You've got the pOO000WWWEEEER - PowerCover for Surface Pro 1 and 2 coming Mach 19

[jollywombat]

I guess I will know next week when it arrives, I do know that the Surface Team designed this with a couple of specific use cases and haven't anticipated this being used as the primary keyboard.

This confuses me as to why they would not anticipate this being a primary keyboard. The reason to buy the power cover would be if you are going to be using the device for extended periods of time since you need the extra battery life. Do they think that we will then plug in an external keyboard to use WITH the power keyboard....?

 

[jnjroach]

This confuses me as to why they would not anticipate this being a primary keyboard. The reason to buy the power cover would be if you are going to be using the device for extended periods of time since you need the extra battery life. Do they think that we will then plug in an external keyboard to use WITH the power keyboard....?

The expectation was that the Touch or Type Cover would be the primary and the Power Cover would be used for International Flights, or if you were going to be away from mains for longer than 7 hours on the Pro or 12 on the Surface 2. The Power Cover makes the Pro line just as a heavy as a mainstream Ultrabook...

Now what is cool is the way Power Cover works, it keeps the main battery charged until the Cover's battery is exhausted then you're on the main battery.

 

[zurface]

Backlight is not a big deal for me at all-- my current laptop doesn't have it and I've honestly never even thought about it. I'm just glad the power cover is finally happening. I've been using a keyboardless SP2 for over 3 months and it's going to be like having a new machine.

 

[EthanDavis]

I spoke with Microsoft over the phone and the sales rep checked with his supervisor and confirmed it IS backlit.

 

[Sher the Love]

Now what is cool is the way Power Cover works, it keeps the main battery charged until the Cover's battery is exhausted then you're on the main battery.

Anyone think that might cause heating issues? Let's say your battery drops to 30%, you connect your power cover to charge and drop it in your bag. Now it's charging in a closed environment. God help us if it randomly wakes itself (as some have reported) while it's charging in a bag or slip case.

I think if I were to get this cover, I'd stay away from that scenario.

 

[Johntxk]

I'm just happy it is finally here. I have a lot of remote time and my surface is my favorite device.

 

[GoodBytes]

Anyone think that might cause heating issues? Let's say your battery drops to 30%, you connect your power cover to charge and drop it in your bag. Now it's charging in a closed environment. God help us if it randomly wakes itself (as some have reported) while it's charging in a bag or slip case.

So? Processors are designed to operates under high temperature (100C). The Surface Pro 2 turns off Turbo Boost at 80 degrees Celsius, creating a certain level of throttling system. In addition, Intel processors has the ability to throttle itself down its minimum clock frequencies (750MHz in this case) if it's still hot. That is all assuming you just happen to be running PCMark stressing the system at max, while using Balance or High Performance instead of Power Saver, and on battery, and decided to put the system to sleep while doing this, AND turns on while being in sleep. A very unlikely situation if you ask me, and clearly asking for trouble, and even if you, as mentioned, the system has overheating protection system in place.

If you are not doing this, the device is indeed get warm (assuming it turns on you), but won't even reach 80C. The device will go back to sleep by timeout (assuming it woke up from it while in bag), or you'll arrive at your destination before it happens. I mean you need quiet a hit to have the power button of teh Surface Pro 2 form being pressed, which is unlikely to happen in your bag. And assuming it happens, this must be that the accelerometer of the keyboard got confused (possible), and thinks it's open to enables the keyboard and high pressure is applied on the device (unlikely in your bag) to press a key and have the device wake up, and assume you don't have a idle time of timeout to go back to sleep, you can disable the keyboard and trackpad from waking the device as it is by default on laptops.

So I think you are overreacting a bit.

 

[carpecervisi]

<snip>
Now what is cool is the way Power Cover works, it keeps the main battery charged until the Cover's battery is exhausted then you're on the main battery.

Any word on how the Cover charges? Does it have to be docked or is there a magnetic coupler on the back/side for charging separately?

 

[fsphill]

It charges while attached to the Pro, which in turn needs to be attached to its charger.

 

[be77solo]

I spoke with Microsoft over the phone and the sales rep checked with his supervisor and confirmed it IS backlit.

The miscommunication from MS is crazy... most things I've run across do confirm not backlit.

 

[WMS Kronus]

Bluetooth would defeat the purpose of this Keyboard. It must be physically connected to provide extended power. If you also wish Bluetooth capability you could get the Bluetooth attachment which you could use with all your type covers albeit at extra cost.

Having a Bluetooth keyboard that could also be used to extend power when mobile would be a better selling point than just selling an overpriced battery in a cheap piece of plastic with keys for $200.

 

[GoodBytes]

In Microsoft defense, this is the market price for keyboard addon with batteries (if we ignore the ultra crappy ones where the keyboard just simply sucks, and the battery, if any, only adds a few hours).
But yes, I agree. I would like to see at least a USB 2.0 port on it. Why not 3.0? Well I assume that the keyboard connector is USB 3.0 port (it could also be propitiatory, which means it can't offer USB), and it shares keyboard and track pad already. So to provide full bandwidth without interference under max load with the trackpad and keyboard, it will probably have to be USB 2.0, like the dock station.