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Comment by reynoldsbd | Hacker News Reader

Finally, USB-C in a Surface product!

I'm actually really glad they have up until now left USB-C out. We're at a point in USB-C's life I'd consider it an anti-feature, and the Surface Book 2's no exception: This particular USB-C port is really only useful for adding a second display. It's more or less fine as an extra port, but anywhere it takes away a Type A port, or even the Mini-DP it replaced is a little sad.

Marco Arment posted this a couple days ago, and it sums up... some of... the issues with USB-C: https://marco.org/2017/10/14/impossible-dream-of-usb-c

We had a discussion stemming from that article at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15473777

My take (it's not positive): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15474131

It certainly has its quirks and limitations.

For a mobile device one big plus of USB-C is USB-PD and the ecosystem of fast chargers and power banks it brings/will-bring. You can also use one charger for both your phone and laptop, which is useful even if you can’t charge both at the same time.

Ignore everything else and it’s a nice upgrade just for this.

My Surface Pro charger (the same one that comes with the Surface Book IIRC) has a USB port for charging phones as well, and unlike a USB-C charger, charges both at the same time.

While I lament non-standard implementations, much like Apple's old MagSafe adapter and the Surface connector, sometimes the non-standard version is vastly superior.

That still leaves out issue of powerbanks, more devices and probably fast-charging.

Still a USB charging port on a regular charges seems mighty convenient and I’m certainly jealous!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com