A new patent filed by Microsoft hints that the company might be planning to re-imagine the USB-C connector with magnetic latching mechanisms, bringing the benefits of both worlds to future devices.
Microsoft’s Surface line of devices hasn’t been the quickest to adopt USB-C in comparison to other OEMs that manufacture premium PCs. While devices like the Surface Book 2, Surface Go and the Surface Studio 2 debuted with the universal port, they serve different purposes on each device and still lack the Thunderbolt 3 standard. The new Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 omitted the port completely. For those not in the know, the Thunderbolt 3 standard based on USB-C enables super-fast data transfers of up to 40Gbps, can be used for charging the device and is capable of powering up to two 4K monitors with just a single port.
Microsoft hasn’t been shy in admitting that the exclusion of the port stems from the ambiguity that the port may bring, akin to the micro-USB port on the Surface 3 tablet that caused confusion when users tried charging the device with their phone chargers.
