Dell is supposedly making a Windows 10 smartphone/laptop kind of device, a “Surface Phone” if you will, according to a brand new report.
The device is supposedly packing two displays, and a Snapdragon 845 variation from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 850, which will power a bunch of ARM-based Windows computers this year.
It may sound strange to hear that Dell is working on a smartphone of its own, but this wouldn’t be the first time Dell is doing it. All the way back in Android’s dark ages, Dell was the first company to create a large-screen device, the Dell Streak. The phone preceded the Galaxy Note by more than a year, but Dell’s phone never saw similar fame. The Note became the first “phablet,” and the Streak was forgotten.
Dell has been working on and off on this Windows 10 device since last summer. Codenamed Dell “Januss,” the product features two screens, according to WinFuture, although it’s unclear how these screens are arranged. They could be connected by a hinge, like the ZTE Axon M’s screens for example. Or they could be found on opposite sides of one of the phone’s halves. That way, the user could interact with a display both in phone and laptop mode.
The report makes it clear this isn’t an ARM-based Windows computer, as it packs the kind of hardware only seen on smartphones, including a gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass. The device also comes with LTE support and a USB-C port.
The Snapdragon 850 processor, meanwhile, clocks around 3.0GHz, the report notes, and it’ll power other Windows devices later this year, from Lenovo, Asus, and HP.
It’s unclear whether Dell’s “Surface Phone” will launch this year or later down the road. Microsoft has been rumored to have a Surface Phone in the works for a few years, but the company is yet to announce one.
