However, I am noticing that Ethernet speeds aren’t fully what they could be if I had the Ethernet cable plugged directly into my MacBook. The dock works as advertised and I didn’t have much problem setting it.

The dock does need to be plugged into a power outlet, and it comes with a big ‘ole power brick to give it as much juice as it needs, but this allows the dock to charge up your USB devices even when it’s not plugged into your Mac. The design of the Express Dock is made to blend in with the MacBook, as it comes with the same brushed aluminum finish, so there shouldn’t be any worries about the dock not fitting in with the rest of your Apple-centric setup. Furthermore, there’s another USB 3.0 port on the front of the dock, along with a combo headphone/microphone jack.Ĭompared to the original Express Dock from over a year ago, the new dock ditches the FireWire ports and adds the front-access USB and audio ports for convenience.

The Express Dock HD includes a bevy of ports, including two USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 2 ports (one of which is used to plug the dock into your Mac), a full-size HDMI port, Ethernet, and a headphone jack. Instead, all I have to plug and unplug is one Thunderbolt 2 cable. That’s not a whole lot of cables by any means, but it gets a little tiring when I’m constantly plugging and unplugging everything. For me, I had to deal with an external monitor, a USB hub, Ethernet, and my speakers. It takes all those cables that you have to plug into your MacBook and turns it into one Thunderbolt 2 cable. With that said, the new Express Dock works fairly well. It has two main purposes: To make it way easier to plug all of your accessories and peripherals into your MacBook, and to offer way more ports than your MacBook, especially for MacBook Air users. Personally, as a MacBook Pro user who is constantly docking and undocking my laptop at my desk, I wanted to see if Belkin’s new Express Dock would make the whole process easier.įirst off, let’s explain what the Express Dock’s goal is in the first place. The nice thing about MacBooks is that they’re really portable, but whenever you want to dock it to your workstation at the office or at home and hook it up to a monitor and other peripherals, it can get a little tricky. I got the chance to play around with it and see if it’s a product worth having in your home or work office. Belkin recently launched its second-generation Express Dock, which now comes with Thunderbolt 2 capabilities.

Thunderbolt 2 hub macbook pro