This new Microsoft design patent is unlikely to be the Surface phone

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

File this under 'c'mon dude', but here it goes. The site Patently Apple has picked up on a new design patent given to Microsoft under the USPTO date for December 6, 2016. The USPTO document reveals a few generic drawings of your standard Lumia-like smartphone – any smartphone – with a display and slightly curved body.

Patently Apple goes a bit heavy with the speculation especially since their earlier find from February shared some resemblance of what was eventually Surface Studio. I call that luck as most patent filings rarely become actual products. Back to this patent, no information about the features, hardware, or materials used are mentioned making the filing pretty basic.

Oddly, the Patently Apple author goes on a tangent about pens, Apple, Samsung, and how Microsoft could be bringing inking to Mobile (a forgone conclusion already). They then cite FIG. 7 with the following conclusion labeled in their image:

However, what we can clearly see is that a Surface smartphone is likely to support their Surface Pen. Like the Samsung Note-styled embodiment, a slot has been designed into the body of the design at the top.

Of course, to our eyes, it only looks like a standard 3.5mm headphone jack like the kind you used to find on every smartphone in the world. I'm not sure when we started confusing headphone jacks with pen slots. 2016 is a weird year, and I suppose Apple fans have already moved on from 'headphone-gate' by forgetting it ever existed? I dunno.

Tiny hole for a giant Surface pen or just a headphone jack? You decide (but it's the latter).

The bottom of the phone has a single port, which again looks like an old micro USB slot and not quite the symmetrical USB Type C design we are accustomed too.

Frankly folks, I don't see anything interesting here. This design patent is a generic filing on what could easily be the Lumia 640. In fact, the patent cites Micromax, Sony Xperia, LG Optimus, Lumia 830, and the Lumia 530 – all phones from 2012-2014 – under 'other publications' for the patent's references.

Hey, say what you will, but the Lumia 650 is a sweet looking phone.

Microsoft has some exciting stuff in the pipeline for sure, but please don't go spreading this around as 'proof' of a 'Surface Phone.' Facts and data are still necessary, not a generic drawing based on yesteryear's inspiration.

Thanks, Charis N., for the heads up (I think)

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.