Microsoft’s new Surface Dock tosses the proprietary port, uses Thunderbolt 4 | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft’s new Surface Dock tosses the proprietary port, uses Thunderbolt 4

arstechnica.com

93 pointsCharlesW32 comments

Can this disrupt the Caldigit TS4 as the “consensus best dock”? It has fewer ports, notably no card reader, but otherwise looks like it provides similar functionality for $100 less.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/surface-thunderbolt-4-dock...

https://9to5mac.com/2022/02/08/caldigit-launches-ts4-thunder...

I'm done with CalDigits.

I bought an Element Hub from them.

I was losing keyboard and microphone connectivity pretty much every day.

Contacted support. After exchanging multiple useless emails where I was told the Hub wasn't compatible with keyboards and microphones, I simply bought a 20$ USB 3.0 switch which works flawlessly.

Months layer, I figured I might give the Element Hub another go. Maybe they updated the firmware.

Once I plugged the Hub to its power supply, I heard a crackling noise and then I smelled the odor of burnt silicon.

Never buying CalDigits again.

We'll have to see how it tests with a wide swath of devices. The CalDigit docks have never given me any issues

The CalDigit was notable for being the most compatible with MacBooks specifically, so there's no reason to think they'll suddenly be dethroned there.

While that's interesting I'm seeing no displayport or hdmi ports on this thing.

So it's limited to using monitors that have USB-C/thunderbolt connections, or buying special thunderbolt->displayport cables (I say 'special' purely because I don't own any, I'm sure they're available), or dongle/dock chaining. I thought the point of a dock was to expand the ports to things you might realistically want!

A USB-C -> DisplayPort adaptor will work just fine. I literally just bought one yesterday to drive my 27" 1440p (@165hz!) gaming monitor with my new Mac Studio. Works fine. Cost about $15. It only gets a little iffy if you need specially 4k120. For anything less it doesn't need much.

Sure, you can do that, and it'll likely work just great. It just feels wrong on something which is supposed to be providing ports!

You can fit about 3 thunderbolt ports in the same space as one displayport.

Sure, but I'm not looking for a sleek and lightweight dock, I'm looking for something to provide the ports and charging I need for my sleek and lightweight laptop when I'm using it at my desk.

As such an extra cm or two on the dock to allow for a normal monitor connection or two seems less problematic. Especially if I'm then having to hang dongles off it or buy less mainstream cabling to work around the dock limitations. It all just feels a bit self-defeating

(and yes I own some similar USB-C -> HDMI and USB-C -> ethernet etc etc dongles. They're great! But I shouldn't need them as well as a 'dock', if I do the dock has failed its purpose)

That’s more of a temporary pain. Everything is going USB-C.

In a few years you’d be cursing a those obsolete ports while you start chaning USB hubs

So in a few years I'll buy a new dock that meets my changed needs?

Just like I don't still have that one with a couple of USB-2 ports and a DVI connector from the mid 00s. And in the mean time we can agree it's not a great dock for right now?

It's a premium device, they already dropped displayport in the previous iteration. High-end monitors have been thunderbolt for a while now. While I wouldn't say no to a few extra connectors, the main point is that it's something you can leave on your desk with all your desk stuff plugged into it.

> High-end monitors have been thunderbolt for a while now.

This is not true. Many high end monitors do not support thunderbolt. Some high end monitors support thunderbolt, but you will have a smaller portion of monitors to select from.

Last year I spent four figures on a monitor that did not include thunderbolt. I'm looking at a new monitor this year, again four figures, and again no thunderbolt support.

With the correct series of adapters though, you can dang near connect anything to anything.

(Other than HDMI source to DisplayPort Sink - that needs some special active thingy).

Unless the monitor only has thunderbolt like the Apple ones in which case the only possible setup is a hdmi capture card which is both expensive and probably adds latency.

Case in point: Eizo (which I'd consider one of the top manufacturers for serious use) do not do Thunderbolt at all AFAIK. The USB-C inputs only do DP.

Apple has a thunderbolt one where the stand alone is 4 figures.

> High-end monitors have been thunderbolt for a while now.

How "high end" do we need to go before this is true? My old 32"/4K/60Hz BenQ EW3270U certainly does, but my much newer 32"/4K/144Hz Dell G3223Q[1] doesn't for whatever reason, it's certainly not ubiquitous.

> the main point is that it's something you can leave on your desk with all your desk stuff plugged into it.

Yes, and such a device would be better with a more varied array of connectors. That's what it's for!

I understand premium laptops dropping ports to maintain their looks, and be thin and light, portable and sleek. As an M1 Air owner, I am totally down with that. But then a dock that itself needs more adapters to connect to extremely common interfaces ... that's not a good dock or a 'premium' selling point.

([1] approx 1100USD when it launched last year, I know that's hardly the peak of high-end but it's hardly cheap either)

Another G3223Q user in the wild!

On topic I was kind of put off by no USB-C, but a simple adapter cable from some Amazon brand works perfect on both a DELL laptop and my MBP M1.

This monitor is amazing for the money though. I paid $400 + tax + shipping during Black Friday and it was an absolute STEAL.

Yeah, I ended up paying around $850 (AUD) at around the same time, I agree it's a steal at that price! Great screen. I really should do some more gaming on it but it works great for office use too. I was surprised that there was no usb-c when it arrived too!

I have a Dell D6000 dock for my M1 Air that's got some sort of DisplayLink hardware built in, so I get the ports and with Displaylink Manager installed it can drive however many screens you like. The only issue there is streaming services refuse to work (I don't think the dock does HDCP). But that's fine...

I've used a few docks few the years with a combination of laptops. I've had the least trouble with the surface dock. 99% of the time it "just works". Every so often, a monitor doesn't turn on and I need to undock then redock to solve that. I wonder if this is due to proprietary surface laptop usage or if other devices will be just as well supported by the dock with the drop of this port.

I use a Surface dock every day, often detaching and reattaching at least twice. Losing the magnetic attachment kind of sucks, as that's really convenient and much safer. It also seems a lot better for wear and tear. (Yes you can buy magnetic adapters, but that's a lot of power and data they'd need to cope with.)

I’ve been using the Apple usb C hub for 2 years now attaching attaching and detaching 4 times a day and it’s still just as grippy as day one.

I think the parent means losing the magnetic surface dock connector from the new dock, rather than losing magnetic attraction over time. They may way to clarify though.

Which Apple usb c hub are you referring to? The multiport adapter?

Yeah, the "USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter". I have zero concerns about the lifespan of the USB connector.

Think about how many times you plug and unplug a phone's USB-C. These are hopefully designed to withstand daily usage for years.

That's exactly what I'm thinking of, and why I think it's a problem: my phone's socket and/or the main cable I use give it a dodgy connection, after ~2 years. It's a high end phone and not a cheap cable.

USB-C cable ends love to collect lint. Get a stiff-bristled nylon brush and you can clean them out good as new :)

Any hope of a new Surface Book? My 2 is getting a bit long in the tooth, but I've been holding out for the next iteration rather than buying a 3.

Sadly I think the Surface Laptop Studio has replaced the Surface Book line.

It's such an interesting form factor, but the tech falls just annoyingly short. It seems like something Apple could find themselves doing as their iPad/Macbooks converge anyway. (MacBook pro, detachable touchscreen iPad screen)

I still have my SB2 and I'm not really sure what to do with it now. Sometimes it's most useful as a tablet device connected to the surface dock cable.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com