I put five universal docks through their paces by mimicking how businesspeople come and go. I set up each dock to my office infrastructure, including an external monitor and several peripherals, and gave each one a good workout, connecting, disengaging and reconnecting many times.
One thing is for certain: Every notebook deserves a welcoming dock to come home to. Which one you choose depends on how and where you work.
Kensington Notebook Expansion Dock with Video
Kensington Computer Products Group's Notebook Expansion Dock with Video is the highest-priced docking station in this group, but it offers two things the others don't: It supports Macintosh notebooks, and it can connect with DisplayLink USB displays.
At 1.2 in. by 9.8 in. by 2.6 in. and 0.6 lb., the Kensington dock is similar to the Targus dock in size and weight, and both thoughtfully include black rubber skids to avoid scratching your furniture or notebook. But the Kensington dock adds vent slots along the bottom to allow extra cooling air in.
For those who prefer not to use an external keyboard, the dock gives the notebook's keyboard a 12-degree tilt for more comfortable typing; I found it stable with small and large notebooks.
The dock provides a fair assortment of ports:
- 10/100 Ethernet for wired networking
- VGA for connecting an external monitor
- Four USB 2.0 ports
- Microphone and headphone jacks
It lacks an RS-232 serial port, PS/2 port, flash card reader or DVI display connector. All the connections are along the back, and the system has its own AC adapter. But unlike the others, it has no on/off switch.
Getting it to work took about five minutes. After installing the software on your laptop, you'll need to restart the system.