Microsoft's Magnetic Connect puts a magnetic cable on an ordinary USB-C port

A foot catches a charging cable on the way past a desk, and the laptop goes to the floor with it. Engadget gives that trip risk as the reason Apple, Microsoft and others are interested in magnets, and adds that a magnet is mildly more convenient because nothing needs aligning ^[11]. No wireless transmission is involved, and non-magnetic chargers still plug into the Ultra ^[4].

Microsoft gave part of its show to the port ^[1]. It is USB-C with Power Delivery, paired with a custom magnetic cable ^[2]. Because the port is standard USB-C, Microsoft says it can also drive a monitor, a keyboard or a phone when nothing is charging ^[10]. Engadget's line is "Presumably, no one's buying the Ultra just for its charging options." ^[19] What a buyer gets is a magnetic connector that does not use up a socket, on a class of machine that tends to have very few ^[14].

MagSafe is the comparison, and the difference is who may make the cable. It is a proprietary port ^[7]. Third-party cables exist but are unlicensed, and the only sanctioned, fully reliable ones come from Apple ^[8], at $49 apiece ^[9]. A team replacing 100 of them pays $4,900 ^[15]. Because Magnetic Connect is just USB-C and magnets, Engadget expects even knockoffs to function fine ^[16].

Engadget wrote, "we wouldn't be surprised if Apple changes course to copy Microsoft." ^[17] It adds that Apple would be hard-pressed to look the other way, and points to Apple's adoption of USB-C on iPhones, which it attributes in part to European Union rules on mobile charging ^[18]. Its article does not say Apple is working on a magnetic USB-C cable. We'd treat the Apple copy as Engadget's forecast and plan around what Microsoft has shown.

For a Monday rollout, we'd sort machines on two questions: how often cables get pulled or lost on that desk, and whether a replacement can be bought from more than one supplier. Frequent loss with one supplier is the $49 MagSafe case ^[9]. Frequent loss with several suppliers is the case Engadget expects Magnetic Connect to serve, provided knockoffs work once cables ship ^[16]. Where cables rarely go missing, the magnet matters little and the choice falls to port count and the Power Delivery wattage ceiling.