5 Reasons to Use a Laptop Docking Station

Laptop docking stations come in handy in various situations. If you just got yourself a brand new slim laptop, chances are a friend has suggested you get a laptop docking station.

Docking stations can be costly, and, as such, you might be wondering whether they are worth getting in the first place. If you’re in this predicament, here are five reasons why you should use a laptop docking station.

1. Docking Stations Add More Ports to Your Laptop

Modern laptops have become slimmer and more portable but at the expense of including fewer ports than in the past. Consider the M1 MacBook Air as an example. It costs a whopping $999 and only delivers three ports: two USB Type-C ports for charging and data transfer and a single 3.5mm headphone jack.

And it’s not the MacBook Air alone. Other laptop manufacturers are doing the same to make their devices as lightweight as possible. Of course, laptops ship with various ports, but depending on your specific work, you may need more than what is available.

That’s where a docking station comes in. By only using a single port on your laptop, a docking station enables you to have a wide array of ports at your disposal that you can use to plug in a wide variety of devices. Take the Anker PowerExpand Elite 13-In-1 Thunderbolt 3 Dock as an example. As one of the best laptop docking stations available, a single connection enables you to have 12 downstream ports for your peripherals. It’s impossible to imagine a laptop including 12 ports out of the box!

2. Convert Your Laptop Into an Ergonomic Device

While laptops are convenient for their portability, they are not ergonomic. If you plan to use your laptop as your primary work machine, you should make it ergonomic. You can achieve this by connecting a couple of peripherals to your laptop using a docking station.

You need to have an external keyboard and mouse at the most basic. And while your laptop has Bluetooth support, you shouldn’t use a Bluetooth keyboard. So for the best results, you need a wired connection and thus a docking station. Of course, having a docking station is just one thing. There’s more that goes into making a setup ergonomic.

3. Convenience Transitioning Between Home and Office Environments

If you use your laptop as a primary working device and as a home computer, you’ll appreciate the convenience of a docking station. Assuming you have a couple of peripherals you must hook onto your laptop beforehand, a docking station ensures that you don’t have to connect every device.

You have to plug in that one cable from your docking station, and you’re set to go. However, to fully enjoy this benefit, you need to have a docking station both at home and in the office. It will save you so much hassle.

4. Connect Your Old Devices With Outdated Ports

With USB Type-C on the way to becoming the one port to rule them all, connecting your laptop to older devices with outdated ports has become a problem. But, with a laptop docking station, that is no issue. If, for instance, you have an Apple M1 MacBook, you can continue to use your old monitor with a VGA or DVI port by simply buying a docking station with these ports.

You can also use a docking station to access and use modern ports like HDMI, which are becoming hard to find as manufacturers continue to reduce the size of their laptops. While docking stations can be expensive, they will be a better option than splurging cash on another device. And as you’ll notice, devices with the latest ports cost much more.

5. Get a Desktop-Like Experience From Your Laptop

Desktops are the ultimate productivity machines. But, you don’t necessarily have to buy one if you have a docking station. A docking station extends the functionality of your laptop, achieving a desktop-like experience.

You can connect an external monitor, have your external storage, connect your SD and micro SD card, have a mouse, and more devices plugged in simultaneously. You won’t need to buy a desktop computer with such a setup.

Get Yourself a Laptop Docking Station

With all the reasons considered, it’s high time you should consider getting a laptop docking station. To recap, laptop docking stations add more ports to your laptop, help achieve an ergonomic working station with your laptop, ensure the convenient transition between home and office environments, and enable you to connect older devices with outdated ports.

Finally, docking stations help bridge the gap between laptops and desktops in terms of functionality, so you don’t need to buy one.

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