Rumor streams doing the rounds of the tech street at the moment are that Microsoft is readying a Surface onslaught next year to reaffirm its stake in the hugely competitive smartphone segment. And that includes not one or two but three Surface devices that the Redmond company is believed to be working on.
Also, even though Microsoft has been consistently maintaining a storied silence on the issue, rumor mongers would like us to believe the upcoming Surface devices would be power packed featuring high-end specs that are being aimed squarely at the enterprise segment.
Microsoft Surface Phone Rumored Specs
Towards that, the base Surface device will pack in a 3 GB RAM while the next in line would come with twice the RAM capacity, which means six gigs of it. And the top end version will be having 8 GB of RAM, which coupled with the rumored 512 GB of onboard storage slots it right into Ultrabook category.
Also, each of the Surface phone devices will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor though an Atom X3 chip for at least one of the Surface phones is also being put forward.
The rest of the specs being touted include a 5.5-inch AMOLED display, USB Type-C port for charging or data transfer roles along with maybe liquid cooling technology as well, even though the last bit does seem a bit too extravagant. So far as the imaging capabilities are concerned, the Surface devices are likely to come with a 20MP rear snapper aided by Carl Zeiss lens.
That is not all as the handsets will also boast of support for Surface Pen which will further enhance their appeal among the business community. There is likely to be a host of onboard sensors as well which includes a fingerprint reader and/or iris scanner for secure logins, along with the usual features such as accelerometer, gyro, compass, barometer and proximity sensors.
As for the supporting OS, each of the three Surface Phones would be running Windows 10 sporting the latest Redstone 2 build. Experts opine that would allow the Windows 10 Phone platform to be compatible with Android and iOS apps to ensure there is enough app support to make owing the high-end Surface phones relevant enough.
Microsoft has already made it known they are working on what it has termed as the Bridge solution that will enable existing iOS and Android developers to port their existing app onto the Windows 10 platform with minimum coding. It has already been wooing developers with the Universal Windows Platform concept so that developers need to create apps for just the Windows 10 platform, irrespective of whether those are being run on a PC, tablet or a smartphone.
Surface Book 2 and Surface Pro 5 release date delayed till Q2 2017
Apart from the Surface Phone, also in the pipeline is a new Surface Book 2 along with the Surface Pro 5. Both were slated for a launch in fall this year but are reported to have been pushed back to spring or maybe even summer of 2017.
While nothing stands confirmed at the moment but it is believed Microsoft might have delayed the launch to allow for Intel’s new chips to fully mature. That also applies to the Windows 10 Redstone 2 build as well so that buyers get to have the best possible user experience.
