Evan Selleck

The firm hand of Microsoft is making sure that manufacturers know exactly where the Redmond-based company stands when it comes to creating the new breed of devices for 7 Series, and it's come to our attention that the chassis designs have been leaked. No, there's no pictures, and there's not an abundance of information at this point. What we have is a pretty much one-sentence breakdown of why the chassis designs exist, and what we should expect.

Chassis 1 is basically the same design as we saw at MWC, during the keynote. It's a large-screened, touch-based device. The same 1 GHz processor needs to be under the hood, and it looks like this version is meant for the big PC manufacturers (like Dell and ASUS) who are aiming to create big touchscreen phones. Chassis 1 will also be the design we see at launch this holiday season.

Chassis 2 will support sliding keyboards, and physical keyboards in general. These are meant, probably, to be the more mid-range devices, and we're wondering if the minimum specifications --like the 1 GHz processor and size of touchscreen-- still count for these devices.

Chassis 3 wasn't detailed at all, unfortunately. But, apparently, these could be more like candybar-styled devices. Again, we're not sure where these stand amidst the minimum specs, or if they even apply here at the lower end.

If these are to be believed, and if the last two Chassis builds aren't necessarily pinned to the specification list compiled by Microsoft, we're also wondering if they'll have the "Smart Design" as we saw at MWC, or if they'll employ some kind of other UI.

[via The UnWired]