In this blog post I want to describe how you can work more professionally using a dock. I switched to using laptops for everything some years ago. In my opinion laptops nowadays have enough computing power for everything that I need. So I sold my last desktop PC some time ago and since then only use ThinkPad laptops.

But I don’t want to work on a 15″ display when I can use my monitors, I especially like working with two monitors, I have a 24″ LG monitor with 1680×1050 resolution as secondary display and a 27″ DELL UH2715H monitor as my main display.

In my setup I also have an external 2,5″ hdd with 2TB space as data partition for my laptop, 5 TB Western Digital HDD as backup drive, a XBOX One wireless controller, printer, a scanner, etc. This is lots of peripherals. When I want to move my laptop away from my desk I normally would have to pull all cables out of the laptop in order to move it and put everything back in once I return to my work desk. With a docking station this is no more necessary. Lenovo offers a wide range of docking solutions for its laptops. Because I am using a ThinkPad P50 I chose the ThinkPad Workstation Dock with a 230W power adapter. The power adapter is used for the dock so that I can keep the original 170W charger for the P50 in my bag when I travel.

This is a product photo of the dock:

It has the following ports:

6 USB 3.0 ports

one Ethernet port with 1GBit

one HDMI 1.4 port

two DisplayPort 1.2 ports

1 DVI-D port

one audio in/out jack

a Kensington port

a VGA port

I have both of my monitors and peripherals connected to the dock. In order to connect the P50 with all peripherals and all monitors I just have to plug it into the dock:

That is very handy. This setup is very comfortable and time saving, it allows me to be very flexible and to work with all my peripherals when docked and offers mobility by docking the laptop off and working somewhere else.

Here is a view from the back of the dock with docked in P50 and all cables/peripherals that are connected. I have more peripherals connected via the DELL U2715H display which contains a 4x USB hub and which serves as a hub for my keyboard, mouse, one external SSD and USB sticks.

But be aware that this specific dock is extremely expensive, Lenovo wants a lot of money for it, you should check for educational discounts on it 🙂