Microsoft Xbox Surface 7-inch gaming tablet rumour returns

Microsoft might be working on a 7-inch Xbox and Surface branded gaming tablet, if rumours are to be believed.

It’s not the first time we’ve heard such murmurs either, similar allegations were in circulation just days ahead of the company’s surprise Surface announcement back in June 2012.

The new rumblings come from The Verge, which cites unnamed ‘sources familiar with the plans within Redmond,’ claiming that such a device is only in the initial planning stages.

Apparently those leaked specs in June were spot on, which would mean a specially built ARM multicore chip clocked at 3.1GHz with a custom 28 nanometre graphics processor by graphic specialists AMD and 5GB of RAM.

The previously leaked spec sheet also suggests you’ll be able to link up as many as four wireless Xbox controllers to the tablet, plus it’ll have HDMI output and 250GB of built-in storage.

The Verge’s sources also indicate that the spec list could still change to Intel hardware, though feasibly Microsoft could produce both Intel and ARM devices as it has done with its Surface Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets.

The operating system won’t be full-blown Windows 8, however, it’ll be a custom made iteration based on the same kernel. While the sources suggested some normal tablet functionality such as messaging might be incorporated the whole hardware and software setup will be specifically engineered with a gaming focus.

Microsoft is said to be working on the next-generation Xbox console, the Xbox 720, and it seems likely that the Xbox Surface tablet would debut in tandem with the main console in a similar vein to the way in which Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 have leapfrogged off each other’s launches in recent months.

Officially Microsoft has declined to comment on the rumours.