SurfacePro3People who plan to add the Surface Pro 3 to an existing set of external displays will be happy to hear that they can drive an ultra high-resolution 4K display with one of Microsoft’s tablets.

According to a post by a member of the Surface Team during their “Ask Me Anything” question and answer session on Reddit today, the core i3, i5 and i7 models of the Surface Pro 3 can drive a single 4K display in addition to the tablet’s 2160 x 1440 pixel display. People with multiple-monitor setups can also drive those with the Surface Pro 3: the i5 and i7 models can support a pair of 2K displays, while the i3 model can drive a pair of HD displays.

In more display-related intrigue, one of the team members dropped an interesting hint when asked whether the device will ever support Thunderbolt, the high-speed data transfer protocol that Apple has uses in its devices.

“When you buy your Surface Pro3, do me a favor, and take a close look at the ‘power connector,'” they said in a post.

It’s unclear just what that meant. The power port does have the same form factor as a Mini DisplayPort connector, and close inspection shows that it has more pins than the Surface Pro 3’s Mini DisplayPort. Ars Technica’s Peter Bright pointed out on Twitter that there isn’t a Thunderbolt controller listed in Device Manager on the Surface Pro 3, which would imply that the port isn’t actually using Thunderbolt.

Microsoft watcher Paul Thurott said on Twitter that he is similarly skeptical that the power port is using Thunderbolt, but there’s still a way for Microsoft to add Thunderbolt capability to the device later. The company could sell a separate adapter that would turn the power port into a Thunderbolt port.

Thunderbolt would be an interesting addition to the Surface Pro 3, since it’s possible to create an external GPU that uses the high-speed connection and could increase the graphics performance of the device. It seems like something that Microsoft is looking into, especially given a supportive comment one of the Surface team members posted following a suggestion that the device should do just that.

Update: The Surface Pro 3 doesn’t have a Thunderbolt port, a Microsoft representative told GeekWire via email. While the power connector can push data out to drive the ports on the Surface Docking Station, it isn’t using Thunderbolt to do so.

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