Review: Toshiba Dynadock docking station

Docking stations have long been an expensive irritation. Most are tailored to particular notebooks, costing companies a fortune when they upgrade models.

Yet the market for universal docking stations has grown with the advent of ultra-mobile notebooks and easy docking, which instantly provides all the facilities of a fully fledged PC.

Toshiba's Dynadock links to a notebook via a USB2 cable that carries all the data, including that for the exterior display, which is processed using software and a chipset from Cambridge-based Displaylink.

The Dynadock is about the size of a couple of pencil boxes stood on end, with a slot-on base. At the front are power and USB status lights, two powered USB2 ports and two 3.5mm ports for audio in and stereo out.

On the back are a power socket, an anti-theft cable connector, USB2 client port, DVI video-out (a VGA adapter is provided), a 10/100Mbits/sec Ethernet jack, four more USB ports, an old RS232 serial port and an S/PDIF digital audio-out port for 7.1 sound. A metal cable tidy slots into two holes on the rear.

Setting up is a matter of loading utilities and drivers onto your notebook. Displaylink says the system can support high-definition video streams, though it might struggle with very high-end games.

We did have one problem Toshiba could not replicate, though it happened with two notebooks. We could not get a DVD movie, in a drive attached to the Dynadock, to screen in mirror mode (when the exterior monitor mirrors the notebook display), though it would play in the primary monitor in extended mode. This problem appears to be related to Windows' digital rights management.

Overall, though, the Dynadock is an impressive device.