Microsoft’s upcoming ‘Surface Dock 3’ drops proprietary connector, adds Thunderbolt 4 support

What you need to know

  • Images of Microsoft’s upcoming Surface Dock have leaked.
  • The leak reveals a slimmer design and USB-C in place of Surface Connect.
  • The device is codenamed Bergamo and is expected to launch soon.

Microsoft is gearing up to ship a new Surface Dock soon that features a slimmer design and Thunderbolt 4, while also replacing the proprietary Surface Connect cable with a universal USB-C one. My sources say the device is codenamed Bergamo, and is expected to start shipping in the next handful of weeks.

Microsoft has released a number of Surface Docks in the last decade, beginning with the Surface Pro docking station in 2013. It redesigned the Surface Dock in 2015 to make it compatible with all Surface PCs with a Surface Connect port, then released the Surface Dock 2 a few years later that added support for USB-C with the same design.

The front of the new Surface Dock (Image credit: eBay)

The upcoming Surface Dock features a new design which is slimmer than the Surface Dock 2. It has a USB-A and USB-C port to the front and maintains the same I/O selection as the Surface Dock 2 on the back, which includes two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an ethernet port, and a DC connector.

I’m told this model will be the first Surface Dock to feature Thunderbolt 4 capable USB-C ports, which will provide faster data transfer speeds. Images of the device were spotted in a recent eBay listing (opens in new tab), and I can confirm the device in the photos is the real deal.

Since the new Surface Dock uses USB-C instead of Microsoft’s proprietary connector, it’s likely that the device will work on non-Surface PCs too. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t, plus other Surface accessories such as the Surface Precision Mouse and Surface Keyboard work fine with non-Surface PCs already.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update accordingly. 

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