Duet Air Reviews

Before purchasing, I reached out to the developers to confirm DuetAir would work with my device, a ~7year old iPad.

I followed all the instructions and used the Apple certified cable, and while there was some friction at times, it largely worked (March 2021). Fast forward 2 months, with my exact same setup, I couldn’t get the thing to connect. I paid for the $20 duet air, not knowing what the difference was at the time (can connect via WiFi, not just with cable), and no matter what I did, with a cable or WiFi, I couldn’t connect.

So at this point I reached out to customer service, and if you’re like me and trying to use a second monitor to work remotely, then you’ll understand responding a day or two later just doesn’t cut it.

Without going too much further, iTunes wouldn’t help in this instance either.

Looking back, I wished I never paid $20 for this and would recommend you stay away and look for non-apple/iTunes solutions.

Never mentioned that I have to setup account and give payment data before even open an app. Registration e-mail directing to the site to choose subscription for hundreds of dollars.
I skipped that, then app asking to choose less expensive subscription even before I have an opportunity to use free try period.
Afraid they will charge even if I try to cancel subscription.

No, thanx

You go through the process and sign up but that’s about as far as you go. You need to choose a subscription service before doing anything else. There are a few others I decided to try out first and actually worked so I paid for that instead.

EDIT to developer’s response-at least make it free to try out. None of that subscription or subscription for 7 days. You literally download it, download and install on your computer and then you can’t do anything else except choose a subscription. There are no free features except taking up space on your phone. Don’t make it seem like you are giving users any functions. No functions at all until you subscribe. Waste of time and a lost sale from me.

I actually found this on my Mac. I downloaded and installed it on there, no problem. It asked me to create an account. Sure thing. Then I realize that I have to install DuetAir on my iPad. No problem. I download and install it, I’m asked to sign in and low and behold...there it is, the prompt to select what kind of subscription service I’d like. Instead of having people download, create an account and go through all the loops, it would be helpful if they were up front and mentioned this is a subscription service only. What a waste of time. Everyone wants a piece of the “subscription pie”. Not to mention that newer iPads can already extend their desktop natively from macOS. What a rip off.

After downloading and opening DuetAir , it asks you to create an account. After you do that and verify your email, it takes you to the next page where it gives you the 2 options for paid memberships. No alternative option to try DuetAir before signing up for a subscription. This may not have been an issue if there was some type of indication that there was no free trial before asking people to enter their personal information. Low rating due to being shady about obtaining private information.

Few pieces of feedback from a Windows user. If these were fixed it'd be a 5 star app.

1) When Windows locks the iPad screen via Duet Air closes and upon unlocking all of the windows that were on the iPad display move back to the main monitor. This doesn't happen with my main external monitor through HDMI

2) On a similar topic, when I move to a different app on my iPad with the Duet Air still open it closes out all of the windows when I get back

The above two issues may sound simple, but they significantly deteriorate the work flow which is the primary of using this service. Especially considering how frequently my PC is locked and unlocked throughout the day.

I read the description for DuetAir and I was like- it really sounds like they have found a way to make using the apple pencil with an older ipad possible. i wanted to try using apple pencil before buying, none of the documentation was clear if it would work with my older ipad- your language is (intentionally?) vague and it took me an hour to find on ANOTHER site that says it is indeed only with Pro ipads, and it was only after installing that I figured out that there is no way to even try out the pro version. So, not a great experience. It looks pretty intentional that you didn’t clearly state that somewhere, that the pencil only works with pro ipads, so thats a negative experience for me. Just say it- pencil only works w pro ipads. No, its not enough that the name is “pro” thats not clear with your vague language around saying it makes it so the apple pencil works for drawing.

Don’t download DuetAir. Terrible! If you want to do simple things then DuetAir is ok. Anything that requires you to watch a video or adjust to anything else and DuetAir crashes consistently. I am very disappointed and wish I didn’t pay for the subscription. After reading more reviews I wouldn’t choose DuetAir or even recommend to anyone else. Extremely disappointed

I go back and forth with DuetAir because when it’s working, it’s great! I love that I can expand my screen without having to buy a whole new desktop/monitor, and that makes my work more efficient. But when I can’t get it to work, it’s extremely frustrating. I think I’ve paid for the Pro version twice now, and can still barely get Duet Air to work. I have a PC/laptop and an iPad Pro, and wired connection between the two typically works fine. However, I’ve only had the wireless connection over Duet Air connect successfully for me once or twice since I purchased it. I am connected to the same network on both devices and DuetAir is up-to-date on both, but still no luck. I’ve tried resetting, restarting, re-installing, everything. I recently requested to reset my password to be able to log in (because my account is locked for some reason??), but the link they emailed me didn’t even work (it just says that you need to be signed in to access this URL... which isn’t helpful). If I could just stop having issues with DuetAir, it would easily be a 5/5 stars from me!

