(Leaked photo of the upcoming Surface Phone)
Looks like Microsoft is serious about the Surface Phone. They have effectively killed the hardware division and the existing mobile OS but now they appear to be committing themselves into Windows Mobile 10 Redstone 2 which is what the Surface Phone will be using.
I am still interested in the Surface Phone because of its promise in one-OS-for-all. It used to be the case that the ecosystem (apps) was the most important factor to succeed in the mobile sector but once you reach past certain number of apps, the return diminishes. Assuming that Microsoft can build the ecosystem to this “minimum” level, users will look for other things and in my case, a unified OS just might do the trick.
The Surface Phone appears to come (optional?) with a keyboard case. A USB-C appears to be present, which should not surprise anyone. There is a headphone jack at the top and a dual LED flash. The back camera will use Carl Zeiss lens and uses 20MP sensor. The selfie camera will use more conservative 8MP sensor. The screen will be 5.7-inch, a 2K display.
Overall design is very Nokia-like which is ok as IMO, their phones always looked nice. Not sure if we need that keyboard on the case though with all the nice soft keyboards available. It will use the Windows Mobile 10 Redstone 2.
In terms of capacity, Microsoft wants to produce 3 levels of hardware. The entry level version will feature 3GB Ram and 32GB internal storage. The mid range version will feature 6GB of Ram and 128GB storage. The top of the line model will feature 8GB of Ram and ridiculous (for a phone), 500GB of internal storage. I would not be surprised if the top end stops at 256GB instead. A 3000mAh battery will power all three variants.
Looks like Microsoft is going all-in with this one even on the processor side. It will be powered by soon-to-be-released Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 chipset which will represent the highest performance tier by the time the phone is released.
Kent Beck is an American software engineer and the creator of extreme programming, a software development methodology that eschews rigid formal specifications for a collaborative and iterative design process. Wikipedia
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