Every year more and more laptops are sold instead of stationary computers (desktops). It is no surprise as nowadays laptops in their performance can be compared to desktops, and at the same time they occupy little space on the table, they are good for traveling and can work from the inside accumulator power for quite a long period of time.
Unfortunately such mobility results in some disadvantages. The users have to deal with small screens, which are often under 17 inches, use touchpad instead of a mouse, small keyboard which is in some way different from a full-sized one.
These disadvantages are not critical if you use a laptop in a trip or outside the office/home. But sitting at the table no users will agree to suffer from the shortcomings of laptops. That is why they buy an additional keyboard, mouse, monitor, connect them to their laptop and use it as a full-functional desktop, which as a matter of fact still remains mobile.
But wait! What if every morning you take your laptop to the office and every evening bring it back? Every day you have to disconnect the power adapter, keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer, network cable, scanner or any other devices you use regularly, and then again connect them. And from day to day it’s all the same: connect, disconnect, connect, disconnect… It is not a big fun, and soon gets annoying.
Exactly for such cases laptop manufacturers created docking stations. A docking station, what is it? Docking station is a stationary device which is placed to your table and allows connection of various peripheral devices (printer, monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers etc.). With a docking station you won’t have to connect and disconnect all these devices to/from a laptop. You will only have to connect and disconnect your laptop from the docking station. Using a docking station you can plug in all the necessary peripheral devices in a few seconds.
There are different types of docking stations. There are simple stations which only facilitate connection of peripheral devices to a laptop. The other kind is multifunctional stations. For example, Dell D/Dock Docking Station allows connection of an additional video card, CD/DVD-Rom, recharging of an additional battery. E-Port Plus Port Replictor will connect even two 30” LCD monitors with the resolution of 2560 х 1600.
In case you wish to purchse a docking station you should know exactly the model of your laptop. All major manufacturers of laptops produce docking stations for them, but unfortunately, not every laptop allows connection to a docking station. To connect a docking station to laptop there should be a special port. This is why check carefully whether the selected docking station matches your laptop. For example, Dell manufactures docking stations for laptops of Latitude, Precision and XPS series, Hewlet Packard produces docking stations for laptops of Business Notebook series etc.
Docking station is no doubt an essential device at your working place. It will not only put the cables in order, but it will allow using the mobile advantages of a laptop and forgetting of its shortcomings.
In case you are using an additional monitor for your laptop, you should take a look at such a device as a laptop monitor stand. As a rule it is not expensive and at the same time it will allow placing a monitor on your table with greater comfort.
Guest Blogger: L. Cheslay
www.parts4nb.com support team member
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