Kensington sd200v Notebook Docking Station with Video

Kensington's sd200v dock adds five USB sockets plus D-SUB, all from a single USB port - quite a strain for USB 2's 480Mb/sec limit. We ran video on a second monitor at the sd200v's maximum 4:3 resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 and 32-bit colour, with an external mouse and USB drive in use. Video was watchable, but colour reproduction was disappointing, with compression artefacts apparent throughout. We also spotted a few dropped frames while the USB drive was being written to. The sd200v is a perfect solution for business users, though - it's worth the money alone for the time saved plugging in all those peripherals.

Author: Matthew Sparkes