USB on Surface Pro power adapter

I am using the convenient USB port on the Surface Pro 7 power adapter, and I was wondering why it’s only for power and not Data as well – seems it would be useful and easy to have it as another USB-A port on the Surface! Has Microsoft ever indicated why it is only power and not data as well

Conversation 6 comments

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    11 August, 2021 - 7:44 pm

    <p>Cost most likely.</p>

  • rob_segal

    Premium Member
    12 August, 2021 - 2:28 am

    <p>It’s also not convenient. If it’s a USB device you never remove, it could be fine. Other than that, it wouldn’t be very useful.</p>

    • whistlerpro

      13 August, 2021 - 5:59 am

      <p>Yes if you compare it to the ethernet plug on the new iMac power bricks, that works because you never unplug the power brick. </p>

  • paradyne

    13 August, 2021 - 11:58 am

    <p>AFAIK the data signals on the Surface Connect port are closer to PCI Express. That’s how it is able to have a dock with multiple ports and video outputs, or in the case of the Surface Book, an external GPU (the tablet part has a regular Surface Connect as the connection to the base).</p><p><br></p><p>Without simple USB signals exposed on the port, you’d need a longer and thicker cable that can handle PCIe data speeds and then some more complex electronics in the PSU to provide a USB host adapter.</p><p><br></p><p>So yeah, lots of cost and complexity even though it looks simple to do.</p>

    • simard57

      15 August, 2021 - 1:50 pm

      <p>thanks for the useful response. your explanation covers the technical reasons well. </p><p><br></p><p>As to the usefulness comments preceding yours, I would not have asked if I did not have a use case for it.</p>

  • phjeong

    22 August, 2021 - 9:49 pm

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I honestly have no clue about what was being discussed at first. However, I am really impressed with the answers and how they made me learn more about this stuff. They’re pretty amazing. I learned a lot of answers.</span></p>

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