Surface ‘Power Cover’ to be launched after Surface 2 this year

by Mark Tyson on 6 September 2013, 10:30

Tags: Surface

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Various news sources including WinSuperSite and Neowin have info regarding a new useful new Microsoft Surface accessory in the works. The accessory, due later this year, is known as a ‘Power Cover’ and it combines the well regarded Microsoft ‘Type Cover’ keyboard with a battery pack to add a “significant” boost to battery life. The new ‘Power Cover’ will ship after the launch of the Surface 2/Surface Pro 2.

Surface 2 offers a "modest upgrade"

Surface 2

Some sketchy details about the Surface Pro 2 also emerged a day or so ago. The Surface Pro 2 will have a Haswell processor, more RAM and a new two-angle kickstand. The new architecture should provide a boost to the battery life as we are seeing with many other manufacturer laptop refreshes. The Surface 2 will be supplied with a choice of 4 or 8GB of RAM. As mentioned above the built-in kickstand will offer at least one more choice of viewing angle. The Surface RT 2 will be known simply as Surface 2.

Power Cover

A long lasting battery is of great utility for mobile productivity. The upcoming ‘Power Cover’ will provide a significant stamina boost to your Surface Pro, Surface 2 or Surface Pro 2 device but isn’t compatible with the original Microsoft Surface RT.

Highlighting the magnetic connector and the difference between the type and touch covers

Using the same keyboard mechanism as the existing ‘Type Cover’ the ‘Power Cover’ will provide a good tactile typing experience. However the battery does add to the weight and bulk. The new battery augmented cover will be over double the weight of the ‘Type Cover’ weighing in at 520g. Also the ‘Power Cover’ will be noticeably thicker at 9.75mm compared to 5.33mm.

The Power Cover charges when the Surface is charging and when mains is disconnected acts as a power source to keep the Surface ‘tablet’ topped up – so the battery in the keyboard accessory will be used in preference/first.

Important info for Surface customers, including pricing and how much extra battery life users can expect from a machine equipped with a ‘Power Cover’, is not known at this time.

HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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Posted by SuGaR847 - Fri 06 Sep 2013 10:54
So to make this thing usable you need to add a battery and a keyboard which makes it thicker and heavier. I have a feeling that I have seen this before. I think it's called a laptop!
Posted by scaryjim - Fri 06 Sep 2013 10:58
No, the surface will be perfectly usable as a tablet (I've had a mess with a couple of Win 8 tablets and it's quite a nice experience), the cover will simply add both a keyboard for productivity and an extra battery slice - so you'll only need to take it with you when you're particularly worried about battery or typing a lot. There's plenty of other tablets with keyboard/battery docks out there - why the hate for Microsoft's implementation?
Posted by TheAnimus - Fri 06 Sep 2013 11:03
SuGaR847
So to make this thing usable you need to add a battery and a keyboard which makes it thicker and heavier. I have a feeling that I have seen this before. I think it's called a laptop!
Think of it as a bit of a choice.

You might be going on holiday, you bring the type cover for the long flight out there. Allows you to have a good 12+ hours of battery life for the flight.

But once there you also want to be able to bring it out to a coffee shop as you need to get some work done, but you don't need anything more than the touch cover. So you just bring that.
Posted by Dooms - Fri 06 Sep 2013 11:05
I always liked this feature on my Transformer. Having a keyboard with battery allowed me to charge (and protect the screen) while the device was in my bag and also had the keyboard for if I actually needed to do something productive but when just using it for media or browsing I can have a tablet.

It raised my transformer battery from 9ish to 14ish hours and also while using the tablet I could charge the keyboard off in the corner of the room and when I packed up and shoved it into my bag it would recharge the tab ;)
Posted by kingpotnoodle - Fri 06 Sep 2013 11:06
SuGaR847
So to make this thing usable you need to add a battery and a keyboard which makes it thicker and heavier. I have a feeling that I have seen this before. I think it's called a laptop!

It's detachable, it's different and makes a good tablet and really not a laptop. Problem I realised when I read all the reviews is the lack of “lap stability”, I don't get a useful table on the trains I get, I need it to sit on my lap rigidly docked to the keyboard if I want to work and the Surface doesn't really work for that. I'm still waiting for my ideal lightweight dockable tablet/keyboard combo, hoping Silvermont will allow a design I find light enough AND powerful enough… (I don't have super high demands for the latter, my current laptop is an AMD Turion 1.3GHz).

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