After years of leaks and rumors, Nvidia finally launched its N1x chipset, formally called the RTX Spark, at Computex this week. Alongside five other OEMs, Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, which was actually the first Surface to be announced at another company's event.

Aside from including the Nvidia RTX Spark under the hood, it weighs in at 4.5lbs, it has a 15-inch 262ppi screen with 2000-nit brightness, and a haptic touchpad. It's what you'd expect from a really beefy Surface Laptop like this.

As far as ports go, there's HDMI, one USB Type-A, and three USB Type-C. Except, one of those USB Type-C ports isn't like the others.

One of the USB Type-C ports is different

Microsoft won't say why

There are two USB Type-C ports on one side of the laptop, and one on the other, which is larger than the other two. I asked about it, and was told that while it is definitely a fully functional USB port, Microsoft will have more to share later on.

There isn't a full spec sheet available for the Surface Laptop Ultra, nor is there one for the Nvidia RTX Spark. I checked all the other RTX Spark laptops that have been announced, and this was the only one with the larger USB-C port.

All RTX Spark products, including the Surface Laptop Ultra, are slated to arrive this fall in the fourth quarter, so the official word is that we'll have to wait until then for an official word.

It seems to be a new Surface Connect port

Microsoft loves its proprietary connectors

Based on some publicly available patents, and some common sense, it seems like this is a new version of Surface Connect. Surface Connect was the magnetic charging and docking solution that was available from the Surface Pro 3 until the latest Surface Pro and Laptop devices. While it was shaped like one, it was specced for USB, and that USB spec was upgraded over the years to achieve parity with other ports on the device.

You can find the full patent filing here. It's a proper USB port, with magnets around it for a connection. It's easy to imagine that is what we're seeing here, considering there isn't really anything that some proprietary port can do that regular USB and Power Delivery can't.

The design is rather ingenious. Previous iterations of Surface Connect (there was actually a different one before the Surface Pro 3, but we don't talk about that) were a totally redesigned USB port. With this new one, you'll have the freedom to use that bandwidth however you see fit, whether it's with the magnetic charger that comes with the Surface Laptop Ultra docking solution, or anything else that you want to connect via USB Type-C.

Obviously, there's no telling whether this will make its way to other Surface devices, given that it takes up more space in the chassis, which could have implications for a thinner device like Surface Pro. It does seem likely that Microsoft would want to champion this, though, as it has with Surface Connect in the past.