Surface Phone is the first smartphone from Microsoft to be developed outside the Lumia line. This device first became known in October 2015, but since then, no official information has been received about it.
But rumors don't just appear, so we are sure that the Surface Phone will definitely debut this year and will definitely be included in the list.
We bring to your attention information about the Surface Phone, which will be updated as new news and rumors become available.
Initially, the release of the phone was supposed to take place in May 2016, however, the development of the Surface Phone was suspended, as a result of which the planned date was postponed indefinitely. At the moment, work on the new product is in full swing, and most likely the release date of the Microsoft Surface Phone will be at the end of 2016. As for the start of sales in Russia, judging by the release of Lumia models, it will take place simultaneously with other countries.
The announcement of the Surface Phone could take place as early as September at the IFA exhibition in Berlin.
The Surface Phone's design will likely be consistent with the rest of the Surface line (laptops and tablets) and look like a miniature version of a tablet. The image below is the vision of the model by designer Nadir Aslam (the picture in the header of this article is also his work)
There are no official images of the smartphone yet.
As for the technical characteristics of the Surface Phone, according to rumors, the new product will have a 64-bit processor from Intel, a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels, 4 GB of RAM, a 21-megapixel camera and 64 GB or 128 GB of memory for data storage. The smartphone will run Windows 10.
The price of the Surface Phone, of course, is still unknown. Stay tuned for more news and rumors about the Microsoft Surface Phone.
At the moment, the mobile device market does not have a wide variety of operating systems. These are the well-known Android, which differs only in proprietary shells from some manufacturers, and the Apple operating system iOS. At one time, Microsoft tried to promote devices based on the mobile version of Windows, but then this endeavor did not end well. But Microsoft did not completely abandon the idea, and soon rumors appeared about a new device based on Windows 10 with many interesting features - the Surface Phone. And recently the date for the presentation of the long-awaited smartphone became known.
Exclusive information about the upcoming Surface Phone was shared by Thurrot, citing its own sources that were not disclosed. According to information, several code names associated with the Surface Phone are in use within Microsoft: Libra, Carmel and Andromeda. The new operating system will indeed be based on an optimized and polished version of Windows 10. This version is called Andromeda, although it is possible that it will only be temporary. But the operating system will not be the key feature of the Surface Phone.
Developers at Microsoft are experimenting with the appearance of the mobile device to offer the public something more than a non-standard aspect ratio and unusually positioned cameras. And the corporation is going to rely on a folding screen, allowing you to turn the device into a kind of mini-computer. To further emphasize this feature, Microsoft developers will make it possible to connect the Surface Phone directly to a monitor, blurring the line between a mini-computer and a full-fledged computer.
As for the release date, the official presentation of the Surface Phone will not take place soon. If you believe the data obtained by Thurrot, then this is the end of next year - November or December 2019. Soon after the presentation, sales of the new product will start. Naturally, the Surface Phone will not be one of the budget and affordable mobile devices, and its price will easily exceed the $1,000 mark.
As a result, despite rumors circulating online about the cancellation of Surface Phone production, Microsoft intends to bring their project to completion. And in a little more than a year, a new device will appear on the mobile device market, capable of serving as both a self-sufficient smartphone and a personal computer. It is worth noting that not only Microsoft is developing devices with a bendable screen; at least two more companies are working in the same direction - Samsung and Apple. And it is possible that we will see a different implementation of the Microsoft concept much earlier, but from a different manufacturer.
The head of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, recently hinted that in the near future his corporation will launch completely new smartphones on the market that will change the world's understanding of this class of devices. We were, of course, talking about the flagship smartphone Surface Phone, which is currently being developed deep within Microsoft. This device will be based on the top-end Snapdragon 830 chipset and equipped with 8 GB of RAM.
Perhaps the only advantage of this mobile device will be its operating system – Windows 10. It is this that will allow you to run all computer programs and games on your smartphone, even if they are not adapted for placement in the Windows Store. According to Microsoft, the Surface Phone smartphone, equipped with a USB Type-C port, will connect to a special adapter, and then to a monitor, keyboard, mouse and other input and output devices.
No matter how hard Microsoft tries, it will definitely not be able to launch a revolutionary smartphone on the market. Of course, it will be able to release a product for a certain market niche, like the Surface Pro tablets, but it won’t go further than that. Samsung has already released the Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones, which can be connected to a proprietary DeX docking station and then to a monitor. This entire design allows you to turn your flagship mobile device into a computer with a full-fledged web browser and dozens of other applications for office work.
