NEW Microsoft Surface Dock 2, Ethernet For Notebook

I've been using a Surface Dock 2 (purchased from another retailer) with a Surface Pro X. I connected the Dock to the monitor using a VGA adapter I'd been using with an older computer. At first the new setup worked fine but after a few months the monitor began to flicker. Sometimes the monitor wouldn't display anything at all. Each time I turned the computer on I had to fiddle with the connection but eventually, fiddling no longer worked. Eventually I stopped trying and made due with just the Pro X monitor. Needless to say, I was quite frustrated. As time when y I continued to search for a solution directly with Microsoft, on the web and here on Amazon's pages. I noted that many other Dock 2 users were having similar frustrations. The monitor I was using was an older model so I bought a one. The problems continued with the new monitor. Thinking the VGA cable I was using might have been the source of the trouble, I tried a new one of those, another VGA. That didn't fix the issues either. Well, the other day I decided to take last shot with an HDMI cable, purchased here on Amazon (USB C - HDMI 6 ft Benfei) for about $10. Today I plugged it in. Immediately, the monitor worked flawlessly! I don't know if all VGA connectors fail with the Dock 2 but clearly, mine did. So my recommendation is to go the HDMI route from the start and save yourself a lot of potential grief. By the way, I've loved the Pro X itself from the beginning.

Works great with the surface studio laptop. I have a 5120x1440 monitor that I have a single USB-C to DisplayPort cable connected to the dock. It is able to drive that monitor in HDR without any issues. Charging is at full speed as well. It also has a gigabit Ethernet connection They provide enough usb ports for a non insane person. My desktop on the other hand uses about 15 usb ports and has a hub. I haven’t required a use case with this dock to add much and don’t really fill them all. If your laptop is your primary computer then I could see the need to buy a hub in addition to this dock Works great with the surface studio laptop. I have a 5120x1440 monitor that I have a single USB-C to DisplayPort cable connected to the dock. It is able to drive that monitor in HDR without any issues. Charging is at full speed as well. It also has a gigabit Ethernet connection or at least what my router is reporting. They provide enough usb ports for a non insane person. My desktop on the other hand uses about 15 usb ports and has a hub. I haven’t required a use case with this dock to add much and don’t really fill them all. If your laptop is your primary computer then I could see the need to buy a hub in addition to this dock. I don’t know if anything gets bottlenecked. But it seems to handle a lot of data transfer over this thin cable. Very satisfied about how slick and robust this dock is.

I have a Surface Laptop 4 that I wanted to dock into a more desktop PC like setup with a mouse, keyboard, and external monitor, but I didn't want a bunch of cables hanging out of the laptop and that I would have to yank when I wanted to take the laptop on the go. I initially thought of getting a USB C hub with charging support and lots of USBs and HDMI etc, because the Surface does support charging and display over USB C, but I decided to splurge and get the official Microsoft Surface Dock 2 instead, as I love the magnetic Surface connector. Now I can plug everything and the kitchen sink into my laptop with just one cable. So far the only things I have plugged into the dock are the receiver for my mouse, the 3.5mm audio cable going to a Bluetooth speaker that doubles as my PC speaker, and a cable in one of the front USB C ports to charge my phone and other devices at my desk. I do not yet have my external monitor (letting my bank account recover from buying this dock haha). I plan on getting a ~24" 1440p display, I may just go with one that has native USB C display support, or HDMI with an adapter cable, however some people have reported having touble doing this unless they purchased an expensive Microsoft HDMI to USB C adapter, so I will research a bit more. I will also update this review if I have trouble connecting an external display. The quality as with most official Microsoft products is really good. The dock is a hefty black box, and it feels really solid. The entire bottom is covered in a grippy rubber, so it will definitely stay put on your desk and won't flop around or get pulled off the desk top by a ton of cables being plugged in or anything. All the ports feel high quality too, the USB C ports all have a good firm click when plugging in accessories. The AC adapter brick is amusingly a bit larger than the dock itself, but the max power output of this thing is almost 200w so that's understandable. All the cables used to connect the dock are really sturdy feeling and chunky, but they are not stiff. They are still flexible enough to route them however you need for your setup. Overall, if you can drop the cash for the convenience and you have a compatible Surface PC I would highly recommend this dock! I mostly just use mine for home use, and hobby content creation like digital drawing and dabbling with music production software etc, but this would also be a great office or work-from-home companion as well.

