Plugable USB 3.0 Universal Docking Station for Windows, macOS, ChromeOS (Dual HDMI Monitors or DVI/VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, Audio, 6 USB Ports)

OK, first things first and with my apologies, this isn't a docking station it's a port replicator. There, my geek shield is back up to full strength now. Here's the thing though, you can call it whatever you like but I would call it a marvel. Not just because it saves on cabling and makes my desk a tad tidier, reduces wear on my expensive ultra-sub-notebook-convertible-flipping-laptop-tablet-ego massager machine and does what it says on the packet. But because I now know if ever I buy a product from Plugable the people at the company tech support will bend over backwards to put things right if things go wrong. If I could give this six stars I would. Yet the first one delivered to me didn't work.Hold on, is this jerk saying that despite getting a broken product he would give the company an extra star rather than remove one for the hassle?Yes. Yes he is. And less of the jerk.Look, things can go wrong with tech kit. Sometimes a rogue model escapes the QA testing regime. It. Does. Happen.It doesn't define the company though, but it does help define what they stand for by how they deal with it. And Plugable dealt with it very well indeed.I review things for a living, have done for the last 25 years in fact. I appreciate the value in how a company treats customers when things do not go smoothly.So what happened? Well, the UD-3900 arrived and I cabled it up and plugged it in. Everything worked except for the main event, the dual display driving function. This was a surprise as Plugable had already sent me an email linking to the latest set of DisplayLink drivers ahead of the unit being delivered. Another brownie point for that.I know a little about tech, or at least as a former Technology Journalist of the Year award winner here in the UK I would hope I still do. I couldn't fathom anything obviously wrong. Next step was the Plugable support forums, and running the diagnostics routine so I could raise a ticket with support. Which I duly did.I got a very quick response, allowing for time differences between the UK and US, from Marc Mounting. I am naming Marc as he went above and beyond, and deserves the kudos.We went through a few things together, and after 48 hours or so of back and forth it became apparent it wasn't working when it should be. The drivers were installed and running OK, the software was installed and running OK, my system (an HP Spectre x360 for the record) just refused point blank to recognise that a DisplayLink device was connected. Ethernet worked fine, USB in and out was fine, but no dual displays.Marc then suggested either he could get another sent from Amazon stock for the next day, or have a pre-tested unit sent direct from the US. I opted for the latter, despite a 10 day delivery wait, as it meant if things still didn't work we could rule out a faulty chipset and do some more detective work together on my laptop. We both suspected by now, I should point out, that something was fried on the device itself.The unit arrived at my offices exactly 10 days later, and I plugged it in.It. Just. Worked.For the money this is a blinding bit of kit. Does everything it says on the tine, and my i5 powered lappy with 8Gb RAM has plenty enough grunt to drive the displays and everything else through a single USB 3 port without any noticeable slowdown.It's not the cheapest out there, but it is far from the most expensive. To be honest, the support is worth more than some of the cheaper units on its own.Thinking about buying one? Just do it, you won't be disappointed...

I am so impressed with this item! I made some pre-sales enquiries, and the company responding quickly, politely and efficiently, coming back to answer several additional points I'd raised. They warned me that I may have problems with streaming videos, but that hasn't been the case so far. I have one monitor connected using the VGA port and another using the HDMI cable Plugable Active HDMI to VGA 6ft (1.8m) Converter Cable Supporting up to 1920 x 1080 (60Hz). The addition of the USB graphics adaptor Plugable USB 3.0 to VGA / DVI / HDMI Video Graphics Adapter for Multiple Monitors up to 2048x1152 / 1920x1080 (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 7, XP) means that I am able to run 3 monitors through this dock. Before I purchased this I had so many cables hanging off all the ports on my laptop that it was a real pain whenever I needed to move it. Now it's just a simple matter of unplugging one cable. The dock is also running my ethernet cable, an external wireless adaptor (the built in laptop one is useless), a ten port USB3 hub, a mouse and the laptop cooler fan. It is barely warm, and completely silent. The unit itself is well built, looks good and is discrete tucked away at the back of the desk. The blue LED on light is not over intrusive, and the green USB light shows everything is working well.Installation was easy, Plugable sent me an email as soon as the purchase was made with a link to download the latest drivers. These were installed before the unit actually arrived, so it was simply a case of plugging everything in on arrival. It just worked, and I was really surprised at how painless it was to get everything set up within minutes. I can't fault this product, nor praise it highly enough. I have 3 external hard drives connected to the USB hub which have all my media on them, and this unit sends them all over the home network with the Plex server. My definition of good hardware is something you plug in and just forget is there because it works. This unit meets that definition.For anyone running a multiple monitor set up, the addition of specialist multi-monitor software to control it makes everything a breeze. I use software called Display Fusion, [...] and would highly recommend it. The support is also excellent if you should run into problems.

Perfect for what I need. I have a wfh set up. One HD screen and one that needs a bog standard serial port.This has arrived with everything I need including the adaptors. Even comes with usb c adaptor and standard USB connector.I tried cheaper options but had to return them.Now my set up at home is spot on with my office set up.Honestly could not be happier

This is a great bit of kit. It has helped me breath new life into an old monitor and use the same desk to run two computers. I have one monitor running from the DVI/VGA port and one from the HDMI port. I have a keyboard and mouse connected via USB, along with some other peripherals. The unit is connected to my laptop and my desktop via a Plugable USB3 switch and a single USB 3 cable each. I can swap between computers by pressing a single button. I can use the same keyboard and mouse and same monitors for both machines.Sometimes things go wrong and the test of a good company is how they deal with the problem. My first unit was faulty. I spent a while trying to figure out what I’d done wrong. In the end I contacted Plugable via their website, which transparently confirmed that someone else had a similar problem. Bob then contacted me, ran a remote diagnostic and confirmed there was a problem. He then sent me a new unit straight away. I received it after just a few days. The unit he sent had been already tested by his lab, so hopefully this one is good.So, something did go wrong, but I am delighted in how Plugable and especially Plugable Bob went about rectifying it.