I learned the hard way that the display ports on the two Surface tablets are not the same. In retrospect, it was right there in the technical specs but, I missed it when I placed my order.
The RT has a MicroHDMI and the Pro has a Mini Display port. The connection slots are different and so they are not interchangeable. Don’t make the same mistake I did and order the wrong one for your Surface RT. The ports look very similar at first glance but one is smaller than the other. So, to help you out, I made the following table along with some of the cables/adapters I tried and found to work well.
For External Monitor hookup you will need:
| VGA adapter | DVI adapter | HDMI adapter | |
| For Surface RT | MicroHDMI to VGA |
MicroHDMI to DVI |
MicroHDMI to HDMI |
| For Surface Pro | Mini display to VGA | Mini display to DVI | Mini display to HDMI |
Hope this helps you avoid the mistake I made. None of these are super expensive but it’s still a pain if you have to return one. To see more tech specs for the Surface tablets check out my post on iPad vs Surface RT and Surface Pro.
Joanna-
