My absolute favorite fact about the Surface is that if the battery runs out, the Surface Dock power is unable to bootstrap it. You have to plug in a charger

Not sure if that's still the case but truly astonishing

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/surface-dock/tro...

To be fair, my MacBook Pro had the same issue - if the battery was dead, charging via USB-C wouldn't work, it would need the MagSafe charger. Presumably because the USB controller needs power in order to negotiate power delivery.

Never had this issue with any of my MBP. I never even have magsafe available, couldn't tell you where a USB-C to magsafe cable is in my house if my life depended on it.

While not quite what you are saying here, I have found that I like usbc charging on my 15in m3 MacBook Air way more than its magsafe. The magsafe is always falling out as soon as I move the computer on and off my lap and is another cable that I can only use for one purpose. Nowhere near as good as it was back in the early 2010s macbook days...

They are saying they don’t own a MagSafe cable and have never experienced the above anecdote of a MacBook that was too dead to be charged by USBC alone. Likewise, my M1 MacBook Pro has only ever been charged by USBC and I let it die all the way often.

In my specific case, the laptop was already at low (<10%) battery when I closed the lid, and it sat for several days without a top-up.

I would have thought that the default 5V coming through the cable should be enough to power on the chip and negotiate power delivery though?

Or was it actually working but charging only on 5V and taking a long time to wake up?

I've owned many MacBooks and have never experienced this. I usually just dump the MagSafe in the attic and use USB-C for everything.

I had a similar issue with the Nikon Z5 full frame camera. It can be charged via the built-in USB-C socket only if the battery still has some charge.

If the battery is fully dead, you have to remove it and charge it using the separate battery charger.

That means you can't travel with only a USB-C cable.

there is a hidden paperclip button you can unlock it with

MacBooks recently had this bug that you had to connect it to LAN in order to initialize it, or return it to the shop. It's not all perfect in Apple world.

Still, Windows is a problem here. I wonder what the monthly fee is to get rid of the ads?

Not sure what you're talking about. Almost no one has Ethernet anymore. This would be national news-level failure.

A bug affecting M5 MBAs & MBPs made it impossible to connect to a WiFi network on the activation screen. The workaround was to use an Ethernet dongle: https://x.com/TheBobPony/status/2033958150936703363