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Comment by johncessna | Hacker News Reader

> Surface Connect - Is that Microsoft version of MagSafe?

Basically. I was disappointed to see it on my 2nd or 3rd generation. I thought we were past the days of proprietary connectors.

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The Surface connector is fine, and has the added benefit of being magnetic, unlike any other connector available. For basic charging it’s very easy to get a USBC to Surface Connect cable, or if you really want you can use the USBC port directly for charging. The magnetics really make a difference in portability and I would not want to give it up.

The video mentions that the Surface 4 USB-C port allows charging, which is great.

The Surface Laptop 3 supports it as well. The proprietary Surface connector needs to go away. I've had Surface devices for years, so I have plenty of the chargers around - and I hate them. They fall out, they break, they die. My Surface Dock lasted less than a year before its connector wouldn't connect again.

I'm disappointed they've still stuck with it. I'd MUCH rather have another USB-C port on the other side so I could charge it from either direction. I carry around a USB-C charger that charges all of my devices. I never want to have to carry around a proprietary brick again.

Sort of. It includes the ability to hook up to a docking station and pass USB, video, and Ethernet through the plug.

I use the dock for my Surface Book. With the dedicated GPU it comfortably drives two extra screens through the dock. If you don’t plan on using the dock though, it’s just another proprietary power plug.

Out of curiosity, what's your monitor resolution? I had some issues driving 2 4k screens with the surface dock, but 2k is working okay.

It’s driving two 1920x1200 displays. Then again I’m also using a first gen Surface Book and first gen dock, so this was well before 4K displays were becoming common.

A bad proprietary connector at that. The device side has failed on me a few times, requiring replacements. After about a year the connector needs to be pulled at just the right angle to charge the device. It would slowly get worse until I couldn't get it to make a connection at all.

I'm sure the issue is that I have it plugged in while it's on my lap a lot of the time, but barrel plugs and USB-C have not given me any issues under the same conditions.

Just wipe it down with a bit of alcohol (while unplugged from the wall of course). I’ve found the connector tends to wear from “sparking” when connecting and disconnecting and gets a thin layer of carbon on it.

They kept this one for a few generations now/across a few models.

I wish they made it open.

Not entirely accurate. It's a dock connector, not just power. The $160 USD dock gives you two more USB-C display adapters, two USB-C ports, 2 USB-A ports, an ethernet port and 170W (if I recall) adapter. It's big but incredibly useful for a desktop dock. Slip one reversable magnetic connector in and you've got all your accessories out of the box. If you just want to charge, USB-C is fine.

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