Dynabook Americas (former Toshiba) has introduced its new multi-port USB-C docking station. The USB-C Dock is designed to bring 10 ports and an SD card reader to ultra-portable laptops that have limited number of wired connectivity options. 10 ports do not come cheap though.

The Dynabook USB-C Dock carries a GbE adapter, four USB 3.1 Type-A connectors (one supports charging), one USB 3.1 Type-C port, an SD Card reader, and a 3.5-mm audio jack for headsets. The docking stations can support up to three Full-HD displays using its DisplayPort, HDMI, and D-Sub outputs, or one 4K monitor using the DP 1.4 output.

The USB-C Dock comes with a power connector supporting 20V chargers, so it is likely that its USB-C port can also deliver a sufficient amount of power to charge modern notebooks, but Dynabook does not disclose its Power Delivery rating.

Dynabook’s USB-C Dock will be available in the near future for $199.99, which is comparable to similar Thunderbolt 3 docking stations and is considerably more expensive when compared to USB-C docks without Power Delivery from less well-known manufacturers.

There may be two reasons why the USB-C dock is more expensive though; cheap USB-C docks often come with DisplayPort and HDMI connectors that only support 4K30 output, which is not good enough for comfortable use over long periods of time. Given the high price of the Dynabook USB-C dock, we can hope that this device will actually support at least one 4K60 output. Furthermore, the Dynabook USB-C Dock should be able to deliver power to laptops, which also adds to the cost and MSRP.

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Source: Dynabook Americas

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  • linuxgeex - Saturday, July 13, 2019 - link

    The main problem with the unpowered docks is that it's a strain on the laptop's PD output deliver, if the laptop even supports PD out. Even if you try to neglect that using the laptop to power all the devices on the hub as a problem, it will still bite you in the ass if you try to connect more devices than the hub can power when drawing from the laptop. For example if you have an SSD and a 2.5" HDD drive connected via a USB3 to SATA toaster - those can easily draw 10W between the two of them when you connect it, which can result in corrupted data or failure to spin up the HDD properly, which can result in the HDD flagging itself for SMART failure, which can be inconvenient if you have SMART monitoring software on your laptop... lovely notifications at every insertion that the drive is failing until you either disable SMART or stop using the drive. :-(

    Hubs like the one reviewed have their own power supply which means that even if your laptop doesn't accept USB-C PD charging, it will at least power the 10 devices you've plugged into it. If your laptop does accept PD then you can skip taking its charger... and just about every other charger. So for pros on the go these hubs are a Godsend.
  • Gunbuster - Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - link

    Dell D-6000 dock. Better specs, cheaper price.

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