Thanks to Windows Central, now we get the chance to see photos of what could have been with the cancelled Surface Mini. Originally, Surface Mini was supposed to debut along with the Surface Pro 3 in 2014.
Zac Bowden gives a general description of the Surface Mini and its technical specifications:
“On the outside, the Surface Mini is essentially a smaller Surface Pro 3 in portrait orientation. It’s housed in a case-like material and design that feels soft and felt-like. However, this is actually part of the Surface Mini. It’s not a case you can remove, it’s the actual physical design of the Surface Mini. It has a built-in kickstand in the landscape orientation and is slightly angled at the edges for easier gripping when using the Pen and taking notes. This gives it a somewhat large bezel, however.
The kickstand works similarly to the kickstand found on the non-Pro Surface 3 introduced a year later. It has three locked positions: one for viewing, one for typing on the screen, and one that’s somewhere in between.
For ports, the Surface Mini had a microSD card slot for expandable storage, a headphone jack, a Micro-USB port for charging, and USB-OTG, which is handy for mini tablets. Under the hood, the Surface Mini packed a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 1GB RAM, an Adreno 330, and a screen resolution of 1440 x 1080 at eight inches. It also had 32GB of internal storage and dual-band Wi-Fi.”
Some of the downsides to the Surface Mini were that the device only had 1 GB RAM and was powered by Windows RT 8.1. Like the Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3, the Surface Mini did support pen input, but was missing the standard keyboard port for a Surface Type Cover. It is likely that the Surface Mini would have been awkward to use with a Surface Type Cover due to its smaller size than other Surface models.
Here is a look at the photos of the cancelled Surface Mini (courtesy of Windows Central):
Please note: Windows Central does not identify a source for these Surface Mini images.
Just a few weeks before its rumored release, Microsoft cancelled the Surface Mini. Personally, I think the Surface Mini would not have sold very well, due to its technical specifications, Windows RT 8.1 operating system, and size. I think Microsoft used the Surface Mini as a way to set the stage for the Surface 3, which was released later after the Surface Pro 3.
