What is Docking Station and which devices support it?

A Docking Station 3 USBC Hub is a miracle weapon when it comes to data transfer. If you choose the right device, further adapters are almost superfluous with enormous speed. As the name suggests, a Docking Station 3 dock serves as a docking station. With such a dock, you only have to connect a cable to the end device, any equipment such as displays, external hard drives, or headphones.

What is Docking Station 3?                                                          

Docking Station 3 looks like a USB-C port that you may already be familiar with from more modern smartphones, so it's an asymmetrical port, both standards use the same physical connector.

But this generation of the Docking Station interface is much more powerful than USB-C. The data transfer is up to 40 GBit per second, i.e. twice as fast as Docking Station 2 and four times faster than USB-C.

In addition to data, the third generation can also transmit images and sound as well as energy, up to 100 watts are possible. USB-C can partially do that too, but is never guaranteed - with Docking Station 3, on the other hand, it can. This means that you don't need any additional input - usually not even a LAN connection - 4K resolutions can also be transmitted with this port, the resolution is standardized up to 5,120 x 2,880 pixels.

Docking Station 3 is also backward compatible. You can connect USB-C as well as Docking Station 1 and 2. You can usually recognize a Docking Station port by a lightning bolt symbol.

Which devices support Docking Station 3?

Since the port is downward compatible, you can connect almost any older device; you may need an adapter. You can easily connect Docking Station 3 to a USB-C port, but the range of functions is then throttled to the USB-C device.

Screens with VGA, HDMI, or DisplayPort 1.2 to 1.4 can be used as well as PCI Express products, such as external graphics cards. Since a power supply of up to 100 watts is guaranteed, end devices can also be charged. For example, a Docking Station dock also takes over the power cable.

A Docking Station connection can either operate a 4K display with 120 Hertz or a 5K monitor with 60 Hertz and two 4K displays with 60 Hertz each - and charge a laptop and use USB devices at the same time.

There is no complete list of laptops and other end devices that have a Docking Station 3 port installed. You can find an incomplete overview of Docking Station itself.

The first devices with the new port came onto the market in 2016, above all the Dock series as well as Apple's MacBooks and iMacs. While the list seems endless for Windows devices, it can be named almost completely with macOS: iMac Pro, iMac 2017, Mac Mini 2018, MacBook Air 2018, and all MacBook Pros from 2016.

Docking Station 3 compatibility:

Before you buy a Laptop Docking Stand, it is best to check with the manufacturer to see if it is compatible with your notebook. But even a manufacturer has not tested all laptops on the market with their docks. As long as the laptop is not marked as compatible, there is only a leap into the unknown - and the two-week statutory warranty for online purchases.

The same applies to dock manufacturers who do not sell their notebooks. Many generations of MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air have the same double connector with identical spacing.

Many older hubs and docks are also compatible with new models - at least on paper. However, some newer devices may not be able to handle chipsets from older docks, for example. So, you should try out the dock immediately after receiving your order so that you can make use of your two-week right of return if necessary.

Docking Station 3 for multiple devices:

You need a Docking Station 3 dock exactly when you want to connect multiple devices and a simple USB hub doesn't. If you have a laptop or a PC with a Docking Station 3 port, you can connect several peripheral devices with a dock and save yourself a lot of cable clutter. Because in the end, only one cable comes into your end device.

You can set up a particularly handy home office or the like with monitors, printers, and hard drives and easily connect your laptop to all accessories.

This also includes the power cable and in most cases the system or headphones as well as the Internet connection via LAN cable. This also makes transforming a laptop into a desktop particularly easy: plug in the cable and the keyboard, mouse, external hard drive, monitors, and more are connected.

In addition, you can place the USB Hub HDMI dock in a particularly easy-to-reach place and no longer have to fumble with your USB sticks in the laptop. They add a few ports to your device and make them more accessible at the same time.