Type Covers: Is There a Difference?

[Keith Wallace]

My sister has a SP3, and the Type Cover's button clicks no longer work. She is looking to get a new one, but is torn between the Cobalt one for the new Surface Pro and the Teal one from the SP4. Both are compatible with the SP3 she has (and a new Surface, should she upgrade).

What I am curious on is if the latest Surface Type Cover refresh actually updated the keyboard in any way. Is there a difference in key height/spacing, new functionality, anything? Or, is it just the same Type Cover with the new "Surface Pro" branding to stay current?

 

[samuele dassatti]

The Insert key is now gone, the intensity of the backlit keyboard is adjusted with just a button, there are now two buttons to adjust screen brightness (previously this was achieved with Fn+Del and Fn+Backspace), the key travel is slightly reduced (1.5mm to 1.4mm) and the touchpad is far more precise.

 

[Pandaz3]

I and my wife just got two new Surface Pro's this month, hers from Microsoft Store for 799 (i5, 4 Gig, 128 Gig) and mine a week and a half later from Costco at the same price for the same specs, but mine had the new black Type Cover and Pen. We already knew, from hers, that the Type Cover for a Surface 2, 2 Pro, would not work. She has only needed to 'borrow' my Cover once to insert her pin as she could not get the onscreen keyboard to come up.
We both noted that while our surface 2 Covers lay flat on the surface of a table or desk you might be using the newer cover (likely Surface 3 Pro and beyond has a 3/8 inch or so portion that folds perpendicular to the screen and then the keyboard (Cover) folds out, so you have a slightly angled keyboard that is easier to see and use.
I had bought the cheaper version of the 2's cover for myself and the more expensive one for her, but hers is lost somewhere as she did not use it, mine seems to be 'luminescent' as opposed to being 'backlit'.
We were pretty happy with our Surface 2's, Mine as the Pro was able to upgrade to Win 10, but hers had to stay with Win 8 NT (That was okay with her though, 8 NT did everything she asked)
Technology marches on and we both use our new Pro's constantly, but still use the old 2's as back up.
Real happy with new type cover.