14 DAY TRIAL // The Surface Mini is one of Microsoft’s devices that never got to see daylight, as the company somehow decided to kill it off before the launch despite working on it for a long period of time.
A report from WindowsCentral now provides us with a closer look at what could have been the Surface Mini, a smaller Surface tablet specifically aimed at students who were looking for a digital replacement for the traditional notebook.
The Surface Mini was designed from the very beginning to be easy to carry around, but Microsoft also wanted it to feel good in hand, so it came with a special casing in this regard. This is something that Microsoft has embraced for the Surface Laptop as well, as it uses Alcantara to avoid the cold feeling that you typically have when touching a metal laptop.
Since it was aimed at students, the Surface Mini was designed to work with a Surface Pen, with technologies that would have allowed users to quickly take notes, even when the device was turned off.
Similar features made it to Surface models eventually, but the Surface Mini was supposed to be the pioneer of a number of tools in the first place.
Powered by the failed OS experiment
The device was developed to be powered by Windows RT 8.1, the company’s failed experiment that first debuted in 2012 on the Surface RT.
In terms of hardware, Microsoft picked the Snapdragon 800 to power the device and this was more than enough given the fact that it ran Windows RT. 1GB of RAM was also installed by default.
There were rumors that the Surface Mini came with an 8-inch display, so the device was smaller than the Surface Pro 3, as the software giant wanted it to be easy to carry around.
As for the reason the device never got to see daylight, it’s because the current CEO Satya Nadella didn’t think the Surface Mini came with anything too innovative to take the market by surprise. And because it was too similar to devices already on the market, the project was abandoned at the last minute before the public launch, with nearly 20,000 said to be produced for the grand unveiling and start of pre-orders.
