Rumor: Microsoft building a Surface Mobile smartphone

Microsoft has been making software for smartphones for over a decade, but the company started selling its own smartphone hardware after acquiring Nokia's phone business. While Microsoft's phones don't have the Nokia name on them anymore, they do still use the Lumia brand name that originated with Nokia.

But according to WMPoweruser, Microsoft may be planning to launch a phone that's part of the Surface family of products. Up until now, the Surface name has been used exclusively for Microsoft's tablets.

Surface 3 tablet (rear)

So what would make the Surface Mobile different from a Microsoft Lumia phone? Well, it's rumored to have some pretty impressive specs including a high-resolution display, plenty of memory and storage, and high-quality cameras.

But I think the main thing that would make the phone qualify as a Surface product rather than a Lumia device would be the pen. It's said to come with a Surface Pen that would support pressure-sensitive input for writing or drawing. This would make the phone a Windows alternative to Samsung's Galaxy Note devices.

The phone is reportedly code-named "Project Juggernaut Alpha," and other features are said to include a 5.5 inch, 2560 x 1440 pixel AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 4, an Intel Atom x3 SoFIA processor, up to 4GB of RAM, up to 128GB of storage, a microSDXC card slot, a USB Type-C connector, wireless charging supports, a 21MP PureView Zeiss 6-lens camera, and an 8MP Zeiss wide-angle front-facing camera.

The phone's said to have a metal case and it'll ship with Windows 10 Mobile software in late 2015 or early 2016… you know, if it's real.

Source: Rumor: Microsoft building a Surface Mobile smartphone