Both wired and wireless docks for the Asus Nexus 7 (2013) tablet are en route to American shores, turning the little entertainment tablet into a productivity machine.

Credit goes to Android Police for the discovery of the $50 wired dock/charging stand for the Nexus 7, as well as a separate $90 wireless charging stand that is already available via Amazon.

Quite frankly, the Nexus 7 is a fantastic tablet, arguably the best that money could buy. But the small 7-inch screen makes it more comfortable to hold and use as an e-reader, or for playing games. The addition of the Asus Dock for Nexus 7, which includes a mini-HDMI connection to an external monitor, changes all that. Connecting a larger screen, adding a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and running apps like Google’s Quickoffice can make the Nexus 7 a legit workspace.

The dock features an HDMI and Micro USB port on the back.

Asus doesn’t provide many details about the Asus Dock for Nexus 7, although the company says that the dock can rest either on its side, supporting the dock in landscape mode, or vertically in portrait mode. Amazon lists the dimensions as 8.7 x 4.3 x 3 inches and 1.6 ounces.

The wireless charging stand props up and charges your Nexus 7, but that's all.

The 2013 version of the Nexus 7 also supports the Qi wireless charging standard, meaning that you can simply rest it on a compatible charging mat and it will trickle charge; Android Central discovered that it will work fine with the Nexus Charging orb designed for the Nexus 5 smartphone—or, in fact, any other Qi-compatible charging mat.

But there’s one thing you’ll need to know about the PW100 Wireless Charging Stand, as it’s called—it has no external monitor connection. Yes, it holds the tablet at an angle for viewing content while charging the screen, but it won’t do much else.

Given that the 16-GB version of the Nexus 7 is only $229, adding a wired dock for $50 represents about 20 percent of the purchase price. But we’d argue that’s a small premium for adding some rather useful capabilities to what’s already an excellent tablet.

This story, "Wired, wireless docks turn Nexus 7 tablet into productivity machine" was originally published by Greenbot .