Microsoft Surface Pro 5 release date, specs rumors: Delayed to give way for 'Surface Phone'

According to the latest rumors, Microsoft Corporation is reportedly delaying the development and pre-production stages of the much-anticipated Surface Pro 5 this year. Instead of a late 2015 release date, the Microsoft Surface Pro 5 is now slated for a 2017 launching. This move by Microsoft is said to give way for the newest smartphone flagship after the Lumia series that the company is currently cooking up in their lab. The Surface Phone, which is rumored to sport some high-end features of Microsoft's Surface Pro and Surface Book line, is given more weight by the company as it is rumored to have a target launching this year.

It looks like Microsoft would not want to remove the Surface Phone as the present highlight of the company, and they would invest their time and effort to their smartphone branch first before going back to laptops and tablets.

The Surface Pro, which is a predominantly tablet hybrid gadget, has proved to be a huge success for Microsoft especially with the emergence of Surface Pro 3 and Surface Pro 4 in the markets in the past few years. After a Surface tablet line, the company also began developing the same packaging for their new laptops, which lead to the Surface Book line that is also a hybrid laptop-tablet but is predominantly a laptop.

As Surface Pro fans wait until next year for the hybrid's next upgraded design, the rumored specs of the device is top-of-the-line with Intel Skylake sixth generation processor to power up the tablet and a 4K graphics display resolution. Also, the Surface Pro 5 is expected to be packaged with a rechargeable stylus pen and a charging dock. The Surface Pen feature seems to be a confirmed feature as a patent application from Microsoft filed to the US Patent and Trademark Office was disclosed to include something about a rechargeable stylus pen and dock, as reported by Patently Mobile.