Microsoft is introduced A new docking station for the latest Surface devices with Thunderbolt 4 ports. The Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock has eight ports, offering a comprehensive collection of eight current USB Type-C and legacy USB Type-A connectors along with 2.5GbE. One of the dock’s main selling points is its support for enterprise-grade features. But perhaps most notable is the lack of a Surface Connect port on the dock.
Microsoft’s Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock It connects to compatible hosts with 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 with 2.5 Comes with GbE and TRRS audio connectors. 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.
The unit also has an internal power supply capable of delivering up to 96 W of power to the host, which is enough to power a high-end 15 or 16 inch laptop. However, the charging capabilities are pretty limited as it can’t deliver more than 15W of power through the USB-C port.
Microsoft emphasizes that the Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock is different from previous docks because it can be used with non-Surface USB-C devices, such as Windows OEM devices and Apple Macs. As part of this compatibility, the dock lacks the company’s own Surface Connect port. It has been a mainstay of Microsoft Surface devices to date (for better or worse). Removing the proprietary port breaks compatibility with older Surface devices that only have Surface Connect ports, such as the Microsoft Surface Book 2 and Surface Pro 5, but the big picture is that Microsoft doesn’t have its own proprietary port. could indicate that the company is (eventually) dropping it entirely in favor of the more ubiquitous Thunderbolt 4/USB4 connectors.
With six ports, an audio connector, and a 2.5GbE port, the Microsoft Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock isn’t the ultimate docking station (like OWC’s 13-in-1 and 14-in-1 docks). Still, its main selling point appears to be enterprise-grade feature support, not the number of connectors. This makes it a comprehensive choice for commercial customers purchasing Microsoft Surface and other Windows-based devices.
In particular, the Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock offers firmware updates via Windows Update, Wake on LAN from Modern Standby, and MAC address passthrough. Additionally, Surface Enterprise Management Mode (SEMM) makes it easy to disable the dock port in mission-critical environments and restrict functionality to specific devices (for example, you can connect a monitor, keyboard, or webcam, but , USB drive).
Microsoft’s Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock will be available directly from Microsoft and from resellers soon for $299.
