Modern laptops are a feat of modern tech and engineering, but in the rush to be the thinnest and/or lightest useful things get thrown out to save space. I'm talking about ports. Remember them? My Macbook Pro back in the day came with everything from an Firewire 800 to an ExpressCard port.
Those days are mostly gone and the chances are your laptop will come armed with the odd USB-C port (and in some cases just the one). I guess that's great when you're out and about but back home at your desk, it leaves you with a bit of a headache.
An easy solution is to pick up a hub but while this does work, it can get very messy with cables all over the shop. This is where the Belkin Connect USB-C 11-in-1 Multiport Dock (£115.29 from Amazon) comes in.
It's a sleek slab of aluminum that stands out compared with other docks because as everything is clean and tidy as it's a laptop stand as well. The dock is at a slight angle and has a rubber grip to place your laptop on so to give you a better typing angle. There's just the one USB-C cable that attaches to your computer, a 100W PD port that will charge your machine at the same time.
The fact you put your laptop over the top of the dock means it doesn't take up space. To the back of the sock are the other 10 ports - a 3.5mm audio jack, a VGA port, a 4K DisplayPort, a 4K HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, an SD card reader, a microSD card reader and a Gigabit Ethernet port. That's a lot of ports for your money.
They're all at the rear of the device which means you have a much better shot aT keeping the wire mess to a minimum, although a little bit inconvenient if you've got plug-in a thumb drive for instance.
It's compatible with both Mac and PC and boasts 5Gbps data transfer between your laptop and peripheral devices. You technically have the ability to connect three monitors to the dock, although on a Mac you'll be restricted to mirroring only.
Everything else works as you'd expect. Belkin devices are renowned for build quality and the Connect USB-C 11-in-1 Multiport Dock is no different. It is a little bit pricey when compared to some of its competitors, but as soon as you unpack the dock it's obvious where the money has been spent.
