Kensington Wifi Docking Station
Review by Robert Young-Pullman | Published September 2008 | Review Archives

This is probably one of the more useful gizmos I've plugged in this summer. Those of you that use a laptop exclusively but have to take it on the road with you (and I figure that's a lot of DJs) probably have invested in wireless mice, keyboards and speakers for when you get at home. After all, most laptops today are pretty powerful devices and can really supplant a desktop computer for most needs. The problem is that you're either stuck fiddling with a bunch of cords to hook up all of these devices when you get back to your desk, or you're like me and just go without, using a laptop's touchpad for a mouse and tinny on-board speakers for sound.

That's where the Kensington Docking Station comes in. No less than ten minutes after I had it out of the box, all of my devices were recognized. Putting the laptop to sleep, there was very little lag (less than 5 seconds) before my external keyboard, monitor and speakers were recognized and began to hum. Within one day, my old desktop that I took as a necessary evil was back in the garage. It's that reliable.

The greatest thing about this is the simplicity. Once you've set up the docking station for the first time, there's no more reason to fiddle with it until and unless you buy another device.

The bad news is that a lot of modern laptops do not support the Wireless USB (WUSB) protocol used by Kensington (and presumably most of the next gen docking stations that will follow). Check it out in advance, or look into one of these as an add-on if you're in the market for a new laptop.