It’ll go on sale this Friday for businesses
Originally announced in 2017, the dongle is still nowhere to be seen, as Microsoft has decided to hold it back for no clear reason. It will finally become available through the typical commercial channels later this week, but there’s still no word as to when consumers can purchase it.
The USB-C dongle, which will be sold for $79.99, enables USB-C support on the Surface Laptop and the Surface Pro. It only works with two devices, technically expanding the range of Surface models supporting USB-C to three, as the Surface Book 2 features such capabilities built-in.
As one can easily figure out, the USB-C dongle’s role is to allow Surface Laptop and Surface Pro owners to plug in their USB-C accessories. It uses a Surface Connector to connect to the laptops and features just a single USB-B port.
At 82mm x 40mm x 20mm, the dongle has nearly the same dimensions as the Surface power charger, and it weighs 90 grams. It requires an external power source with minimum power output of 27W and 12V, and devices must run Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703) or newer. In addition to support for USB-C peripherals, the adapter also allows charging via the USB-C port.
Considering the price, it’ll be interesting to see how many customers would actually purchase the dongle, though there’s a good chance that sales would mostly focus on enterprises and not on consumers. This is one of the reasons Microsoft kicks off sales within commercial channels first.
There’s a been a lot of talk regarding future connectivity options for the next-generation models, and it’s believed that Microsoft could eventually make the switch entirely from the Surface Connector to USB-C. Such a decision would essentially render the new dongle rather useless, as only older models would continue to support it.
