model as “iPhone 17 Pro Max,” and memory capacity as 5GB. The serial number, Wi-Fi address, and Bluetooth information all appear as “N/A.”
According to reports, the ported version of iOS 26.5.2 can now light up both screens of the Surface Duo 2 at the same time, and touch input works normally. The system treats the two screens as a single canvas, allowing apps such as Settings to span both screens and displaying iOS 26's Liquid Glass interface effects.
However, the project is still in an early research stage: the wallpaper displays incorrectly, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth information is blank, and some parts of the interface have graphical errors. The phone app's numeric keypad is also obscured by the device's hinge.
Microsoft ended support for the Surface Duo 2 in October 2024, but this porting project has brought renewed attention to the abandoned device. The developer said the project took about two months and that they also used AI tools to understand some of the XNU kernel's mechanisms along the way. Next, they plan to make the Surface Pen emulate an Apple Pencil and try to port iOS 27.
Related reading:
“Paving the way to Apple's doorstep: Developer successfully gets Microsoft's Surface Duo 2 running iOS / iPadOS 26”