Microsoft Surface Phone release date, specs, news: Is Microsoft abandoning plans for another Surface Phone?

General view of Microsoft Corporation headquarters at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France.Reuters/Charles Platiau/Files

The Microsoft Surface Phone is not the only attempt at a Windows Phone comeback. Dell also took a stab at it, but the device did not get past the test beds.

Trusted tech insider Evan Blass recently shared a bunch of renders showing not the Microsoft Surface Phone, but a Windows 10-powered smartphone by Dell.

"Powered by a laptop-class Intel processor, would this have blown your mind?" Blass captioned the renders, which featured an ultra-thin handset.

The chipset to be used on the said Windows Phone by Dell was abandoned by Intel, which also led to the demise of the device even before it materialized.

Previous reports suggested that the same Intel chipset was supposed to be used on the Microsoft Surface Phone, but the cancellation of the processor might have drastically changed the Redmond-based company's plans the way it changed Dell's.

However, there remain rumors that the Microsoft Surface Phone will still see the light of day. It was initially expected to be released in spring next year.

When Microsoft's launch event last month hit the headlines, reports about the handset being delayed even further came about.

Microsoft expert Mary Jo Foley, who was the first to report the possible spring 2017 release of the Microsoft Surface Phone, stated that it will be a long wait, should the device actually come to existence.

"My sources continue to say no new Microsoft phones of any kind are coming this year, either," Foley wrote in her report.

"If and when anything like a Surface Phone ends up materializing, it will likely be late 2017 or maybe even not until 2018, my contacts have said recently," she went on to say.

That being said, the status of the Microsoft Surface Phone is now in limbo. Whether the company plans to release it or not remains to be a mystery at the moment.