3 new Stages Technology Evolution of Docking Station

3 new Stages Technology Evolution of Docking Station

When we talk about docking station, most of you are familiar with it. It is the product of the thinning of computers. The predecessor of the docking station is a single port product, such as network port, VGA and card reader.The docking station can be roughly divided into 3 stages technology evolution from its emergence.

The accelerated popularity of docking stations has benefited from Apple laptops. The traditional USB port, Ethernet port, HDMI port, SD card port, etc. are completely abandoned. There are only one Type-C port and one USB port. What's more, there is only one type-C port, which accelerates the popularization and technical progress of the docking station. In fact, it is also very convenient for users. Just carrying a product with a small size can realize ethernet access, data transmission etc anytime and anywhere. Now the new Huawei and apple mobile phones and computers have type-C port only. This also indicates a trend of type-C products in the future.

First generation docking station

 
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 docking station
 

As you can see, Microsoft surface docking station, which was famous for the world's leading technology, was quite large. This is because the integrated circuit technology was not as advanced as it is now. The electronic components were big and the chip processing capacity was relatively low. Moreover, many common ports of notebooks were still reserved in this generation,only few of connection ports reduced compared with desktop computers. The docking stations of this period was not designed to expand the ports, but to facilitate the connection and prevent the notebook from unsteady placement due to the heavy harness connection. The main ports of this generation: DC power connection, VGA (D-sub), Ethernet port, USB1.0, USB2.0, Type-B, Micro-A. Therefore, the docking station was called port replicator.

 VGA 1920x1200 Plug
VGA 1920x1200 Plug

The most obvious characteristics of this generation of docking stations are: the black plastic shell, bulky, obvious heating problems, slow data transmission and very high price.Now we can see many docking station evaluation videos on YouTube, many of which are products of the first generation still. It's a pity to see that. Such docking stations can only be seen in the waste recycling bin in the Chinese market, but they are still prevailing in many developed countries.

Second generation docking station

USB3.0 and type-C transmission protocol technology are the main marks of the the second generation docking stations emerging. It was also a rapid development period of this item. The acceleration of the second generation docking station was mainly caused by the fact that notebook manufacturers have abandoned a large number of data interfaces in order to realize the light weight appearance design. But in real applications, many ports are must in different scenarios. Such as connecting different devices such as printers, large displays, multi monitors, power delivery to other devices, and reading and writing Micro SD TF memory cards. With the emergence of USB2.0, USB3.0 technology, HDMI, DP digital transmission technology and type-C technology, the ethernet transmission rate of RG45 cord has also reached over Gigabit, upgraded integrated circuit processing technology, interfaces are also increased, and simultaneous reading and writing of SD TF cards can be realized,the transmission speed and quality of the docking station have been doubled. At the same time, the articles have much smaller size and lightweight. The volume of the same function docking station is less than 1/10 of the volume of the first generation. Most of the docking stations are made of aluminum shell, which has more texture and better heat dissipation. The heating problem has been basically solved. For example, Weallans product is a representative of the second generation. This docking station adopts DisplayPort MST technology. The main feature of MST is Multi-screens split display.

 Weallans 12 IN 1 DisplayPort MST docking station
Weallans DisplayPort MST docking station

Of course, there are still a small number of docking stations that still maintain the appearance design of the first generation of docking stations. For example, Microsoft surface pro docking station and HP docking stations are only slightly smaller than the first generation and are not portable. Further more, in our actual testing, the heating problem is slightly improved compared with the first generation, and the price is still very high. It is very inconsistent with our understanding of these brand image.

 Microsoft surface pro port replicator
Microsoft surface pro port replicator

Third generation docking station

The third generation docking station is marked by the application of thunderbolt3 technology. The transmission can be extremely quick and reach 40gbp/s.

 It optimizes the circuit design based on the second generation docking station technology. And the chip iteration makes the design more practical and the overall experience more smooth and comfortable. Thunderbolt 4 is an optimized one based on Thunderbolt 3.

 Weallans Thunderbolt 3 docking station
Weallans Thunderbolt 3 docking station

There are many docking stations with ports ranging from 3 to 16. Users can choose their favorite products according to their own computers and mobile phones. Some worldwide brands, such as Lenovo, Xiaomi, Philips, HP, etc., do not produce the articles, but they have very good performance on products, because they have a number of high-quality suppliers. Guangdong Weallans electronics is the OEM supplier of Lenovo, Xiaomi and Philips. In contrast, some OEM factories like Weallans have  harder situation. Although they have better products, their prices are much lower than those world wide brands. Therefore, how to build their own brands is an important issue. Guangdong Weallans electronics needs to make more efforts on the road of building its own brand.

What is your idea about our 3 new stages technology evolution devide? Please contact us and comment.

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