Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a demo showcase at the Microsoft Visitor Center in Redmond, Washington. The drive was lovely with uncharacteristically warm and sunny weather. It was so warm, in fact, that we were running the air conditioner – in October! There was a bit of haze in the air from all the wildfires on the West coast, but since the air quality index was not in the red, we decided to turn off the air conditioner and cruise with the windows down.

This trip had a very specific focus:

1. take measurements of the Surface Pro 9 to see what accessory cross-compatibility there is with the Surface Pro 8 and Surface Pro X
2. be on the lookout for any cool features that the tech press missed

Surface Pro 9

I can confirm that the Surface Pro 9 is the same form-factor and thickness as the Pro 8, but with the port spacings of the Pro X. Here is a side-by-side:

Surface Pro 9

Surface Pro 8

More specifically, the physical changes between the Pro 8 -> Pro 9 are:

• volume and power button location changed from sides to top edge
• no 3.5mm headphone jack
• USB-C/Thunderbolt ports moved to left-side of device in same spot as the Pro X
• SurfaceConnect/SurfLink docking port shifted up by 69.8mm to the same spot as the Pro X

Pen and typecover compatibility is unchanged since magnet and keyboard connector locations are the same.

Below are photos showing the measurements of the Pro 9. I used the wrong lens for close-ups so apologies for the mild distortion. Click for higher-resolution photos.

SurfLink – right sidePower/Volume buttons on topTB4 ports – left-sideEdge->SurfLinkEdge->Surflink closeupEdge->TB4 spacingTB4 port spacingButton keepoutPower button widthVolume rocker widthEdge->power centerEdge->Volume center

Screen->Surflink center

Screen->TB4 center

MS Audio Dock

I also got to experience the Microsoft Audio Dock ($249.99 USD). It is a USB-C dock with the following features:

• Dock features
  • integrated 1m USB-C laptop cable
  • 60W PD laptop charging
  • 1x HDMI 2.0 (4K60)
  • 2x USB-C (10Gb/s / 7.5W)
    • one port with DP alt mode for 1x4K60 video or 2x 4K60 via separate MST hub w/DSC
  • 1x USB 3.x (10Gb/s / 7.5W)
• Audio features
  • integrated stereo speakers
    • 2x ~50mm woofers (15W total)
    • 2x ~25mm tweeters (5W total)
  • up to 90dB SPL (probably measured at 1kHz and 0.5m distance?)
  • based on Rockchip RK2108 SoC with integrated audio codec
  • Texas Instruments TAS5805 23-watt Class-D amplifier
  • 70Hz-10KHz for music / 200Hz-8kHz for audio/video conferencing
  • two omnidirectional microphones “arrays”
• Other
  • dedicated Teams button along with volume, mute and pause/play
  • Barrel-jack style PSU
  • optional Presenter+ remote ($79.99 USD)

The build quality is a amazing and the sound even better. The demo staff graciously accepted my request to disconnect the dock from the demo system and we discovered together that the rubber foot has a cavity where you can coil-up the cable. Is this simply to hide the cable to reduce desk clutter? Or is it for travel? Given the size and weight and the companion power brick, I’m not sure how useful this would be for traveling. But then it dawned on me that there could be a forthcoming lithium-ion powered version that could double as a portable wireless Bluetooth speaker.

The MS staff could neither confirm nor deny this.

Cable coiled upPartially uncoiledFully uncoiled

Closeup

It is obvious that the Dock is designed with accessibility in mind. Each of the ports has raised shapes distinguishing the port type – almost like a simple Braile code. The full size USB port had two protruding dots, USB-C had one dot, and HDMI had a pill-shaped bar. The USB-C port adjacent to the HDMI port also had a printed logo indicating monitor capability.

Closeup of USB-C cable entry and ports

I’m planning a return visit within the next week, so let me know if there is anything you want to know.

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More reading

Here are some Reddit discussion threads with additional insights from the Surface enthusiast community: