New Surface Pro Will Get A USB Type-C Dongle

Microsoft launched the new Surface Pro today. It’s not the Surface Pro 5, mind you, but an incremental update of the Surface Pro 4. It comes with Intel Kaby Lake processors and other refinements that will provide a better user experience to customers. However, the new Surface Pro doesn’t have a USB Type-C port, something that’s common on almost all high-end computers now. Microsoft’s solution for that is a USB Type-C dongle.

Microsoft hasn’t been quick to adopt USB Type-C in its hardware. It launched the Surface Laptop a couple of weeks back and it also doesn’t feature the port. Microsoft has said that it’s going to adopt USB Type-C when it believes that the technology is ready for its customers.

Microsoft’s Surface chief Panos Panay told The Verge that the company’s interim solution to the lack of USB Type-C ports on its new devices is going to be a dongle. It’s going to release a dongle for customers who want to have this functionality on their Surface Laptop and Surface Pro.

The company’s dongle will plug into the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop’s proprietary Surface connector. It will then provide USB Type-C functionality, even enabling users to charge the device with a Type-C charger. Data transfer with a USB Type-C peripheral will work as well.

The company hasn’t confirmed precisely when this dongle is going to be released and how much it’s going to cost.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Computers
Tags: Microsoft, Surface Laptop, Surface Pro, USB type-c