“It was like a Moleskine… it was awesome,” Microsoft’s Corporate VP for devices, Panos Panay, told Wired in a recent interview about a device that never became available for public consumption. According to the interview, prior to Panay and his team working towards making the ultimate laptop, which is the recently released Surface Book, the Surface Mini was the device he kept next to his pillow.

While Microsoft recently reported that their ultimate machine, the device Panay’s team after completion said was, “thin, light, cool, and fast,” is selling faster than the company can make them. But according to Panay, it was the Surface Mini that he once believed was the future.

As to creating the perfect laptop Panay had said, “That’s not evolving the category; that’s not showing people where it could go,” he was quoted as saying in the interview. Panay goes on to discuss how building software wasn’t nearly enough and Microsoft’s agenda was to play catch-up to Apple Inc. Their answer was the Surface hybrid, at first a flop, and later a large success.

But taking on the Macbook Air wasn’t good enough, Panay said, and so Microsoft planned to build a laptop to give the MacBook Pro a run for its money. This they have done, but whatever happened to Panay’s beloved Surface Mini?

According to reports, manuals for the Surface Pro 3 had in them information about a smaller device, while Surface Mini accessories were seen on Amazon in 2014. Still, Microsoft stayed tight-lipped about the device in spite of Panay’s devotion to it. In fact, the Wired interview is the first time anyone at the company has said that it actually existed.

The Surface Book and Pro Surface 4 are available as of yesterday, but as for the Surface Mini… in your dreams. It looks like the mini died the moment Microsoft decided its best bet was making the perfect laptop.

Photo credit: Microsoft