Transform your workspace with the 13 best laptop docking stations
In your opinion, what is the best laptop docking station on the market? After reviewing a variety of specifications such as price, connection types, power, video outputs, ports, audio input/output, and wired ethernet, we have selected the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C docking station as our top laptop docking station. After the world turned upside down in early 2020, many of us went home for what we thought would be a brief break. As a result, remote working has become a long-term commitment.
Children are also attending classes on a computer screen if they have remote schoolwork. Considering these circumstances, maybe you should upgrade your work-from-home setup with a docking station that makes working from home more comfortable. You can add a full-sized external display, a full-sized keyboard, an external mouse, a wired Ethernet connection, and access to external devices such as backup drives, scanners, and printers with just one quick connection.
Most of this can be accomplished for a relative pittance, or you can go all out with high-end solutions that support multiple or dual displays and super-fast Thunderbolt 3 peripherals. A docking station works like this: It's a relatively small device that sits on your desk, connected to your monitor, keyboard, and mouse, plus whatever other devices you want to have easy access to. You connect the dock to your laptop and have instant access to the external peripherals from your desk.
There are three main categories of docking options. We start with our top pick: the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C docking station. Secondly, some docks connect specifically to a single brand of PC. We then list generic docking stations that offer adequate expansion capabilities for less than $150. As a final section, we highlight more expensive third-party products that offer undeniable performance advantages.