The Return of the Docking Station

It was commonplace for consumer notebooks in the mid-2000’s to have proprietary, dedicated docking solutions. That’s still the case in the business market, but almost non-existent in the consumer market. What happened? We explain in this article.

Read the full content of this Article: http://www.notebookreview.com/feature/return-docking-station/

 

I guess the question I would ask is how tolerant is USB-C, in practice, of repeated insertions? Or bad insertions?

I know so many student types who have bought the latest whiz-bang consumer laptop, who have already damaged their USB or HDMI ports by repeated insertions. The business laptops with the proprietary dock connector is probably a more appropriate (in hindsight) solution for them. But if USB C is damaged after, say, 1000 insertions, then won't the problem just come back with the USB C connector being over-used on a laptop equipped, if it is used for a docking configuration?

 

It's been a while since I have had a good docking station for a home / personal laptop, but I usually have my laptops on cool pads of various types, and often use the built-in USB break out ports on the cooler for connecting keyboards and mice, and even storage on USB 3.0 pads.

It would be nice to get charging power for the laptop, and more cooling from the pad, maybe even a single connection port lock in to the pad as it becomes a dock again.

The dock or cooling pad, along with the external keyboard and mouse makes a nice space to reserve for the laptop.

I miss having one for home...

Maybe that means I should get an Asus GX800 with Hydro-dock??

 

I love the proprietary docking station designed for my laptop after acquiring one. So convenient! I even dumped NAS. Still, would really appreciate an affordable 4TB SSD or two for internal storage.