Do you want a Surface Studio but don’t want to pay the premium price? Kensington can make your dream come true through a new docking station built for the cheaper Surface Pro. It essentially holds Microsoft’s detachable in an all-in-one-PC-style configuration while expanding the device’s connectivity. Unfortunately, there’s no current release date although it will definitely ship with a $350 price tag.
“The SD7000’s articulating hinge allows the Surface Pro to be comfortably positioned upright as a display or at a perfect drafting table angle,” the company says. “A magnetic connection for Surface Pen keeps it handy and ready for use. With a small desktop footprint and clean lines, the Surface Pro Docking Station is designed to look as good as it functions.”
According to Kensington, the Surface Pro simply slides and locks into place, presumably connecting the docking station to the Surface Connect port located on the right side of Microsoft’s detachable. With this physical connection, Kensington’s dock expands the Surface Pro with an additional headphone jack, one USB-C port, four USB-A ports, an Ethernet port, one DisplayPort connector, and one HDMI port.
That said, your Surface Pro can be transformed into an all-in-one Windows 10 PC supporting two external monitors with resolutions of up to 3,840 x 2,160 (aka 4K) each. That means you can add a keyboard and mouse, an external hard drive, a physical network connection, and so on. You can still use the Surface Pen that’s magnetically stored on the dock’s left grip.
Of course, if you’re worried that someone will swipe your Surface Pro and docking station while you’re out to lunch, Kensington will sell a separate Lock Module for $30 that anchors the dock to your desk. It connects directly to the Kensington lock on the back of the dock, which presumably prevents the locking mechanism holding the Surface Pro in place from letting go of the device.
Again, there’s no current release date for the new $350 dock. Eventually shipped as the SD7000 Dual 4K Surface Pro Docking Station (K62917), it will be on display in Las Vegas during Microsoft Inspire from July 15 to July 19, and also during Microsoft Ready from July 18 to July 20 in Las Vegas as well.
The latest version of Microsoft’s Surface Pro starts at $799. There are seven set configurations spanning from Intel’s m3 processor with 4GB of system memory and 128GB of storage to Intel’s Core i7 processor with 16GB of system memory and 1TB of storage, the latter of which costs $2,399. Meanwhile, the all-in-one Surface Studio starts at $2,999 and can reach up to $4,199 in price.
So while the Surface Pro plus Kensington’s dock is a cheaper alternative, you will miss out on the big 28-inch screen and discrete graphics. Still, Kensington’s new dock is an awesome way to use your Surface Pro in a desktop-like scenario, and a cooler solution than Microsoft’s own $200 Surface Dock.
