It was a 7-inch version of the Surface tablet

Oct 27, 2015 05:37 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has recently launched the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4, both of which are supposed to show Redmond's commitment to the hardware market and confirm its intentions to expand in this side of the business with as many devices as possible. But not all products that the company creates actually get to see daylight.

The Surface Mini was believed to be one of the most special additions to the Surface lineup, and although everyone seemed to enjoy the idea of having a smaller tablet that could be used just for taking notes, Redmond thought otherwise and decided to cancel it at the very last minute.

But Panos Panay, the company's corporate vice president and now responsible for all devices at Microsoft, has confirmed in a recent interview with Wired that the Surface Mini was a real thing that he actually “used and loved” two years ago.

No other details have been provided, but Panay has explained that he used to keep his 7-inch tablet near his bed to quickly write down notes or emails whenever he needed. “It was like a Moleskine,” he briefly said. “It was awesome.”

Canceled by Nadella and Elop

The Surface Mini was expected to debut in May 2014, together with the Surface Pro 3, but people close to the matter revealed that CEO Satya Nadella and former Nokia boss Stephen Elop (who rejoined Microsoft after the acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services unit) decided to cancel the device at the last minute.

Little is known about their reason, but rumor has it that they considered the Surface Mini too similar to the other 7-inch tablets on the market, and they both wanted to at least delay its release until something more exciting was created.

The Surface Mini never reached the market, but the Surface Book laptop introduced on October 6 inherits some of its features, as it can double as a notebook for easy note taking with the Surface Pen when detaching the keyboard.

Pundits claim Microsoft produced around 20,000 Surface Mini before canceling the project, so it would really be interesting to see one in real life.