On the one hand, the Snapdragon 800 carries Windows RT very well, especially since the only real apps on the platform are in the form of modern apps. So with no real apps, the only true selling point of Windows RT was that it came with Office 2013 for free.Īnyway, how does Windows RT run on the Surface Mini? The answer is a mixed bag. The Windows Store never took off, and that was bad news as unlike Windows 10 on ARM today, Windows RT wasn't able to run Win32 programs from the web, even if they were compiled for ARM.

It was Microsoft's first attempt as a locked-down version of Windows for PCs, and it failed, miserably. Surface Mini with Windows RT (Image credit: Windows Central) Of course, the device can also be used in landscape if the user wants, but the portrait orientation by default is super interesting and makes total sense. You can tell because underneath the display sits a capacity home button that's oriented so that the user knows to use the device in portrait. Our standards have changed quite a bit in the last five years.Īnother unique thing about the Surface Mini is that it's the only Surface to have been built with portrait as the default orientation. But again, since this was supposed to be released in 2014, I'm not sure many people would have cared much about the size of the bezels. Admittedly, the left and right bezels are a little smaller, but they're still pretty huge for a 7.5-inch device. The Surface Mini has enormous bezels on all four sides, most notably along the top and bottom of the device. If you thought the Surface Go's bezels were terrible, check out these bad boys. The buttons have a satisfying click, and although MicroUSB in 2019 is super gross, this was the standard back in 2014 on devices with Snapdragon processors, and as such, we can't complain too much about it. The sides of the device are metal and feature your traditional volume rocker, a power button, as well as a headphone jack, MicroUSB port, and Micro SD card slot.

Surface tab