How do you get so close to releasing an interesting technology product, cancel it, and pretend it never existed? Microsoft’s Surface Mini was real, and one person thinks it was actually better than the Surface 2.
Microsoft Killed The Surface Mini, For Real This Time
A Neowin report from someone who actually had some hands-on time with the Surface Mini says that the device ran a Qualcomm mobile processor and used 1GB of RAM, had a microSD slot, and all the usual Surface trimmings, including a nifty case that added a kickstand and full-size keyboard.
Here’s the problem, though. Like its bigger brother, the Surface Mini apparently ran Windows RT 8.1. Which means that the Mini would have been perfectly useful and capable for a specific number of tasks — browsing the net through Internet Explorer, checking Twitter, looking at Facebook — but it wouldn’t have been the Toshiba Libretto-esque miniature powerhouse that everyone expected it to be.
In any case, the Surface Mini never made it to market, and we got the Surface 2 instead. [Neowin]