Microsoft Surface Phone? New leaks suggest it's still happening!

It was about a couple of years ago when Microsoft called it quits on the hardware side of the smartphone market and said it will focus on developing its software suite for mobile, continue to develop Windows 10 for all platforms, but leave phone-building to 3rd party manufacturers. The Lumia 950 and 950 XL were the last top-tier Windows phones made by Redmond itself.

But rumors that Microsoft is planning another top-tier phone just refuse to die. The so-called Surface Phone is a mythical creature that lives in legends that may or may not turn out to be true.

According to the rumor mill, it's a foldable smartphone, which can transform into a tablet when "opened" — kind of like the ZTE Axon M, which we recently reviewed. One of the main reasons why the rumors of the Surface Phone still live on is the fact that we keep seeing new patents, granted to Microsoft, that tie in with features of the alleged foldable device.

The Win Central has now stumbled upon a patent outlining a couple of different ways that a camera might work with one such phone. In one of them, we have the camera lens on one of the phone's halves and the imaging module on the other one. Both of them attach to each other via a magnetic connection when the device "closes" to go from tablet mode to phone mode. The second patent explains how the camera's secondary module would be concealed by a mechanical flap whenever the device is in an "open" state, so that's the module's internals don't show.



A Microsoft job opening for someone skilled in Qualcomm and Intel chipsets also hints that the company has a mobile device in store, It's speculated that the would-be phone will be powered by Andromeda — the Windows 10 for phones, which also supports ARM, a.k.a. it would be able to run desktop apps.

Last but not least, Windows enthusiast WalkingCat has spotted references to an unknown "Journal" app in Windows Whiteboard. There's also mention of a "left page and right page", which could mean the left and right screen parts of the foldable Surface Phone.

hmm... the Whiteboard app contains some references to the 'Journal' app, "left and right page" ?

"This is the accessibility title for the journal application which consists of a left and right page for content creation."

— WalkingCat (@h0x0d) December 8, 2017