Surface Pro 2 Power Cover Question

[rubaxter]

I noticed the current Type cover will comfortably dock 'backwards' on a Surface Pro, with the cover over the back of the tablet. Sorta handy to keep a keypad around without having to carry it in a bag/leaving it laying on the Barnes & Noble cafe table by mistake.

Anybody know if:

Will the new power/battery Type cover effectively dock effectively like this, so it's like a piggyback battery, or will it only supply power when docked with the cover acting like a normal keyboard for the screen? I don't know if the battery elves have been working overtime on this, but it would seem possible with some hardware magic in the cover...

 

[demandarin]

the way the power cover works is that it will constantly supply the pro with power till its charged up. once charged up, then the pro will operate off of cover battery till depleted. but the cover will always be supplying the device power to keep it fully charged. so when the cover battery does die out, the tablet will be topped off. then the cover will act like a normal keyboard. this was confirmed by one of our own members who attended the release event. it was also mentioned on redditt also.

the cover should be able to flip all the way back with no issue like the other covers. flip it backwards behind tablet or in front to act as a cover.

 

[mitchellvii]

The battery cover looks appealing but $200 is just nuts considering I can buy a pretty nice tablet for that. The battery cover will add quite a bit of thickness and weight.

 

[Deleted member 10837]

"The Cover will be thicker and heavier than the Type Cover: .38 inches compared to .21 inches and 1.1 pounds compared to .55 pounds. In essence – be prepared to add some heft to your tablet PC."

New "Power Cover" to be released for Microsoft's Surface tablets | Windows Phone Central

 

[Harri]

You do actually bring up a good point though. The added thickness would cause the case hinge to be longer to be able to compensate the raise of the thickness. Didn't even think about that till now, no idea how Microsoft will do that.

 

[oion]

You do actually bring up a good point though. The added thickness would cause the case hinge to be longer to be able to compensate the raise of the thickness. Didn't even think about that till now, no idea how Microsoft will do that.

That depends on whether the hinge is located at the top of the keyboard or the bottom of the battery pack. I'm guessing the former, because then the hinge can be manufactured to the same specs as the other regular keyboards.

But as for putting the keyboard on backwards while in tablet mode (to avoid the weird feeling moving keys on the backside), that's not part of the original design--there's a circuit in the keyboard that disconnects when you fold it backwards instead of attaching backwards. The question then is whether the "unintended" use by some people causes bugginess in the keyboard, though I don't think we have consistent data for that. For the battery keyboard, I would ask if the connector is "any direction" like the magnetic charger or if it requires a "unidirectional" attachment.

 

[mitchellvii]

"The Cover will be thicker and heavier than the Type Cover: .38 inches compared to .21 inches and 1.1 pounds compared to .55 pounds. In essence – be prepared to add some heft to your tablet PC."

New "Power Cover" to be released for Microsoft's Surface tablets | Windows Phone Central

Geesh that's almost a deal killer. Twice as thick and over 3 pounds total weight for SP? The new Yoga Pro 2 with a 13 inch screen weighs less.

 

[Deleted member 10837]

Geesh that's almost a deal killer. Twice as thick and over 3 pounds total weight for SP? The new Yoga Pro 2 with a 13 inch screen weighs less.

Surface Pro 2 with the Power Cover will weigh 3.146 pounds and be 0.911" thick. Assuming a base use time of 3.5 hours and power saving of 20% from Haswell plus 30Wh extension which is 71% of the Surface's 42Wh, you would get 7 hours 12 minutes or 205%.

 

[rubaxter]

...

But as for putting the keyboard on backwards while in tablet mode (to avoid the weird feeling moving keys on the backside), that's not part of the original design--

...

All I can say is, even as a non-power user of the original Surface Pro (i.e., not a 'designer' or specifier of official 'intended use'), this is an obvious configuration that should have been apparent in user feedback (I would have mentioned it, and the array of other pseudo-tablets with fold-back keyboards is a dead giveaway), and this capability should have been available in an 'enhanced design'. As for the press releases, this should at least covered somewhere if it possible as it would be a great selling point, but as it's not there's a real 'luggability' issue that raises it ugly head.

Unfortunately, this all sounds like I might just as well carry around something like a MacBook Air if I have to keep the keyboard flopping off the front to take advantage of the battery boost, or opt for one of those pseudo-laptops that advertises folding the keyboard back.

And, that's not even considering what appears to be a "oops, it 3 days to release and we just realized" revised mid-December release for the unit I have, up to now, pre-ordered...

And, we'll not talk about the unit I've sold to make this upgrade less expensive...

Severely Disappointed

 

[oion]

All I can say is, even as a non-power user of the original Surface Pro (i.e., not a 'designer' or specifier of official 'intended use'), this is an obvious configuration and docking use, should have been apparent in user feedback (I would have mentioned it, and the array of other pseudo-tablets with fold-back keyboards is a dead giveaway), and should have been in an 'enhanced design'. As for the press releases, this should at least covered somewhere, but as it's not (as it would be a great feature) there's a real 'luggability' issue.

Unfortunately, this all sounds like I might just as well carry around something like a MacBook Air if I have to keep the keyboard flopping off the front to take advantage of the boost, or opt for one of those pseudo-laptops that advertises folding the keyboard back.

And, that's not even considering what appears to be a mid-December release for the unit I pre-ordered...

Severely Disappointed

I didn't say that you couldn't do it, as plenty of people use the regular Touch/Type covers this way; I was speculating whether the original design intent would travel to the power cover, and if it would have directional requirements--NO ONE KNOWS because no one has a power cover.

Edit to add: It's also possible that the power connector will be bidirectional like the charger. Again, speculation. There's no reason for you to be "Severely Disappointed" when, simply, no one knows.

 

[7SAN]

The important question is, is it backlit?

 

[jnjroach]

No....it is modified off of the Type 1.