Product Code Database
The Surface Mini is an unreleased tablet computer that Microsoft designed as the successor to the Surface 2 in the Microsoft Surface family. The device has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and a touchscreen display that defaults to portrait mode. Like its predecessor, the Surface Mini runs Windows RT 8.1, a mobile operating system that was designed for the ARM architecture and has limitations including an inability to install Win32 applications; programs can only be installed from the Windows Store.
Rumors of the development of a seven-inch tablet computer were reported in April 2013 when Microsoft was preparing to develop a device in response to competitors' tablet computers with a similar form factor, including Apple Inc iPad Mini and Google Nexus 7. The Surface Mini's release date was postponed from 2013 to 2014, and was canceled several weeks before the Surface event in 2014. The existence of the cancelled device was later revealed by Panos Panay during an October 2015 interview with Wired Magazine. Despite its cancellation, Windows Central obtained the unreleased device and published its specifications and images of the tablet.
During the Build developer conference in 2013, Microsoft revealed the tools that allow development of applications designed for devices with displays, which suggested Microsoft was expecting original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to offer devices with these screen sizes. Despite it not being shown during Microsoft's Surface event in 2013, rumors of the Surface Mini tablet persist into September; according to these rumors, its display screen-size had increased to seven and a half inches, a screen size that PC manufacturers did not widely adopt. The rumored device's screen aspect ratio was also switched from to for easier to use in portrait mode.
According to Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet, Microsoft postponed the release of the Surface Mini to 2014 because it was focusing on development of the Windows 8.1 Update, which was released on April 8, 2014. When The Verge asked Microsoft's chief product officer Panos Panay about the possibility of a mini tablet computer for its Surface line, he refused to answer but hinted at the possibility of multiple form factors and screen sizes in its future Surface line.
Several signs of the Surface Mini's existence include mentions of the device in the Surface Pro 3 user manual and Microsoft's earnings reports in 2014. On October 26, 2015, during an interview with Panos Panay in Wired Magazine, Panos showed off the Surface Book and the canceled Surface Mini, saying he loved the tablet his team built but never shipped officially. He also stated the device's design felt like that of a Moleskine notebook.
Despite the cancellation of Surface Mini, Windows Central obtained the unreleased device and published several images of it in June 2017. Windows Central published its review of the Surface Mini in October 2019, and gave a favorable review, awarding it four stars out of five and saying it would be better if the Surface Mini was updated with better specs and equipped with Windows 10. Windows Central said the Surface Mini was canceled because devices running Windows RT were excluded from upgrading to Windows 10 and because Windows 10 for ARM was unavailable at that time.
There is no upgrade path for Surface Mini to run Windows 10; hence, the device remains running Windows RT until the end of support on January 10, 2023.
The Surface Mini has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 1 GB of random access memory. There are three physical switches: a power button, a volume control, and a Start Menu button. The Surface Mini's touchscreen display measures , with a 1440-by-1080-pixel resolution, 4:3 aspect ratio, and a pixel density of 240 Pixel density. The default orientation for the device is portrait; the Start Menu button is placed at the bottom of the screen, although the device supports screen rotation in all four orientations. The device is equipped with 32 GB of flash memory for programs and data, which can be increased using a micro SD card. The device supports Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0, and has a front-facing 2.1 MP camera and a rear-facing 5 MP camera.
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