Boy, here we go again. While a fair portion of technology rumors does indeed hold true, there are still some that end up as false speculation. Take the Surface Mini gossip, for instance.
New additions to the Surface family have been the talk of the town since late last year, when Microsoft unleashed its new tablet. The company was said to be planning a lot of stuff, everything from Surface ultrabooks to Surface tablets optimized for gaming.
Understandably, there is a long way between early prototype testing and full production.
But while both the Surface RT and Pro are in line to receive updates this month, it appears that Redmond may have scrapped (or put on hold) its plans for a smaller form factor tablet — even though we learned from reliable sources that the company was testing a slate with a smaller 7 or 8 inch display.
Anyway, the second-generation Surface tablet lineup is set to officially go live on September 23, and word on the street is that Microsoft is only going to unveil updated models of both the RT and the Pro at this NYC event.
Even though it was initially expected that the refreshed Surface product line up will include a smaller unit, it appears that Microsoft is not quite yet ready to step into this side of the market.
A report over at TechCrunch is claiming that an 8-inch Surface Mini is highly unlikely to be released right now. Microsoft will, instead, continue to focus on the same form factors as it did in the first-generation Surface lineup.
It must be noted that a 7 or 8 inch tablet comes with its own set of market dynamics, and with many other hardware partners already planning to dive head deep into this form factor with their Intel Atom solutions, Redmond may have decided it is best to wait a while.
This is obviously a rumor for now, and no official details have come our way up until now.
But as far as the regular Surface lineup is concerned, the technology titan is widely expected to utilize an Intel Core i5 Haswell processor and pair it up with 8GB of RAM for the Surface Pro. The refreshed RT, on the other hand, is very likely to get an NVIDIA Tegra 4 chip and 4GB of memory.
What about you folks? Were you looking forward to get your hands on an 8-inch Surface Mini starting at the rumored price tag of $249? Or will you go for one of the refreshed RT or Pro?
All Comments
This makes absolutely no sense unless they’re planning on releasing a Nokia branded tablet in this space. There will be so RT tablets in the smaller tablet space without a Surface Mini
Exactly! I think MS is delaying it at best, because Nokia probably has something similar in the works. Why create two of essentially the same device?
very disappointed… 🙁
Paul Thurrott says that there will be one, but that it will ship after Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2.
Yup, that is what I suspect. 🙂 As said above, it seems the company decided to delay the launch and hold up the smaller Surface for some reason. Maybe it is working with Qualcomm on the processor (that actually comes with cellular wireless) for the small tablet.
Because really, people prefer taking smaller tablets with them when they are going out. Not many carry a full 10 or 11 inch device. And cellular connectivity makes sense in the case of the Surface Mini.
8″ RT device with pen digitizer is much desired!
The 8″ tablet is more desired than the 10″ Surface RT. Microsoft has got to do their research and learn what the people want and give it to them.
Surface 2 goes life in September while win8.1 in October. Shouldn’t they wait for win8.1 first? Now, do they show off 8.1 in surface 2 or the old OS?
I would prefer to see a 7-8″ Pro device that would fit the upcoming docking station, link to my Xbox one and last at least 8 hrs on a single charge. come on Microsoft, step up to the challenge.