On: Surface Pro 3

[TTPrograms]

Plus power. That means two cables! That's literally double the number of things I should need to plug in.

I hate to admit that this actually bothers me. It's true of all laptops, though.

[ghshephard → TTPrograms]

Given that Thunderbolt 3 can supply 100 Watts out - you would think there would be an equivalent trick one could do to bring power in

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/181099-next-gen-thunder...

[shanselman → TTPrograms]

The new Lenovos have a "one dock" plug that does USB, video, and power on one plug. It's lovely.

[TTPrograms → shanselman]

Yet another reason for my next laptop to be a Lenovo...

[Too → shanselman]

Last time I saw a USB dock with video the video performance was really poor, max 30hz at 720p etc... Do you have any experience of how these work?

[jrockway → Too]

I'm guessing the dock is Thunderbolt, since Intel CPUs support it directly, and it does video, USB, and power.

[Pxtl → TTPrograms]

Wait, so USB 3 still doesn't solve the problem of "Host needs to draw power from the connection"? That the connection has to be in client/charging mode or hosting-periphs/supplying-power mode?

That's always been a massive disapointment in USB - the fact that you can't host and draw power through the same port at the same time. Big part of the reason you don't see many docks for non-iOS devices.

[Ogre → TTPrograms]

For MacBooks there's these things: http://hengedocks.com

I had one for an older laptop. Worked fine, but I didn't use it much just because I wasn't at my desk at home very much.

[jimmaswell → TTPrograms]

The cables really don't sound like that big of a deal.

I'd much rather use a wired keyboard and mouse anyway. Every wireless one of either that I've tried has had lag and connectivity issues.