The American multinational conglomerate Microsoft is eyeing to release a new Surface device this year; however, it is not yet clear whether it would be the much-anticipated Surface Phone.
A recent twitter post by Indian app developer Shuban Chembukar indicates that Microsoft is working on numerous Surface devices, though no added detail whether what type of device it is, The Verge has learned. On his recent visit at Microsoft's 88 building, he saw a Microsoft wall dedicated to all the devices that the company released, which includes a placeholder for the current Surface Book, Surface Pro 4 and the updated Surface Pen.
In addition to the current products of Microsoft, the images shows an intriguing placeholders for 2016 and 2017, which is captioned "coming soon." After the said tweet was posted, fans begin to speculate that Microsoft is working on something big, which may be the much-awaited Surface Phone, although Microsoft has yet to confirm or deny it.
Although no solid details have been released about Microsoft's upcoming Surface Phone, rumor has it that the smartphone will be equipped with the latest Snapdragon 821, 20MP Carl Zeiss primary snapper and a Windows 10 OS. According to The News Independent, Surface Phone will be offered in three variants - Basic, Advanced and Pro.
Surface Phone Basic will be equipped with 4GB of RAM backed by 64GB built-in storage, Surface Phone Advanced will be sporting 6GB RAM backed by 128GB storage capacity, while Surface Phone Pro will be equipped with 8GB of RAM coupled with 512GB ROM. In terms of its release, it is said that Surface Phone may be released third quarter of 2016 or spring of 2017.
Meanwhile, other than working on a Surface Phone, it is said that the company will be releasing an all-new Surface 2-in-1 device. The placeholder for 2016 is said to be an indication that Microsoft is prepping up to unveil an all-in-on (AIO) PC, which is an alternative device for Surface Book 2. According to DigiTimes, with Microsoft's success in delivering 2-in-1 devices to consumer market, the company is set to launch an AIO PC starting Q3 2016 to further its laplet series success.