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.
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. We wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft used the same kickstand mechanism in the Surface 3 that it had been working on with the Surface Mini. When closed, the kickstand sits flush with the device, just like on any other Surface. The Surface Mini was going to come in a variety of colors, too.
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. Micro USB was the norm in 2014, so it’s not a surprise to see it. 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.
