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1309 Review
56 Karma

Review on Amazon Basics Aluminum Type-C Docking With Mini DisplayPort by Seth Singh

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Power cord not included

I am using a Belkin Thunderbolt Plus Dock. And while it was reliable, it's also quirky. When I turn on my laptop, my two external monitors are cloned in extended mode. I have to turn off and then turn on again for them to be in fully extended mode. I'm not sure I understand the difference between a Thunderbolt dock and a hub, but I was surprised that no power cord was included. For my MacBook and Windows laptop, this means I used an OEM power adapter instead of switching between them via a hub, unlike the Belkin Pro which can charge them via USB-C. The connection cable is very short. My MacBook Pro is on a hoist which means I have to attach it to the side port, either I'm propping it up or it's dangling. I don't know why so many of these hubs use different ports. The Belkin Dock has two display ports. It has HDMI, VGA and a mini display port. I had to find different cables to get it working. On a Macbook Pro I could only connect it to two monitors cloned in extended mode. So it looks like a Belkin dock in failure mode. On a windows laptop I was able to get two monitors for expansion and mirroring. Which actually works great since it has a tablet screen. So what I was trying to fix with the Belkin Dock wasn't working the way I hoped it would with the Macbook Pro. But for a Windows laptop, it's not bad. What annoys me the most is the lack of port uniformity. That makes cable management another added challenge.

Pros
  • Free for educational use
Cons
  • Unsure