Tech support and customer service was TOP NOTCH! I had no connection problems using DuetAir wirelessly but there was too much lag (wired and wireless) to use this effectively for any kind of drawing or design work. Also, pressure sensitivity does not function in older versions of Photoshop.

In response to the reply:
Thank you for that suggestion, however I spent 4 days and 28 emails trying to get it to function with tech support and was told I needed to update to a current version of Photoshop, which I am unable to do financially.

I use this daily for work. Definitely worth the subscription as long as you are using it to make money! Once in a while get black screens or I have to restart DuetAir to get it to launch , but it’s given even more life to my aging iPad Pro!

I am using my 11inch iPad Pro as a second display for my windows desktop.

Works almost perfectly wired and wirelessly. It isn’t without lag, but it is certainly miles better than those free apps.

My one complaint is scaling. You can set it to pixel perfect resolution, however, i use custom scaling for my primary monitor. SO if you want the highest resolution but larger text size..it wont work.

For things to be large enough to read you have to use a lower resolution, but it still looks good. I tried setting the scaling separately for the second display but it just keeps messing up the scaling on my primary monitor.

when it works. Which is consistently and solidly with a wire. In my case, usb c out of a surface book 2 to usb c in on an 11” iPad Pro.

Over the air is another matter. It doesn’t make great use of available bandwidth AND DuetAir takes a long time to sort itself about before settling in. Even then over the air there are many dropped frames and it’s not really useable.

So my main issue is marketing it as an “air” solution. It’s not great when wireless. Wired? Awesome!

Might be hardware related but my mouse for the iPad will treat a click that holds as touch input and can screw up my attempted input in the process. Not sure how to fix it.

I use DuetAir a lot, and it crashes a lot. Can't figure out why, or what causes it, but when it crashes, DuetAir just closes and I have to open it again. Sometimes it will go 20 minutes without crashing, sometimes it's like 3 seconds. I keep using it because it's really good when it works. Low latency, great resolution, zooming and panning. Wish it was consistent, it would be an easy 5 stars.

Edit: developers helped me out, turns out when you use the connect option from your iPad, it works differently than when you use the connect option from your desktop. It worked much better when I used it by connecting from the desktop application. Haven't had a crash since. My only real complaint is that DuetAir features are different depending on how you connect.

Duet creates a second monitor for my PC laptop. iPad is already fantastic, but the added functionality is practically flawless when used with a wired connection. While a second monitor is a two edged sword when it comes to productivity, there are certain tasks that the extra screen makes much more efficient. Add in the remote access capability, and it is an app that largely delivers on its promise.

I was surprised and how easy it was to get this working and how well it works for my needs. I use my iPad as a teleprompter to project my Zoom meetings on a beam splitter in front of my camera. It works great. I get to look my callers in the eye and focus on them for the entire call. And I do it with an extended, 3rd display with my MacBook Pro. Couldn’t be happier and way cheaper than the alternatives.

I have been using Duet for about 9 months and love the flexibility it offers. I encountered my first issue and reached out via email “during off hours”. I was pleasantly surprised by a speedy response and resolution! I was back up and working faster than ever anticipated. Thank you, Hector!

Have you ever paid for an app that you liked but eventually had an issue and felt that you were speaking into a black hole? That doesn’t happen with this product and team.

I rely on DuetAir daily when I travel to avoid carrying my professional and personal devices with me. It is the best Remote Desktop app I’ve used, and have tried most all of them.

I recently had an issue with app’s functionality when accessing from my iPad. I emailed support, received a response within the same day, and eventually by going through checks and suggestions the client service representative made was able to get things back to normal.

All too rare to have good experiences like this. Kudos for a great product and great customer support. Thank you!

I’ve used it for about 6 months. There was a period of time (about 2 weeks) where an issue popped up, I think it was something related to a windows update, and I had issues. However that problem was fixed in the newest version.

I use the “mirror monitor” feature daily as part of my work— there’s 1-2 times per day when I need to mirror one of my desktop monitors onto my iPad. It’s been a major productivity boost.