Microsoft Surface Phone shows up in benchmark listing, still a prototype

While not much can be said about Microsoft’s smartphone sales these days, there are plenty of rumours about the company working on a Surface Phone. Well, just recently the smartphone showed up in a browser benchmark listing along with display specifications, which indicate that the product may be pretty far off in Microsoft’s release cycle. The browser benchmark listing appeared on benchmarking website HTML5test where the smartphone in question scored 401 out of 555, which is pretty much ok. The browser used was Microsoft’s Edge 12 and weirdly, the device was listed with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels. Indeed, this is a device stuck in the prototype stage and is nowhere near an immediate release. Panos Panay during Microsoft’s Surface launch also hinted at a Surface Phone, while Wired’s David Pierce also claimed that he did see a “prototype of a new phone” inside Microsoft’s premises. Yes, Microsoft could clearly be building one to complete it Surface ecosystem of devices, a premium device that will work seamlessly with the Surface Pro 4 and gel with the rest of its ecosystem. The problem is that Microsoft already has two of these and they come in the two flavours, the Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950 XL and these were announced just recently with the best hardware manufacturer’s had on offer, including liquid cooling for its Continuum feature. So why does a Microsoft Surface Phone need to exist? Well, the brand. And then there’s the fact that Microsoft can promote a complete ecosystem for selling its Windows 10 software, which is its current focus (for now). The smartphone (when ready) will sell only in specific markets, similar to the Surface tablets in typical Surface fashion. The rumour-mill suggests that Microsoft will be using familiar Intel chipsets in the Phone, since the architecture will be similar to tablets and desktops. Microsoft’s smartphone’s are not doing too well, even though the company launched Windows 10 for desktops with just a 1.7 percent market share as Gartner pointed out in recent report. But hey, they still sit above BlackBerry! Then again, things could change with the Android-powered Priv being rolled out. As for the rest of the Windows fans they can do equally well with a Qualcomm-powered Windows 10 smartphone.