Anker's New 13-In-1 Docking Station Has A Nifty Removable Feature

By Brad Hill
Man sitting at laptop with three monitors connected through docking station Anker

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Docking stations are useful for laptops that lack in the connectivity department, providing additional USB and HDMI ports to let them function more like desktops. There are small USB hubs, but they don't offer as much connectivity as a full-sized docking station. The problem is that the whole setup becomes burdensome if you're somebody who travels with your laptop often because then you're hauling this boxy gadget around, as well as other peripherals. A full-sized docking station just isn't going to fit nicely in a messenger bag, but it's necessary.

Anker solved this problem by creating a 13-in-1 docking station that ejects a smaller 6-in-1 hub, eliminating the tough choice: do you buy a USB hub or a USB dock? With it being roughly the same height and width of a credit card, with the thickness of a Sharpie pen., the hub will fit just about anywhere in your carrying case for your laptop. That way, you won't be missing out on too much connectivity if you leave the docking station at home.

The removable 6-in-1 hub connects to your laptop via USB-C and has a USB-C as well as a USB-A slot with transfer rates of 5 Gbps. There's also a USB-C PD-IN slot with a max input of 100W. You'll still be able to connect a second monitor to your laptop without the rest of the dock, too, since there's an HDMI port capable of 40K at 60 Hz. If you're a photo/video editor or photographer, there are also the SD and TF card slots. 

The docking station

Man working on laptop with Anker removeable hub plugged in to laptop. Anker

The entire dock is a really nice piece of hardware for anyone who is only working on a laptop. If you want multiple displays, it has ports for two HDMI inputs that run 4K videos at 60 Hz, plus a DisplayPort that gets the same resolution and refresh rate, giving you the ability to connect up to three monitors, plus your laptop screen. However, if you want 4K resolution, don't plug in more than one monitor. When you plug in more, the resolution drops to 1920 x 1080.

Windows users get to take full advantage of using multiple displays by having something different on each screen if they want. Mac users aren't so lucky, as each screen — except the laptop screen — will be identical. It might be best to go with just one ultrawide monitor over dual monitors, in that case. No matter your preference, the docking station still gives you:

  • One 10 Gbps USB-C port
  • One 5 Gbps USB-C port
  • One USB-A port
  • Two 480 Mbps USB-A ports
  • One 10 Gbps Ethernet port
  • One Headphone jack
  • One SD and microSD card slots

It's normally priced at $149.99, which isn't too bad for everything the dock offers, but Amazon has Anker's 13-in-1 Nano Docking Station for $119.99, as of this writing. 

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