Microsoft’s smartphone history could have looked very different. Years before the Surface Duo arrived, and before Microsoft’s Nokia acquisition reshaped its mobile ambitions — the company was rumored to be developing a Windows Phone entirely of its own. That phone never made it into stores, but we may finally know what it looked like.
Newly published images, shared by a user on Discord and Telegram and first spotted by Windows Central, may have finally given us a look at that mysterious phone. The prototype reportedly dates back to 2013 or 2014 and may have been developed under the codename “Raven.” With its clean metal frame and unmistakable Microsoft styling, it looks right at home alongside the Surface hardware of that era. It also offers a fascinating glimpse at the Windows Phone Microsoft could have built before Nokia changed its plans.
The prototype isn’t particularly striking by modern standards, but that’s part of what makes it interesting. It has a silver metal frame that closely resembles the finish Microsoft used on the Surface 2, along with a Microsoft logo sitting prominently on the back. There are dedicated navigation buttons beneath the 720p display, while an unknown Qualcomm processor is reportedly running things inside. The phone is also shown running an early development version of Windows Phone from September 2013, created while Microsoft was working toward what eventually became Windows Phone 8.1.
The rest of the hardware sounds very much like a smartphone from that era. Separate volume buttons and a camera shutter sat along the right edge, with the power button positioned on top. The bottom housed both a headphone jack and micro-USB connection, while the SIM card slot was located on the left. There’s no confirmation that Raven was destined to become a commercial Surface Phone. Microsoft almost certainly experimented with numerous prototypes around this time, and this could have been one of them. There’s another intriguing possibility, though. Microsoft was also reportedly exploring the idea of a “Skype Phone” around 2013 — a data-focused device that could lean on Skype for calls and messaging rather than conventional cellular services. Whether Raven had anything to do with that project remains unknown, but the timing certainly makes the idea interesting.
Whatever Microsoft had planned for Raven, its Nokia deal changed the equation. Microsoft announced its acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services business in 2013, with the transaction closing in 2014. Any plans for a separate Microsoft-designed Windows Phone may have become far less important once Lumia hardware was coming under the same roof. Microsoft continued releasing Windows phones afterward, including devices such as the Lumia 640, Lumia 950, Lumia 650, and Lumia 550. But the company gradually stepped away from Windows Phone, and by 2017, it was clear the platform was no longer a priority.
The company eventually returned to smartphones with the Surface Duo in 2020, but that was a very different beast: a dual-screen Android device rather than the traditional Windows-powered Surface Phone people had once imagined. That makes this mysterious prototype a particularly fun piece of Microsoft history. We’ll never know whether it could have saved Windows Phone, but after all these years, we finally have a glimpse of the Surface Phone that might have been.
Merely days after the iPhone Duo hit the shelves, images of broken screens on the phone started popping up across social media. Until now, it’s been unclear what’s causing the line of defective pixels that appears vertically along the crease, as well as horizontally, on the phone’s inner display.
Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, which has shown up on iPhone Duo units owned by customers as well as demo units in stores. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Apple says that not all iPhone Duo units are affected and that those that are tend to show the display fault early on. The company added that users who experience problems with their iPhone Duo display should contact AppleCare for a replacement.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.
Apple's first foldable phone is now on shelves, in short supply, but with an unreal amount of buzz around it. After all, it's the first foldable iPhone, and there's plenty that this phone gets right. But there's also a lot that is either broken or underwhelming. What's peculiar is the dialogue around this phone, and how it has completely overshadowed every other attempt at making a phone with a similar form factor.
I've spent some time with the iPhone Duo, and I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for almost three months now. In my opinion, Samsung deserves more credit. When the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrived earlier this year, it was celebrated in some circles and ridiculed in others for supposedly copying what Apple would eventually deliver with the iPhone Duo. The dialogue was pretty odd, for multiple reasons. Samsung has been making foldable phones for years, so claiming that it copied a product Apple hadn't even launched was simply absurd.