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Review on Kensington USB 3.0 Dual Display Docking Station for Windows, Mac OS, Surface Pro & Surface Laptop - Black (K33972US) by Matthew Riley

Revainrating 4 out of 5

solid product. suitable for computers and accessories

Build quality is good. I really like that it has a separate power supply and isn't hardwired. Experimented right out of the box. I connected my monitor via HDMI and plugged in a wireless dongle for keyboard and mouse. I've been using a Chromebook for a long time. The main page said NOTHING about Chromebook compatibility. Connected to my Acer R13 and after a few seconds the dock was working including the connected screen. While you can click Settings to make changes, I closed the lid on my Chromebook and started working on my new workstation. I can't say it works on all Chromebooks, but it worked really well on the two I have. On laptops with Windows 10, the drivers were installed after connecting the USB cable. In order for this to work as soon as you close the lid of the laptop, there is a switch in the power settings that needs to be changed. I set it up so that the screen never turns off when connected to the network when the lid is closed. Works perfectly. Sometimes the sound gets interrupted and you have to select it as the audio output device again. (This is a Windows issue) Let's get to my negative part of this review. macOS. I know the Displaylink website claims the driver works for newer versions with some system tweaks, but in our testing we can't get it to work with any post-High Sierra operating system. After the update, the video just doesn't work anymore. We contacted Displaylink support, read all the forums we could, and eventually sent the MacBook back to High Sierra. Next is a bit more about Mac OS in general. ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR SYSTEM TO A SEPARATE DRIVE BEFORE UPGRADING. This will save you a lot of headaches because once you move from the iTunes Store to what they now call the walk to where you can download older versions of the operating system will really test your patience. And that's all I can say about it. Your mileage may vary. I can't confirm or comment on how well this dock works with other devices like the MS Surface as I don't currently own one. I can come back to this later by trying this out with some weird stuff like a Linux laptop or multiple SBCs with different OS's and add to this review. I'm sorry it took so long.

Pros
  • Everything is fine!
Cons
  • Expensive