are the 2 diff style power adapters interchangeable?

[Turbo Brian]

have an i7/16/256 SP4 and it has a 2 piece power adapter with a usb port on it. the brick is in the middle. today I picked up an m3/4/128 SP4 for $599 (too good to pass up) to have a second device around for the wife. its power adapter is a 1 piece adapter and the brick is on the end (wall wart) with no usb port. can either of my SP4's use either adapter? kinda wish the m3 came with the nicer adapter. the extra usb port for charging something is handy when traveling.

 

[xandros9]

The Surface Pro and Surface RT had a similar setup. They shared the same connector but the Pro had the fancy brick + USB and the RT shipped with with a wall plug like the M3. (It, the RT one at least, put out less power (basically a narrower power "pipe") than the fancy one. And given the M3 vs. i7 power use gap here, I would think its the same story.)

I believe they can use it interchangeably as long as the connector fits.
The M3 might even charge faster.
Worst case scenario, the i7 Surface just doesn't charge quickly, or might very slowly discharge if under maximum load.

 

[onlysublime]

i remember the charger for the M3 is super slow. They didn't need a fast charger because the M3 battery is smaller. You don't want to use it for the Core i5 or Core i7.

The chargers will work on either machine. You can use the Core i5/i7 charger on the M3 or the M3 charger on the i5/i7 but the M3 charger is slow from what I can remember. Plus, it doesn't have the USB slot for your phone.