TL:DR - This works for MS Surface Go, gen 1! USB C to HDMI seems to work with generic and quality USB c to HDMI devices. Everything seems to work as expected. Plug in, let it install the drivers, then go!...restart may be necessary. The dock itself has soft rubber(?) lining on the bottom to reduce sliding around. The dock connects to your surface with the proprietary magnetic plug that's around 32 inches so your laptop or tablet doesn't have to be stuck near the dock. Ethernet port works as expected. Audio port is both speaker + mic ports in one (similar to your cell phone). Two USB c video ports in the back so you add two monitors! I would recommend if you need more than a tablet or laptop. Detailed review - I wasn't sure if this would work well for my Surface Go but I took the chance. I also was concerned about the USB c to HDMI adapter because i'm not as familiar with the USB c protocols and devices. Both turned out to work fine together. I have my Surface Go 1 docked now, with both my HDMI monitor and HDMI TV connected to this dock. Setup was very easy. I just plugged everything in and let it set itself up. I did have to let it finish setting up and then disconnect and reconnect the connector. I suspect this necessity is a Windows thing, maybe a surface thing, because I had to do it with my generic hub as well. Reconnect it and it should work. The HDMI adapter that I bought worked easily out of the box. An interesting thing that I found was that my generic USB c hub (5 in 1 or 7 in 1 type) has an HDMI out and that worked too! This USB c display protocol that this dock has may already be in our USB c devices that have HDMI ports. I checked my device manager and display adapter settings and it appears that the HDMI connections are working off the surface's graphics cards and not the external video card types. The second biggest reason I wanted to get this dock was the Ethernet port that this dock has. My surface doesn't have an Ethernet port and I'm read that normal 7 in 1 hubs that have HDMI and Ethernet ports usually can't handle the data so I didn't want to spend the $ to find out later that I'm not getting the expected performance. I don't know how to tell how fast the Ethernet is working but I can watch a video over remote desktop with only a slight bit of lag on one of my HDMI connected monitors. The audio port with both mic and headphones is important nowadays because of the video conferencing that I've been doing and this port works as expected. One thing that was interesting was that windows identified the device as USB Audio or Headphones (USB) but this is not a problem. Final words, this is a dock, not a hub. Meaning, don't expect this to be portable. This is not a portable device, I think of this as a portability facilitator. It lets you be portable by putting all your device connections in one place AND adds more connectors and expands on what you can connect as well. It also has a power brick that is literally the same size as the dock. If you want portable, then you need something more like a hub, but those hubs are not a great solution for permanent setups either because you might need to power it with a USB c port AND your surface will still need its power supply if you don't want to just run on batteries. Then you might also need your audio connection... This is really how my setup was before this dock. My hub connected to my Surface's USB c. it needed power so it was plugged into a USB power adapter. This hub also didn't work every time and I constantly had to unplug it or its power until things connected. My Surface's power connector was also plugged into my Surface and I had an audio connection for my speakers. My device: Surface Go (model 1824) CPU: Intel Pentium 4415Y @ 1.6, 64 bit Ram 4 GB USB C to HDMI: Cable Matters Aluminum USB C to HDMI Adapter for Surface Pro 7 and More - Support 4K 60Hz and HDR https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MFW2G3K

I hooked the dock to my Surface Pro 7 upon arrival and found that the only thing it would do was charge the device. None of the other features were working. After some time on Google, I found that there were two usb devices that Windows did not recognize listed in the Device Manager. Spent another hour on Google and found a program called "USB Oblivion" that removes hidden USB devices from the device manager. Once all the hidden devices were removed and the computer rebooted, the dock began to work as it was designed. Hope this helps if anyone else is experiencing issues. Couldn't find anything on the Microsoft site about the problem. Just dumb luck I found this gem of a program.

The gen 2 of the Surface Dock was not available when I purchased the Surface Book 2. I ended up getting the gen 1 of the Surface Dock. It did a great job. However the main issue was the power delivery. You guessed it; it doesn't deliver enough juice to the device if it's operating some demanding software or games, and eventually it will keep draining the battery until it's out. I can gladly confirm that this issue is fixed with the Surface Dock 2 ! No more draining the battery :D At least with me. I would have expected it to be slimmer though, however it's almost as bulky as the first generation. If you are like me and have lots of devices with USB A peripherals, you'll need a USB hub because the new Surface Dock 2 has fewer USB A ports and instead more USB C ports. One last comment, I have faced issues with connecting a new display to the Surface Dock 2. A simple fix of registry (downloaded from the Microsoft website) has solved the issue. This might occur to you if you might have previously used the Surface Dock 1 to connect your device to an external display.

The original power charger that came with my Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio quit working, so I needed to purchase a replacement charger. It's nearly impossible to find a similar charger to the original, other than through third party options. I found out the hard way that a non-Microsoft product isn't always compatible, despite what online descriptions state. So I needed to return the replacement charger I initially purchased. Thankfully I had the original Surface Dock as a backup to use with my Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio until I received the Surface Dock 2. Like the original Surface Dock, the Surface Dock 2 works perfectly with my Laptop Studio device -- but with improved compatibility and greater power. (I always received a message about the original Surface Dock transmitting a slow charge and to use the original charger that came with my device, which was impossible.) My only real complaint is the steep cost of the Surface Dock 2 (approximately $200-$260, depending on if you can find it on sale or full price).

