A desktop replacement just beneath the Surface

MICROSOFT has expended plenty of air touting its new Surface Pro 3 tablet as a laptop replacement.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 docking station.

MICROSOFT has expended plenty of air touting its new Surface Pro 3 tablet as a laptop replacement, once endowed with the optional Type Cover keyboard, but the gadget also has pretensions as a desktop.

To turn the Surface Pro 3 into a quasi desktop you will have to fork out $230 for the Docking Station which adds a bunch of ports to supplement the single USB 3 port and mini DisplayPort on the Pro 3.

The 650g black plastic dock holds the Pro 3 horizontally. To attach it, you slide out the edges of the dock, drop the tablet in and slide the edges back. The right edge engages with the power port on the Pro 3, through which the two devices talk to each other.

The dock comes with its own power supply that must be plugged in for the device to work; it also charges the Pro 3. Once hooked up there are five USB ports (three are USB 3.0) to play with, which means you can leave a corded mouse and keyboard permanently in place, although the Type Cover sits sweetly under the dock in both its positions if you want to use it as the keyboard.

The left edge is magnetised to hold the Pro 3’s digitiser pen and there’s a gigabit Ethernet port for a wired connection. There’s a miniDisplayPort for a permanent screen hook up. I would have liked to see an HDMI connector.

Rating 8/10