Bill Gates says he has switched to an Android smartphone, but which one?

And what better candidate for the job than Microsoft ex-CEO and current technology advisor Bill Gates? Now that Windows Phone/Mobile is pretty much dead in the water, even its most high-profile users need to make the switch — and Gates has now finally admitted to having done so. And his choice of platform? Well, as the title of this article clearly states, it's Android.

In the clip embedded above, as taken from a Fox News Sunday segment of all places, you can hear Gates clearly state that he has switched to an Android-powered device. And since such an admission couldn't go without a plug for his own company, he also claims he uses his phone with "a lot of Microsoft software."

And this is great fuel for the platform wars and all, but, there's one small piece of information he neglected to share — which phone he is using. After all, Android is the choice of platform for pretty much every manufacturer not named Apple, so it's fair to say there's a lot of possible options. But do we dare speculate as to which one it is?

Given the U.S. smartphone market climate, the list of possible manufacturers gets cut down to the single digits: there's LG, Samsung, Motorola, and Google, plus also maybe HTC and Sony if we're stretching it. However, the one that stands out as the most likely candidate out of this bunch is Samsung, and not just because it's the most popular one.

You may recall that the Korean giant and Microsoft have been partnering up for years: ever since the Galaxy S6, Microsoft apps have come pre-installed on Samsung's flagships, while the Galaxy S8 was even sold in a special Microsoft Edition. This sure fulfills the "Microsoft software" requirement — while we don't doubt the man's ability to go to the Play Store and manually download whatever apps he needs, this is both an easier solution for a busy man as himself, as well as one that stays loyal to Microsoft and its business decisions.

This narrows the options down to eight: the S6 and S7, plus their respective edgecounterparts, the S8 and S8+, and the Note 5 and Note 8 (the Note 7 is excluded for obvious reasons, and the Active variants are a just bit too niche to include).

So let's use the method of exclusion: firstly, we wouldn't bet on the S6 or the Note 5, as they both came out in 2015 when Microsoft still had a flagship device on the market. The S8 duo and the Note 8, on the other hand, are simply way too new — unless Bill Gates secretly spent 2016 using an iPhone, we can't imagine a man as busy with his foundation would remain tethered to a platform becoming more obsolete by the day, no matter how charitable he is.

So the S7 siblings look like the last remaining options. But since you just know Bill Gates wouldn't be thrilled with the idea of using a curved-edge screen, the S7 edge is also out of the question.

So now we can say with 100 percent certainty, based on totally scientific methodology, that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates uses a Samsung Galaxy S7. You're welcome.

via VentureBeat