Microsoft Surface Phone release date in 2017 as company needs more time to perfect new 'breakthrough' smartphone

Washington: Microsoft hopes to give a boost to its smartphone business with the launch of the Surface Phone. Given the huge success of the Surface Pro tablets and Surface Book laptops, Microsoft may be discontinuing its current Lumia lineup in exchange for new Surface Phone devices.

While many customers are already anticipating the release of the Surface Phone, latest reports reveal that the new smartphone from the Redmond-based firm is unlikely to arrive until early 2017.

As per Windows Central, an extended release date will enable Microsoft to first fully develop its new Windows 10 Mobile OS. Microsoft still has a lot of work to do before its OS is ready to contend against the Android and iOS platforms.

Rumored specs include a 5.5-inch display with a 2,560 x 1440 screen resolution and AMOLED technology, 4GB of RAM, a 21-megapixel primary camera, and 8-megapixel front-facing camera and Surface Pen support.

Just recently, Microsoft also included Qualcomm processors in its list of processors that would offer compatibility with the Windows 10 Mobile OS. This could mean that the Surface Phone would be powered by the Snapdragon 830 or 823 processor.

Till now, Microsoft has not made any official statements regarding the Surface Phone. However, Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Chris Caposella suggested the existence of a Surface Phone during a Windows Weekly podcast last December 2015.

Caposella explained, "We need more breakthrough work... with Surface we had a bunch of early misfires, but that notion of a tablet that could replace your laptop... we need some sort of spiritual equivalent on the phone side that doesn't just feel like a phone for people who love Windows. It has got to be a phone that's sort of like 'wow, that's a real shocker,' or 'that's a real breakthrough,' and has got to make me pause before I buy my 17th iPhone, and we need time to actually go build that."

Source: Microsoft Surface Phone release date in 2017 as company needs more time to perfect new 'breakthrough' smartphone