{"id":1125403,"date":"2023-04-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1125403"},"modified":"2023-04-05T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T12:00:00","slug":"microsoft-launches-thunderbolt-4-surface-dock-sans-surface-connect-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1125403","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Launches Thunderbolt 4 Surface Dock – Sans Surface Connect Port"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Microsoft has\u00a0introduced<\/a> a new docking station for its latest Surface devices equipped with Thunderbolt 4 ports. The Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock has eight ports and provides a comprehensive collection of eight current USB Type-C and legacy USB Type-A connectors along with a 2.5GbE. One of the main selling points of the dock is support for enterprise-grade features. But, perhaps most notably, the dock does not have a Surface Connect port.<\/p>\n


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Microsoft’s\u00a0Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock<\/a>\u00a0connects to a compatible host featuring USB4\/Thunderbolt 4 and comes with three 10 Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A connectors and three 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 4\/USB4-certified USB Type-C ports that are accompanied by 2.5GbE and a TRRS audio connector for headsets. The docking station can support two 4Kp60 monitors and various bandwidth hungry TB3\/TB4\/USB4 peripherals such as storage and eGFX external GPU boxes.<\/p>\n


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Also, the unit has an internal power supply that can feed its host up to 96W of power, which is enough to power a high-end 15 or 16-inch laptop. Yet, it cannot feed more than 15W of power over its USB-C ports, so its charging capabilities are pretty limited.<\/p>\n


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Microsoft stresses that its Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock is different from its previous docks as it can be used with non-Surface USB-C devices, including Windows OEM devices and Apple Macs. As part of this compatibility, the dock lacks the company’s proprietary Surface Connect port, which has been a mainstay of Microsoft Surface devices up until now \u2013 for better and for worse. Dropping the proprietary port makes it incompatible with older Surface devices that only have a Surface Connect port, such as the\u00a0Microsoft Surface Book\u00a02\u00a0and the Surface Pro\u00a05, but looking at the bigger picture, Microsoft’s release of a dock that lacks its own proprietary port may indicate that the company is (finally) dropping it entirely in favor of the more ubiquitous Thunderbolt 4\/USB4 connector.<\/p>\n


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With its six ports, an audio connector, and a 2.5GbE port, the Microsoft Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock somewhat falls short from being an ultimate docking station (such as\u00a013-in-1<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a014-in-1<\/a>\u00a0docks from OWC). Yet, it looks like its key selling point is not exactly the number of connectors, but rather support for enterprise-grade features, making it a comprehensive choice for commercial customers buying Microsoft Surface or other Windows-based devices.<\/p>\n


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In particular, the Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock offers Firmware Update via Windows Update, Wake on LAN from Modern Standby, and MAC Address Pass-Through\u200e. Additionally, the Surface Enterprise Management Mode (SEMM) allows for easy disabling of the dock ports in mission-critical environments and limits functionality to specific devices\u200e (e.g., one can plug in a monitor, a keyboard or a webcam, but cannot use a USB drive).<\/p>\n


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Microsoft’s Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock will be available shortly directly from Microsoft as well as from its resellers for $299.<\/p>\n


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\nSource: AnandTech – Microsoft Launches Thunderbolt 4 Surface Dock – Sans Surface Connect Port<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft has\u00a0introduced a new docking station for its latest Surface devices equipped with Thunderbolt 4 ports. The Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock has eight ports and provides a comprehensive collection of eight current USB Type-C and legacy USB Type-A connectors along … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1125404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,110],"tags":[94],"class_list":["post-1125403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anandtech","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-anandtech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1125403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1125404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1125403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1125403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1125403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}