Microsoft has not had much media attention for its hardware products, except for its gaming console, the Xbox. But the company’s Surface brand notebooks have been doing reasonably well in certain segments. Now, the tech giant is joining the select group of manufacturers boasting of having a foldable device in their list of products. Samsung and Huawei have unveiled their foldable phones in the market.

According a report by Forbes, a Surface device to be released by Microsoft later this year will have a 9-inch screen when fully opened and it is not meant to be folded and carried in the pocket as some of the other foldable devices are designed to be. This would also mean the earlier plans of a foldable device that could fit into a pocket and named Andromeda internally is no longer going to materialise.  

Microsoft has already developed an exclusive software that will make the functioning of the device feasible with the foldable screen. It’s called Windows Core OS and will come optimized for the foldable form factor to suit the dual display UI of the new Surface device. The Windows 10 OS will be the main platform. At the heart of this foldable tablet will be an Intel chipset of the Lakefield series.

The new foldable device from Microsoft will be compatible with Android as and can run the iCloud services as well. The device can be connected to 5G service where available.

While Microsoft is working on this device, there are reports of Lenovo too planning on releasing a foldable device which it claims will be the world’s first foldable PC. The screen size is likely to be 13.3 inches and can be folded like a book occupying just the half the size, matching the screen size of some of the latest smartphones. The display is predicted to be a 4:3 OLED LG type. This device might be released next year.

Lenovo has officially made an announcement on this device and carried a blogpost in which it has claimed it will be a 'full-fledged laptop with a foldable screen'.