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Microsoft Store staff have no clue...

I found the definitive answer in a review... on the Internet... according to the review its made of black plastic and the angle is precisely defined as "comfortable" :)
 
Big point of clarification, if you call the Microsoft Store or Use the Online Microsoft Store, it is run by Digital River ( same company that handles Education Sales and Digital Downloads). They are not MS Employees. The Employees in the Brick and Mortar Stores are Microsoft Employees and Tech Support are as well...

Lol, so MS is offloading the front end of their sales cycle to poorly trained third party staff? Now I feel much better. :confused:

You know what is really annoying about this? I came so close to ordering this dock with the salesperson I spoke to until common sense kicked in and I realized it could not possibly be 45 degrees. I'd have received it, been disappointed, then had the hassle of shipping it back and probably waiting 2 weeks for a credit.
 
I found the definitive answer in a review... on the Internet... according to the review its made of black plastic and the angle is precisely defined as "comfortable" :)

That is if you have the sitting height of a yard gnome. :) Isn't 64 degrees the angle of the original SP1 that no one liked?
 
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its not plastic. Its hollow and made of magnesium or aluminium I think. I'm sure I've seen a video somewhere. ow here it is

Also if you want to tilt it closer to you just get some sticky pads for back of base. you can get very thin to chunky.
I don't think the issue is tilting it further forward, but back. Due to the steep/fixed angle of the dock, it removes one of the biggest features of the device, the ability to easily use the pen. I find it hard to believe that that many people would be willing to sacrifice the note and annotation abilities of the device just so they can gain extra ports and a big screen.
 
Hell with it, I just got a skinny mini displayport to vga cable (I prefer vga because you have more options on the monitor, such as focus, etc...) and will live with that. I was using a powered mini displayport adapter till now and the thing was so big and clunky hanging there. This is less obtrusive.

I'm wireless on the printer and can plug in my external HDD when I need it. Maybe I'll run to Bestbuy and get a wireless one of those too.

The dock is cool but just too many negatives to make it worthwhile (for me).
 
I don't think the issue is tilting it further forward, but back. Due to the steep/fixed angle of the dock, it removes one of the biggest features of the device, the ability to easily use the pen. I find it hard to believe that that many people would be willing to sacrifice the note and annotation abilities of the device just so they can gain extra ports and a big screen.

Exactly, it's like the kickstand people and the dock people didn't get the same memo. If the dock had a hinge you could tilt it back to write on the fly which would have been super awesome. Oh MS, you drive the field then throw the pick in the red zone every time.
 
Hell with it, I just got a skinny mini displayport to vga cable (I prefer vga because you have more options on the monitor, such as focus, etc...) and will live with that. I was using a powered mini displayport adapter till now and the thing was so big and clunky hanging there. This is less obtrusive.

I'm wireless on the printer and can plug in my external HDD when I need it. Maybe I'll run to Bestbuy and get a wireless one of those too.

The dock is cool but just too many negatives to make it worthwhile (for me).
Agreed. I had originally been set on the dock and willing to pay the premium over the UD3900 or whatever it is, for its convenience. But at the loss of productive pen use, its just not worth £150. Definitely bizarre that they would put all those years of work into designing an amazing tiny hinge, yet can't even get around to putting a hinge into the dock, a relatively straightforward task given its size.
 
MS has a bad habit of going for aesthetics over function. This was the reason the SP1 kickstand had only one angle. They wanted to maintain the unique sound it made when closing (word is, they were trying to make it sound like closing the door on a Mercedes - not kidding). So instead of designing multiple angles, they went for a cool sound. Remember, this is the company that spent millions on ads of hipsters dancing with tablets rather than business people actually using the damned thing.

That may have been the case with the dock. I'm sure some engineer suggested a hinge on it but got overruled because it would mess up the dock's sleek lines.
 
I didn't see in this thread that you had actually gotten the answer you were looking for, so I measured mine... it appears to still be 64 deg. Yes, it is a very nice sturdy plastic, but nice looking.
 
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