Microsoft Corp. will not launch a major upgrade to its Surface-brand personal computers until next year but may release a new, lower-priced model before then, according to new reports.

Brad Sams at Thurott.com Tuesday claimed to have seen internal Microsoft documents detailing plans for the Surface range including previously unknown code names for upcoming products.

First up is a low-cost Surface Tablet internally referred to by the name of Libra. The device is described as a $400 Surface-branded tablet that would better compete with Apple’s base-level iPad and would see Microsoft offer its first cheap tablet since it stopped selling the Surface 3. The release date expected to be late 2018.

Next on the list and the more interesting news is the Surface Pro 6, codenamed Carmel, that’s under development but does not yet have a shipping date. However, longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet said she has heard a mid-2019 date.

Details on exactly what the redesign entails are sketchy, but none of the reports rules out the possibility of a mild Surface Pro update later this year. It may include upgraded eighth-generation Intel Core chips and possibly even USB-C support.

The last is the real mystery in the mix, a product with the codename Andromeda, a “pocketable device to create a truly personal and versatile computing experience.” Sams noted that Microsoft is aiming to “create a new product category with this hardware” and is hoping that OEM partners will release similar hardware as well.

That wording is vague, but the keyword may be “pocketable.” Could this be the long-rumored Surface phone?

Rumors of Microsoft bringing a Surface phone to market go back as far as 2012, with variations popping up from time to time. The most recent rumor was floated in 2017, based on a Microsoft patent filing involved a foldable device (pictured). It was described as a kind of superflexible hybrid device that has a “plurality of housings to rotate about an axis in relation to each other,” allowing a user to manipulate the device to make it their phone, tablet or laptop.

Microsoft’s previous attempts in the smartphone industry were infamously a costly disaster. By contrast, the Surface hardware range has been a massive success for the company. If it could bring a Surface-branded mobile device of sorts — because it’s not really a smartphone but could be used in place of one — Microsoft could possibly deal itself back into the mobile business in a big way.

Images: Microsoft