With this device, it can drive a single external 4K monitor, have all the typical peripherals of full computer connected with a single cable and be simultaneously charged.When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Well made, it comes with a PSU and USB-C cable, what more could you reasonably want.But, to complete this circle requires a docking station, so that all the peripheral devices arent being connected and reconnected repeatedly.
Dell D6000 Dock Firmware Full Computer ConnectedIdeally, a single cable connects everything, including input devices, storage and displays. It sounds simple enough, but many hardware makers have stumbled delivering a docking station that achieves those objectives with a single cable. Today well look at the Caldigit USB-C Pro Dock, an affordable option that claims to offer exactly what laptop owners want at a price that most businesses can afford. It retails for 169.99 (199.25) directly from Caldigit making it cheaper than the Caldigit flagship TS3 Plus design that we reviewed a while back. Image credit: Mark Pickavance) Design We like clean unfussy designs, and the USB-C Pro Dock by Caldigit is exactly that. Built into a finely milled aluminium tube, the internal electronics are well protected from accidental abuse in an enclosure that measures just 214 mm wide, 80 mm deep and 25 mm thick. Using a single USB-C connector to the host, it allows the connection of two DisplayPort monitors, four USB devices, speakers and headphones, Gigabit Ethernet and an SD card with an inbuilt reader. And, in addition to all this peripheral connectivity, it comes with a 150W power supply that can deliver 85 watts to the connected device to charge it fully in a relatively short time. ![]() The front-facing ports include the audio, card reader and one each of USB-A and USB-C, with all the other connections on the rear, including the USB-C downlink from the host. This arrangement keeps cabling neat, as all the things youd want permanently connected are at the back, and those that are likely to be more ad hoc are on the front. ![]() Image credit: Caldigit) In use Apologies in advance, but this is the part where this review might become somewhat technical. The basic premise of a docking station is that you can plug all the peripherals associated with a desktop system into a laptop using just a single cable. On the Caldigit USB-C Pro Dock that includes dual display port monitors, three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbs) USB devices, a single USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbs) device, Gigabit Ethernet port, audio via a 3.5mm jack and an SD card with a card reader. Even excluding the minor connections like the audio, there is over 25Gbs of potential connections, and thats not including potentially two screens. As USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 only has 10Gbs to share around, something must give to make this solution practical. One answer is that this hardware will work with a Thunderbolt 3 connection, allowing the available bandwidth up to 40Gbs, allocating 20Gbs to the displays and the other 20GBs to be shared between devices. If we consider that most users will use two USB-A ports for their mouse and keyboard, then there is easily enough bandwidth left for high-performance external storage on either USB-A or USB-C and also LAN, audio and the card reader without restricting them appreciably. If you dont have Thunderbolt 3, only USB-C, what are the options Well, Caldigit downgrades the resolution of the two connected monitors to HD (1080p) from 4K, but other than that it should all work much the same. The dock can even be used with a USB-A system with a conversion cable, sold separately, although with just 5Gbs of bandwidth available that choice wont allow for monitors to be connected. Image credit: Caldigit) We should point out that Apple in its infinite wisdom, launched MacBook 12-inch models in 2015, 2016 and 2017 have only one single USB-C port. And these machines can only support dual monitors in mirrored mode. This is also true of some PC laptops with Thunderbolt 3 that only support a single 4K 60Hz display or dual 4K 30Hz output. But later Apple hardware and Windows systems with Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.1 Gen 2 should be capable of having dual displays.
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