Microsoft is preparing a "killer" iPad mini

Microsoft Corporation is developing a seven-inch gaming tablet under the Xbox brand. Its approximate characteristics are already known, unlike the date of the official announcement and release.

As it became known to the American portal The Verge, Microsoft is working on a new tablet that will appear on the shelves as a gaming gadget. According to rumors, the device will be distributed under the brand of the popular Xbox home console. 

The gadget will not work on a full-fledged Windows 8 or Windows RT, but on a special version of the platform focused specifically on games. There may also be functionality familiar to devices of this type, such as reading books, watching movies, writing messages, etc. 

Xbox Surface specifications leaked to the Internet back in June before the official presentation of the original Surface. But only now, according to The Verge, it became known that these data were “accurate”. However, there are not so many details: a 7th screen with a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels, a replaceable battery and 288 MB of RLDRAM 2 RAM. It is clear that the characteristics of the future device may change more than once. 

At the moment, the Xbox Surface is being finalized in full secrecy mode at Microsoft offices in Silikovany Valley. When it will be ready is unknown. There is a version that it will be produced at the same secret factories as the next-generation Xbox 720 console.

After the release, the gadget will presumably fall into the same market niche as the iPad mini both in size and price (Microsoft is unlikely to reduce its cost to the level of budget solutions on Android).