Review on 💻 Versatile Matrox DS1/DVI Docking Station for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air - Streamline Your Connectivity by Matthew Gonzales

I have been using this product for about 9 months as my MacBook Air docking solution at work. I have a dual boot laptop between OS X 10.8 and Windows 7. On the Mac side, it works great. The audio is clear, the ethernet is fast and the display looks great on Dell's 22-inch 1680 x 1050 display. Disconnecting and connecting the Thunderbolt port is hassle-free. I connected a USB 3.0 hub to a USB 3.0 port and it works great. The only issues I've seen are minor: one is that the default audio device in Mac OS is sometimes connected to the laptop's internal speakers instead of the DS1. I can switch easily. Second, a mouse and keyboard connected through DS1 (not through a hub) are not available at boot. So if I want to boot into Windows I have to lift the laptop lid to hold ALT. There are several issues on the Windows side. The display sometimes has a "tearing" effect for a second, which is a bit annoying. Also, unplugging and plugging the Thunderbolt port doesn't replug anything from the DS1 - I understand this is because Intel doesn't have drivers for Windows that support it. . I also understand that the Thunderbolt port is a direct connection to the PCI Express bus on the motherboard, so the quick disconnect/connect is a bit like taking the graphics card out of the computer and plugging it back in while it's running . The fact that it works at all is great. Everything else works great. I should add that Matrox never claims their product works on Windows, so the fact that it works on Windows about 90% of the time is a bonus. I'd also like to add that Windows normally runs on OS X using VMWare VirtualBox, which I set up to boot my Windows partition. This solves the display tearing and hot plug issues that occur when booting a full version of Windows. Overall, this is a great alternative to Apple's $1,000 Thunderbolt display for people who need docking station functionality for their MacBook.