Laptop & docking station or what?

EssexExile

The old laptop is broken, it was never much good anyway. The old PC is being a bit of a nuisance too at the moment. I am therefore thinking of replacements. I like using the PC at home with its big screen and proper keyboard, when I go away I take the laptop but it doesn't have everything on it that the PC has. I know nothing about these things, so I was thinking about buying two new computers and finding if there was a way to sync them, so working on both was exactly the same experience. Then someone said I should  get a laptop and a replicator, which I've now found is another name for a docking station, and use it with the proper screen and keyboard at home and on it's own when away. Does this sound like a good idea?

bob_a_builder

Probably don't even need the docking station - the main idea of a docking station is to minimise usage of the various small connectors around the laptop and put them thru a connector more suited to regular connection/disconnection 

But since nowadays probably only 2 connections need to made - i.e HDMI or DisplayPort and one USB port for your wireless mouse & keyboard dongle - unless you are taking it out and about many time a month the docking station could be overkill

So thats a vote for the single laptop

p.s - you can also use both screens at the same to maximise Windows desktop space or have one app one on one screen and another app on the other

CoastingHatbox

A few thoughts on this.

1. If you lose your laptop or find its been stolen, you don't have a computer back home which you might need
2. IIRC, in the olden days laptops had an expansion dock. Plugging the laptop into the dock gave it extra ports and what not, but also included an extra GPU or hard disks etc. Then we got port replicators, which gave the laptop a load of extra ports. Both of the above would connect to the laptop via a special port, usually on the base. These days port replicators have gone and have been replaced by "docks", that connect to the laptop by USB-C or Thunderbolt

I still think there's value in having a docking station. It's one cable to connect instead of at least three or four. I run my "new" laptop with a USB-C dock, which means connecting one instead of five cables (power, display 1, display 2, keyboard, mouse, network cable). Well, in reality two cables, because without the dock I'm down to 1 additional display.

My "old" laptops use port replicators - which I think are a bit better than these modern docks. It's easier to 'drop' the laptop onto the dock then it is to faff around trying to locate the right USB-C port.

I set up my machines so the are transient/ephemeral*. There's nothing stored or used on the machine that is unique/special/I can't live without. They all get the same software installed on them and all my files are either accessed over the network (or VPN if away from home) or synchronized via NextCloud. I only use OpenSource software, so I have the same software installed on all of them. The disks on the laptops are encrypted too, so if I lose one or it gets stolen, I haven't got to give it a second thought.

It has taken some time/effort/understanding to get to this point, but these days I can pretty much take it all for granted. I'm not necessarily recommending that you do the same, I'm just trying to illustrate what is possible.

For most people having one laptop works just fine. Only you can decide!

*In fact this is an almost fully automatic process. The operating system is installed over the network and then configuration is applied to the machine to install my software and settings. I don't install or configure anything by hand.

flashg67

I work from home and simply have an HDMI cable to connect to a larger monitor and a separate wireless keyboard/mouse set that uses a single usb dongle. So not much to disconnect if/when I do just need to take the laptop away

jamesd

Whatever laptop you buy it'll probably have a HDMI output that can support a 4k monitor, though check to be sure.

A laptop may have a USB-C port with Thunderbolt. If it does, that will typically have video passthrough that allows you to connect a monitor up to that way.  If the USB port supports USB Power Delivery then you can get a USB-C hub that also supports USB-PD and use the same port as your single connection for everything, because USB hubs with network and USB3 ports are routinely available at prices under £30.

i'm typing this on a tablet that has a micro-HDMI port to connect to my 4k monitor and using a USB-PD USB-C socket with Thunderbolt to connect to a USB hub for more USB sockets for keyboard, mouse, wired network and power for the tablet.

EssexExile

Thanks folks. At least it appears that it's not the daftest idea!

Sandtree

This is the standard working model with our client... everyone has a laptop and in the office there is a USBC dock which connects to the two monitors, webcam, keyboard, mouse and ethernet. In these days we are now all hybrid workers and so the company will give you the identical setup, or less, for you to have at home if you want it. Home and the office is the same work experience and just out and about use just the laptop.

We've a similar setup at home for personal laptop other than I use a bluetooth mouse (never understood the need for a wireless keyboard) but have a raid array external storage device and a CF card reader attached. Its convenient having only a single cable that provides connectivity and power plus means all the cables can be more neatly hidden other than the one connector.