Microsoft Surface phone patent features metal-based body; device may launch this year

The Microsoft Surface Pro laptopMicrosoft/Surface

The Surface Phone has long been in the works at Microsoft, and it was even expected to officially come out last year as well. Naturally, seeing how things turned out last year, it did not happen and instead, Microsoft is aiming for the Surface Phone to be unveiled within the year. 

Since the plans for the Surface Phone have already come up, it was subject to rumors and speculation as to what features it would include. Would it give the Samsung Galaxy smartphones and the Apple iPhones a run for their money?  

Some of the possible specs of the Surface Phone include a 5.7 inch high-definition display, and will most likely run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC chips. Naturally, as it is a Microsoft device, it will definitely be running on Windows 10. Microsoft is also expected to come out with not one, but three versions of the Surface Phone which cater to different niches; the Consumer Edition, the Business Edition, and the Enthusiast Edition. 

As there are three versions of the Surface Phone, users can expect that the features will vary as well, excluding the basic apps and settings. Although one Surface Phone will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, expect that the other two Surface Phones might differ internally as well. The two other phones might feature the Snapdragon 820 or the Snapdragon 821 chips. 

As for the cameras, the rear camera will be at 12 megapixels while the front camera has 8 megapixels. The phone will have a USB-C port, and have 128 GB of storage space plus 6 GB of random access memory (RAM). 

Meanwhile, Microsoft recently filed a patent that suggests a metallic body for the Surface Phone, which doubles as an antenna. It was created by Antti Karilainen, the Antenna and Radio Frequency Expert at Microsoft. It was titled "Cover of Device Acting as the Antenna of the Device." 

This patent seems unusual. However, knowing that the Surface Phone is rumored to be foldable, this might be to make sure that potential users will not have any issues regarding the smartphone's signal strength.