Microsoft Surface Phone is one of the most awaited smartphones as the company has not released a flagship smartphone after the launch of Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL flagships that were launched in 2015. Since the Surface branded devices like Surface Book, Surface Pro and Surface Studio have gained good popularity, the Redmond giant is heavily pegged to introduce a Surface branded phone.
Even though the company is rumored to be working on a Surface phone, no official details or leaked information are available on its specifications and features. A recent patent from Microsoft does give us a hint on what can be expected from a Surface Phone. The patent suggests that the Surface Phone may be arriving with a foldable display.
From the images that have surfaced through the patent listing, the Microsoft device appears like a tablet that can be folded at the center. The patent is known as Display Device and it was approved to Microsoft Technology Licensing. The patent details are available here.
Microsoft has killed its Lumia line of smartphones. The Surface branded phone is expected to be an enterprise based device that may support desktop apps. Previous reports have revealed that one of the major USPs of the upcoming Surface Phone would be Continuum, a feature that was already introduced through Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL phones.
Continuum allows users to take advantage of full-fledged desktop experience by connecting the phone to an external screen, mouse, and keyboard through a dock. Samsung is heavily pegged to offer a similar feature called DeX (Desktop Experience) on Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ and even Apple is expected to offer the similar feature in the near future.
As of this writing, Samsung and LG are also rumored to be working on a foldable device. Samsung’s foldable phone is expected to arrive with Galaxy X moniker. The South Korean company is expected to release its prototypes to carriers and retailers in Q3 this year. Even though Microsoft does not have a flagship phone to take on the Galaxy S8 duo and the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone 8, it seems that the company would enter a fierce battle with the release of foldable smartphones.