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Xbox Surface gaming tablet on the way

Sources out of Redmond, Washington, are saying that Microsoft is working on a 7-inch gaming tablet called the Xbox Surface.

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Nic Healey Senior Editor / Australia
Nic Healey is a Senior Editor with CNET, based in the Australia office. His passions include bourbon, video games and boring strangers with photos of his cat.
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Sources out of Redmond, Washington, are saying that Microsoft is working on a 7-inch gaming tablet called the Xbox Surface.

Xbox games as they appear on Windows 8. (Credit: Microsoft)

The Verge is reporting that "multiple sources" have confirmed that the Xbox Surface is a go. The specs that leaked back in June are accurate, meaning that the tablet will have a 7-inch screen with a 1280x720 resolution.

The processor will be a custom ARM chip, and the device will have high-bandwidth RAM designed for gaming. In fact, the gaming focus will extend to the OS. The Xbox Surface will not run a full version of Windows, but instead a custom kernel made specifically for gaming applications.

Microsoft recently increased the security on its Xbox-related building, and this is now speculated to be associated with the testing of the tablet.

Still, in Microsoft's world, there's still many a slip 'twixt cup and lip — just ask the poor old Courier. We think Microsoft will be looking very carefully at how the vanilla version of the Surface performs before it fully commits to a release of the Xbox tablet.

Would you buy a 7-inch Xbox gaming tablet? What price and features would it have to have to be a worthwhile purchase? Let us know in the comments below.