Microsoft Surface Phone in 2017?

If reports are to be believed, the phone will feature the new Redstone 2 and might have intel x86 chips. Lumia line to be killed.

In a Windows Central report, blogger Daniel Rubino claimed that Microsoft might launch a Surface Phone in 2017.

The rumour mill is abuzz with a lot of speculations regarding the date of release, the features that this phone might boast of.

Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Caspossela’s statement back in December 2015 also points out and justifies this speculation of a Surface Phone appearing on the scene. Caspossela had said, “We need more breakthrough work. With Surface, we had a bunch of early misfires, but that notion of a tablet that could replace your laptop — that notion of saying, ‘Hey, Apple wants to sell you an iPad and they want to sell you a Mac, we think there’s one device that exploits the seam between those two devices’ — we need some sort of spiritual equivalent on the phone side that doesn’t just feel like a phone for people who love Windows”.

Surface phones seem to be the “breakthrough” device that Caspossela was talking about. This seems to be one of the most clear cut official indications of a Surface Phone being on it’s way.

More ‘news’ about the Surface Phone started ricocheting across the internet during the release of the original Surface Pro tablet. Fans were eager for something akin to Windows’ desktop platform than what the then-current Windows smartphones offered.

The hardware in many early Windows phones had been good, but on the flip side, Windows Phones lacked strong third party infrastructure to compete with Android and iOS.

Now, with the Surface Phone, hopes are up again.

The release might happen in 2017, and if the reports are to be believed then this delay is because of the fact that the Surface Phone might run on Redstone 2 whose launch is also being delayed time and again.

If the leaks and reports are to be believed then this phone will sport a 5.5 inch Quad HD AMOLED display with 2560x1440 resolution. It will supposedly be powered by an Intel Atom x3 processor, have 4 GB memory, bear a microSD card slot and carry a 21 megapixel rear camera. The phone is said to pack USB Type-C connectivity and even feature liquid cooling technology.

Bear in mind, these are all possible specs. Things change. These may, too.

Keep in mind, with a new Surface Phone emerging, it is highly likely that the Microsoft Lumia series will be killed off by the company. This could be because of the simple reason that Windows 10 is still evolving and improving. Microsoft needs time to feature a comeback with a strong product that can make its presence felt in the market and for this the OEM partners definitely need some time to create new hardware.

Lumia line still holds a strong ground of about 97% at the Windows phone market. Therefore, in order to expand Microsoft’s ecosystem, Lumia will need to exit the market, and people’s consciousness.

The report on Windows Central blog cites sources from Microsoft, and claims that the Surface phone might come in three different varieties targeting three different user groups namely: Consumer, Business and Enthusiast. This, in turn, implies that each variant would be priced differently based on the basis of the user group it’s targeting. The three variants of the phone will be unique from each other in terms of software and hardware features.

If this turns out to be true, then this can be taken as materializing of the ideas that Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella had hinted at in July 2015 regarding the hardware plans for Windows:
“We plan to narrow our focus to three customer segments where we can make unique contributions and where we can differentiate through the combination of our hardware and software. We’ll bring business customers the best management, security and productivity experiences they need; value phone buyers the communications services they want; and Windows fans the flagship devices they’ll love”.

Reports from Windows Central also hint at a possible partnership between Intel and Microsoft to make x86 apps available on Surface phone. What this means in simpler English is that the smartphone comes equipped to perform all that a desktop can perform with x86 chip — which itself is definitely more powerful than the current Qualcomm Snapdragons.

The problem, however, is that while the Surface tablets harbored the square footage necessary to substitute a desktop, the 5.5 inch display a Surface Phone reportedly will have wouldn’t cut it when projecting a desktop OS.

How much of it all will see the light depend entirely on the time to come and of course on Microsoft and Panos Panay.

If the Surface Phone really does surface then all we would hope is that it follows in the footsteps of its predecessor Surface Pro, packing in a lot of utility and bringing PC features to mobile in a user friendly way. Surface Phones will also be a ray of hope for the Windows Phones as a whole.

There’s more wishful thinking — the Surface Phone, Surface Pro 5 and Surface Book 2 might also see light on the same platform.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.