Time and again in recent years, rumors have, ahem, surfaced regarding Microsoft Corp. merging at least the designs in its embattled phone division and its successful Surface line of two-in-one personal computer-tablet hybrid devices.

The potential outcome: a Surface phone. As Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela put it, the device would be a “breakthrough” product, the “spiritual equivalent” of the Surface tablet reborn as a phone.

Patent filings by Microsoft reveal the company has in mind a kind of super-flexible hybrid device that has a “plurality of housings to rotate about an axis in relation to each other,” which basically means you can manipulate the device to make it your phone, your tablet or your laptop.

Although the patent filing was made in 2014, it was just approved Jan. 10 and came to light Monday via MSPoweruser, giving a boost to speculation that it could actually see the light of day.

The flexibility of the proposed device, with the ability to manipulate various hinges, should give the user various sizes to choose from depending on what mode they want their device to be in. This is made possible when a screen display can stretch across the hinges. A three-in-one device is not a new idea, and Microsoft has in the past tinkered with unique multi-form devices.

Given that SiliconANGLE also reported in 2012 that a Microsoft Surface Phone could be in its way, holding one’s breath is not advisable. Microsoft patents many designs that never actually become consumer products. Still, this patent had the inventor’s name, Kabir Siddiqui, who is known for creating the Surface kickstand and Surface Camera angle, suggesting it’s not a complete fantasy either.

Photo credit: Google Patents