Anker Laptop Docking Station, 13-in-1 USB-C Docking Station, Triple Display with 2xHDMI and 1xDP, 10 Gbps USB-C and 5 Gbps USB-A Data, Ethernet, Audio, SD, 85W Charging for Dell, HP, Lenovo and More

Really some of the best docking stations on the market
Anker has been making quality products for years. They’ve become very proud of their goods of late, as they should be, but sometimes the price-to-value ratio seems out of balance. I got this one on sale, and after having worked with some units from the Chinese random-letter companies, it was refreshing to work with a unit again from Anker. I can just feel the quality. We’re literally using all of the ports on the docking station. It works seamlessly between a Chromebook, Ubuntu, and a Windows laptop, so compatibility has not been an issue, and they all charge just fine. I’ve had no heat problems or noticed any noises.This is used for business and productivity, and I was looking for just 2 standard HDMI connections. It’s REALLY hard to find good ones with lots of ports. Videos look great. Not sure it’s gaming-performance worthy on secondary monitors, but for what we need it for, this Anker docking station is perfect.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.
**UPDATE** Now my rear USB port has died–the only one of two standard ports that didn’t hiccup and glitch. This thing worked FAIR (front USB port always glitchy) for about a year and a half–MINUS any Mac capacities–and now is essentially an aftermarket power brick. The combination of misrepresented functionality (no Mac support despite showing Mac use), faulty design (front USB unreliable, irregular power supply to dual monitors), and poor reliability (multiple ports and functions dead within 18 months) have serious undermined my former respect for this brand.DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.(ORIGINAL REVIEW:)Disappointing.First, it was not clear to me when I purchased this that it would not allow me to extend screens from my MacBook. There is now a slide that shows that all Mac screens will be identical. It’s possible I missed that a year and a half ago at purchase, but I think I would have noticed. In any case, claiming this is Mac compatible is inane. I don’t know anyone who purchases a docking hub so they can see 3+ screens of the SAME THING.Mac users, beware.I was willing to attribute that to careless comparisons on my part—partly based on a very high opinion of Anker in general. BUT unfortunately the problems do not end there.Though there are two standard USB ports, the way in which this device is wired makes it difficult to use them. If I place my keyboard dongle in the front USB port, and insert a flash drive into the USB-C port next to it, there is suddenly an irregular lag to my mouse movements. I cannot work all day with my mouse lagging.Of course I can move the dongle to the rear of the unit, but now my printer cable is projecting from the front and that’s the whole point of having rear USB ports. In short, why design the ports in a way that they interfere with each other?ANOTHER ISSUE is flickering in my monitor screen sometimes. I looked online and the only solution I found is turning down the refresh rate because “60 Hz on each screen is a lot for the hub to handle”. I thought 60 Hz was pretty much standard so again I’m not sure why a device would be advertised as handling up to three screens if two was going to tax it. This problem also seems intermittent but it ought to happen never.LASTLY, just this past week, the device suddenly can no longer extend more than one screen on my Windows work computer. I’ve tried two computers and multiple cables but whatever I do Windows will not recognize that I have two monitors attached and allow me to extend them. Both monitors are actually live and connected but show the same image, so somehow the hub has lost the ability to differentiate between them.Now the hub is useless. I have disconnected my second monitor from the hub and connected it directly to my laptop. I have actually moved my keyboard/mouse dongle and attached it directly to the laptop as well. This removes all purpose for having a hub at all. And again, this is for my Windows work computer—my MacBook has all these issues but would not extend screens even when the hub was fully functional.I bought this because I had faith in the Anker brand and because it was slightly less expensive than the hub Apple promoted on its website. I regret this purchase. Now I have a $150 hub that combines only two of the five cable connections I connect and disconnect every time I move my computer from work to home.Very, very disappointed. Pay more to get a better and more reliable product.

This is for the “Anker Docking Station, PowerExpand 13-in-1 USB-C Dock, 85W Charging for Laptop”** Update March 9th, 2023 **So pretty much everything in the original review stands, but there is one issue that I touched on originally about the display refresh rate and resolution that I can clarify now.To get the resolution how you want it, you need to set the monitors to the same refresh rate first, then once the resolution is set and applied, change the refresh rate. That being said, I’m not sure if the refresh rate actually changes or if it just says it does.** End of update **So I just got this about an hour ago, and everything just worked! Both in Ubuntu 22.04 and Windows 10.Here’s my setup. Everything is plugged into the dock and only the single USB-C dock cable is plugged into the laptop.Laptop: Dell XPS 13 93701TB SanDisk USB-C SSD (for booting into Ubuntu)2x Monitors + laptop monitor (One monitor is Ultra Wide 2560×1080 144Hz, other is 1080p 60Hz)- Note: I’m using one DP port and one HDMI portWireless keyboard/mouseSpeakersEthernet connection for InternetFirst of all, I was using a Dell TB16 dock before this but I had multiple issues with it. Long story short, I don’t recommend the Dell docks, especially if you use Linux.** Long story about Dell TB16 Dock **Using the Dell dock, my monitor would randomly go out, and the network only connected at 100mbps, the soundcard is super quiet (even at max volume), it’s always on and can get noisy when it heats up (it has a fan), the cable is built into the unit (non-replaceable) and is only about a foot and a half long (coming out of the left side of the unit) and the unit itself is rather large. Also, I boot off a USB-C SSD drive for Linux (which allows me to plug the USB SSD into almost any computer and boot into my Ubuntu OS); For whatever reason, I could never get it to show up as a boot option when plugged into the dock, even with ThunderBolt boot support and pre-module stuff enabled.** End of the Long story about Dell TB16 Dock **Now the Anker dock on the other hand is about a 1/4 of the size of the Dell dock, connects @ 1GB with no problem, allows me to boot off my USB-C SSD, has a power button to turn it off when not in use, it’s silent, works without having to install any drivers on either Windows or Ubuntu, comes with a decently long USB-C cable (3 ft?) to plug into the computer (which can also be replaced and yes it charges my laptop too) and the sound volume is great.There is one oddity that happened, but I was able to fix it easily enough and it’s likely not a problem with the dock but a software issue in Ubuntu. When changing the resolution + refresh rate in Ubuntu, it didn’t properly scale the resolution (the resolution was right, but much of it was cut off or shrunk down as if the monitor itself didn’t change resolutions but the computer did), I had to change the resolution + refresh rate to something else, then to what I wanted to make it work. To be clear, it worked when I plugged it in initially, but changing it to my preference required multiple changes to set it in properly. Once set, it worked as normal.I highly recommend this dock!

I’ve had a lot of issues with this product, which Is unfortunate given how expensive it is. If I am using more than one USB port at a time, one of my USB ports will stop working. My PC also won’t recognize the HDMI ports on this device (and my laptop will only recognize one). Information is hard to find online to troubleshoot, despite Anker having their various products listed. I will just have to buy another brand.