I’m a big fan of using UMPCs as desktops. In my normal daily work there’s nothing that I can’t do on my UMPC and with the future looking good for more powerful devices, even normal desktop users should be able to run their daily work on a UMPC but it doesn’t work if you keep having to plug cables in and out all over the place. A simple, single cable or docking port solution is what’s needed. The i7210, OQO and M704 all have nice docking stations but many other UMPCs, including my current Q1 Ultra, don’t.
A recent article by Jenn over at Pocketables made me give the universal USB docking station idea a second thought and this review of the Toshiba Dynadock now has me hovering over the order button. It supports multi-view via ‘DisplayLink’ technology, there’s a DVI-out version, ethernet, USB ports, headphone and mic ports a digital audio out port and even a serial port and the only thing you have to plug into the UMPC is a single USB cable.
An analogue, TV-out port would have been better than a serial port but for desktop operations and even in ‘set-top-box’ situations, the Dynadock looks perfect. Some video limitations mean that you won’t be able to run HD720 videos smoothly but for most people with UMPCs, that wouldn’t have been an expectation anyway.
Pricing for the DVI version runs to $180 but the analogue, VGA version is $150 but the street price (e.g. Amazon.com – right) is down to a very reasonable $107 for some models as I write this.
Check out the review at Trusted Reviews.
Via Engadget.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:44 am
%greetings%