I bought this back in December, it worked perfectly, until April. Microsoft pushed out a Windows Update that broke this dock's ability to use USB C to DisplayPort. To be clear, if I run the USB to Displayport directly to the Microsoft Surface Pro X (I have the new 2020 version), it works fine. I have: 1. Powered down the device and restarted it (Both the dock and the tablet) 2. cleared the registry keys with Microsoft's script from their website 3. Uninstalled the Dock Firmware and tried to update it again. 4. Called Microsoft and had them REPLACE THE TABLET. This worked, until the windows update was installed, then it stopped working again. 5. Next step is Replacing the dock. This is not a good solution even if it DOES work. because once it's not under warranty anymore, if another windows update breaks it, I will have to live with it. This has been occurring on other Surface tablets over a year or more now and NOW it affects the Pro X line as well. It would seem they managed to port the "bug" in their software to ARM64 architecture. BTW, make your you keep your dock's box, or at least the serial number on it, because if you lose it throw it away, you may not be able to get it warrantied. As they made me take a picture of the SN to send them. It's a matte dark grey font on a matte charcoal background which is impossible to photograph. if I hold a flashlight at the correct angle I can read it. As of now, however, they have not responded to me if reading the SN to them will work. The Surface TABLET works great. but if you are buying one and plan to use it with this so you get a second (or even just a larger monitor to use at home/work, find a different dock. I will edit this review if Microsoft ever fixes this issue. UPDATE: in attempting to get this driver issue fixed with Microsoft I have now gone though second tablet. the latest Microsoft update broke that one as well. Keep in mind the dock works fine as long as you never update it. The then shipped a THIRD tablet, which they said would come completely updated and ready to go AND work with the surface dock. None of this was true. It was shipped in the original packaging, worked own day, I never bothered to update it because that would have ruined the dock again, and THEN it wouldn't start Windows on the the second day when I tried to power it up. it won't even load a rescue disk or BIOS. the Surface is completely bricked. Just don't but this. If you have a Surface pro X, return it if you still can, if you can't, I wish you the best of luck with yours, I am now stuck in a constant cycle of returning my surface until the warranty runs out, at which point I am certain they will just stop sending them to me and I'll be out $2000 for my entire setup. I tried to write an additional review on the Surface Pro X itself but I did not purchase it from Amazon and they have received a lot of "unusual" reviews for it, so they are only accepting reviews from verified purchases. I suspect the usual reviews are likely related to the above. PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS!

Perfect technology to give flexibility to a Surface for connectivity of peripherals,... USB, HDMI

Estuve pensando comprar un Dock Thunderbolt para utilizar con mi Surface Laptop Studio, ya que solo tiene 2 puertos USB-C con Thunderbolt, pero ya que tengo otros 2 dispositivos Surface (Pro 7 y Go 2) pensé que sería una mejor inversión este ultimo ya que les pemitiría acceder a los mismos recursos. El Surface Dock 2 es bonito, a pesar de que simplemente es una "cajita con ranuras". Se siente premium al tocarlo...su exterior, el cable de calidad y con un plástico muy fino. Es PESADO, para nada ligero...pero esto hace que lo puedas colocar en un sitio en el escritorio y que no se deslice o que lo puedas empujar fácilmente y que se caiga, aparte tiene sistema anti-derrapante, por lo que se queda donde lo colocas. El cable de conección a la laptop tiene muy buena longitud, por lo que te ayuda a posicionar bien el dispositivo en tu área de trabajo. Conectores: Tiene casi todo lo que necesitas. Tengo conectados 2 dispositivos USB-A, 1 USB-C y 2 Monitores HD. Utilicé la conección LAN sin problemas, aunque normalmente no la requiero. La carga es de 100 watts, por lo que carga mis laptops rapidísimo. ¿Qué podría pedir del dispositivo? Me hubiera gustado tener 2 salidas HDMI nativas para no tener que conectar 2 adaptadores USB-C a HDMI Me gustaría fuera un poco menos caro Me gustaría que pudiera ser utilizado por otro sistema de dispositivos, por medio de conección con Thunderbolt. Pero ahora es rápido y eficiente simplemente conectar un cable a mi latpop y tener TODO listo y a la mano: monitores, mouse, teclado, impresora, escáner. Muy satisfecho con la compra.

I had purchase this product on Amazon. After using it for few months know I am having some trouble with it. I contact Microsoft and they said that this product is not covered under their warranty as it is not sold by Microsoft India. It has been imported by someone and sold into India. At least we expect the Amazon vendors to inform the buyers that this product will not be covered under any warranty. I feel cheated

Working perfectly with my Surface pro 7 and external monitor via Uni usbc- to HDMI cable. It is worth every single cent

Recibí el producto sin ningún problema o desperfecto. Su compatibilidad con mi Surface Pro 9 se siente muy natural y sin ningún inconveniente. Algunas consideraciones que se deben tener en cuenta antes de la compra: - Es un producto muy poco portable ya que es pesado y bromoso. Cuenta con una base hecha de material antiderrapante diseñado para estar fijo en un escritorio o cualquier superficie plana. Esto es parte de su diseño como un dock de escritorio, por lo que si estas buscando un hub de acoplamiento que provea puertos extras a tu Surface y que puedas traer de manera portátil cómodamente, este no es el producto ideal. - Considerar que no tiene entradas HDMI para display, ya que ambos puertos para este fin son USB-C. Si se desea acoplar a un monitores externos a través de HDMI es necesario un adaptador adicional.