To test this feature, visit your live site.

No charger for Europe?

Apparently Microsoft is contemplating dropping the charger for their Surface line in “certain European markets”. Don’t know if this is part of Trump’s tariff war or there is some other reason behind it, maybe gauging reactions?

4 comments

Comments (4)

darkmagistric

My understanding is that in Europe, its somewhat of a common practice. Not sure if that's applied to Surface or Laptops, but I know in terms of gaming consoles (more so the old ones), the charger/power supply was in many times a separate purchase. I have a friend from Germany who brought that to my attention years back.

If Microsoft did start shipping things without the charger, I can't say I wouldn't be surprised. With the more recent devices, they advertise "Fast Charging" but only with the 65w charger. Aside from the 15-inch laptops, the Pro and Laptop 13-inchers come with a 45w charger. I suspect that was done largely to persuade people to buy the faster charger which is a separate purchase. While obviously a cash grab, I think was also done to get consumers accustomed to buying the charger separate.

But also with Microsoft's release of the USB-4 dock, I suspect Surface connect may not be long for this world. Especially when Thunderbolt 5 hits . Either they need to beef up Surface Connect, or more likely they'll just ditch it, hopefully with the addition of a 3rd TB4/5 port if we're lucky.

However if they do go all USB-C and stop giving chargers (at least for low powered devices) I wouldn't really mind. I have multiple 100w-140w USB-C chargers everywhere. With so many devices nowadays using USB-C power, I would suspect many households are likely the same. they would have to include the cable though, that's parts still a nightmare with USB-C.

Edited

JoeS

Mar 23

Yeah as Dale says, the EU requires that all devices offer USB-C charging. Maybe the law includes fine print that says that you may not then also supply a charger that uses a different standard.

Kumabjorn

Mar 23

Replying to

The confusing part of their statement for me as a European was that it didn’t say EU but rather “certain European markets” which I interpret as countries outside the EU (Norway, Switzerland, Moldavia, etc.)

dstrauss

Mar 21

It's being pitched as "compliance" with the EU's attack on tech waste, but I think it is the first salvo in ditching chargers and pocketing a little more profit (they did not lower the price in the EU when they did this). Now that Thunderbolt is ubiquitous, there really is NO justification for Surface connect other than for businesses who invested too heavily in it in the first place.