The Surface Phone, like any other premium Microsoft product, will cost more than $1,000 in the United States, and in Russia and dozens of other countries the price tag for the new product will be even higher. If a buyer, when paying money for an iPhone, pays not only for the hardware itself, a recognizable appearance, a huge number of first-class applications in the App Store, but also for the Apple ecosystem, then when buying equipment, he can only count on good technical equipment and a unique design .
Note that almost all new Microsoft products that the company introduced to the consumer market turned out to be failures. This fate befell the Lumia line of smartphones, the Windows 10 Mobile operating system and many other products, including the entire line of Surface RT tablets.
If Microsoft manages to sell at least 1 million Surface Phone smartphones, which still will not recoup the costs of their development and production, and then they are again considered “unsuccessful,” then a whole million of their owners will again find themselves deceived, because the devices will end up in their hands , which no one will ever update to a new operating system, and the Windows Store will forever remain a place for third-rate developers. So who needs this Surface Phone, which is doomed to fail even before the official announcement?
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Estimated technical details of the new Microsoft Surface smartphone have been revealed, which will be released in the fall of 2017 at a price from $699 to $1.1 thousand.
According to the WinBeta resource, the production of Lumia smartphones based on Windows Phone OS may be completely discontinued in 2017. However, this does not mean that Microsoft will leave the mobile business.
According to International Business Times, the corporation will present a new Surface smartphone in October 2017 (remember, Microsoft planned to release the Windows 10 Redstone 3 update in October).
The cost of the gadget will be from $699 to $1.1 thousand. Previously, analysts predicted that in the near future Microsoft may switch from smartphones running Windows Phone OS to smartphones running Windows OS. It is expected that Surface Phone will run on Windows 10, which will ensure integration of the gadget with other devices on this operating system. “If Microsoft manages to implement such a cross-platform OS project, it will change not only the future of the company, but also the algorithm for the habitual use of smartphones,” the publication notes.
Journalists also summarized the expected technical characteristics of the new Microsoft smartphone. Firstly, the smartphone will fold. It is possible that it will be its display that bends. A similar technology may be used by the South Korean company Samsung in the future Galaxy X. In addition, the smartphone will have a “Tent Mode” - the ability to fold it into a “house” by placing it on a table with the fold up. Note that Lenovo Yoga tablets have a similar mode.
The smartphone will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor - model 830 or 835. The second of them is created using a 10 nm process technology and provides longer battery life and better performance compared to 14 nm technology.
In addition to running Windows 10, Surface Phone will also be compatible with the Surface Pen stylus. As for USB and other ports, it is expected that the 3.5 mm audio jack will be removed (which is already becoming a trend), and instead the device will be equipped with a USB-C port. It will simultaneously serve both to charge the gadget and as an audio output.
Surface Phone will also be the first smartphone to feature an improved, smarter version of the Cortana voice assistant. It is expected that the gadget will be equipped with a 5.7-inch Quad HD display, 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal memory and a 21-megapixel camera.
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Various rumors about the Microsoft Surface Phone smartphone have been circulating on the Internet for quite some time. At different times, various features and a release date were attributed to this device, but so far no reliable information has appeared.
According to new data, the release of the Surface Phone should not be expected in the near future. One of the former employees of a Microsoft contractor said that this device could appear in 2018 or even 2019. This is because this will be a new generation smartphone. And this phrase here implies a new generation for the entire market.
Judging by the source, this will be the world's first smartphone to implement the Windows 10 concept on the ARM platform. There are no details, but this wording may imply that the Surface Phone will run full Windows 10 or some adapted version of it, and not Windows 10 Mobile.
Let us remind you that this year the first Windows 10 PCs based on the Snapdragon SoC should appear on the market. Apparently, the same concept will be implemented in the Surface Phone smartphone. However, given the average smartphone screen size, using Windows 10 on such a device will be extremely inconvenient without adapting the interface. In the end, all this fits into a completely logical picture. Microsoft simply needs a lot of time to come up with and implement an adapted form of a desktop operating system that could be conveniently used on a smartphone. And then such a device will truly become a new generation, because without any reservations or restrictions it will be possible to connect it to a monitor, mouse and keyboard and use full-fledged Windows 10.
