After the critical success and extremely warm reception to the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book, Microsoft might be abandoning plans for an Intel-powered Windows 10 phone for its next flagship altogether. If rumors are indeed true, Panos Panay and his team have been given the green light to design the company's first homegrown flagship smartphone, the Surface Phone, according to FOX News.

Though details about the rumored flagship are scarce, it is believed to be scheduled for release sometime in the second half of 2016. While the device might be completely created by Microsoft, Intel may still be involved in some way, fueling assumptions that the phone will run on an x86 chipset, or something comparative that is leagues ahead of current Qualcomm Snapdragons.

If Panos Panay and his team are successful, they might be able to create a device that would definitively be an Apple iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy killer. After all, Microsoft is no newcomer to the mobile market, creating the Windows Phone and Windows Mobile operating system, which was successful in its own way, but still fell far behind Android and iOS, reports The Independent.

One thing that would definitely make a difference is the fact that the Surface Phone would be built by Microsoft from the ground up. Before, the company's flagship devices usually came from third parties, such as Nokia.

As of writing however, Microsoft has remained completely mum about any of the rumored device's specifics.

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