Microsoft announced a Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock hours after it surfaced. The $299.99 Surface dock uses USB-C instead of Surface Connect. Microsoft plans to market its Surface Dock 2 with the Surface Connect connector for Surface devices without USB-C or Thunderbolt 4.
The new Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock. Image: Microsoft
This Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock supports non-Surface devices for the first time. Thunderbolt 4 provides 40Gbps data transmission and 96W charging over USB-C. The front has a USB-C connector and a USB-A port but no SD card slot. The Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock contains two USB-C connections, two USB-A ports, a 2.5-gigabit ethernet port, an audio jack, and a security lock slot on the back.
Microsoft is moving toward the end of the Surface Connect port. The Surface Laptop 5 and Surface Pro 9 have Thunderbolt 4-compatible USB-C connectors and Surface Connect connections. So a Surface device using USB-C instead of Surface Connect looks plausible. Likewise, the Surface 3 has a Micro USB charging connector instead of Surface Connect.
Microsoft supported USB-C and Thunderbolt 4 on Surface devices slowly. The Surface Pro 7 got USB-C in 2019, and the Surface Pro 8 got Thunderbolt in 2021. In 2020, Microsoft stated that Surface devices didn’t ship with Thunderbolt at the time due to security concerns.
Microsoft’s online shop sells the $299.99 Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock today.
