Surface Dock is designed to work with the widest range of Surface devices including Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, and your existing Surface Pro 3 devices.
With a single, flexible cable the new Surface Dock quick-connects with Surface. It provides up to 60W of power and expands the range of ports available when you are at your desk, without taking up any USB ports on the device itself.
In this Microsoft Mechanics video, David Spillers, senior program manager for Surface devices, takes us on a comprehensive tour of the new Surface Dock, including:
- Key aspects of its design;
- It’s support for Gigabit Ethernet and four additional USB 3.0 devices; and
- Details on its two Mini DisplayPorts, offering support for up to two external displays in addition to the Surface’s own display, without the need to daisy chain.
He demonstrates how the Surface dock’s design frees you to make full use of Surface in laptop, tablet, and canvas mode while connected to a full complement of peripherals. This video also provides guidance on connecting HD and 4K DisplayPort monitors, and on adapter selection when using monitors with only HDMI or DVI interfaces.
With the recent firmware updates made to Surface Dock, you’ll want to make sure you’re using the correct type of adaptor to get the maximum resolution from your Surface device. If you’re planning on connecting a monitor with a resolution greater than 1920×1200, to get full resolution you’ll need to use an active adapter.
Speaking of Surface Dock firmware updates, you have three options to keep the Surface Dock up to date:
- Connecting the device to the dock and updating the device using Windows Update (WU)
- Connecting the device to the dock and updating the device using MSI or ZIP file for the device available on the Microsoft Download Center
- Using new Dock Updater Tool available from the Microsoft Download Center. This tool is useful if you are an IT Pro looking for a way to update multiple docks in the least amount of time.
Watch for a step by step walk-through of these options in this Mechanics video.