VGA is still a major requirement in business meeting rooms, where projectors only have VGA connections. Sounds dumb I know, but it's easier to replace everyone's notebooks than to invest $200 in an office projector and get it set up. The 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' policy.
Never mind, I get it now. It's meant to provide ports that are not available on the corporate laptops HP also announced. You want HDMI, you use the one on the laptop. You want more than three USB, you plug them into the laptop. I'm not sure if that's the most user-friendly approach, but at least it isn't as arbitrary as I initially thought.
I can see where they were going; but generally the point of a dock is so you only need to connect 1 cable not several. In that regard, not including an HDMI is a bit odd. More USB can always just be chained via a hub.
Enterprise monitors have only recently started being offered with HDMI. Also with enterprise devices, you're largely talking about using integrated graphics and Intel is still largely only supporting HDMI 1.4. So, replacing one of the DisplayPort ports would be more limiting, especially if you wanted to drive two 4K displays.
I'm curious if anyone has any info on these and whether or not they are designed to be "open" products. By open, I mean they are locking down the functionality so that these devices can only be used with HP products. I didn't have a chance to try the previous HP ThunderBolt dock, but I was told by several sources that they were locked down. I known the current Lenovo and Dell ThunderBolt docks are not locked down in this manner. Additional drivers might need to be installed to support the USB Ethernet devices and the USB audio devices, but that is easy enough. The Dell ThunderBolt dock does something proprietary to be able to deliver 130W over USB C to Dell models, but just 100W on other devices. So, while somewhat proprietary, it really isn't a issue when using it with other devices. The only feature I've found that won't work across devices is the ability to power on systems from the dock.
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zogus - Wednesday, February 7, 2018 - link
I have to say, this is a weird choice of ports. VGA and USB-C DisplayPort, but no HDMI? Only three USB 3.0? No TB chaining?Ian Cutress - Wednesday, February 7, 2018 - link
VGA is still a major requirement in business meeting rooms, where projectors only have VGA connections. Sounds dumb I know, but it's easier to replace everyone's notebooks than to invest $200 in an office projector and get it set up. The 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' policy.zogus - Wednesday, February 7, 2018 - link
Never mind, I get it now. It's meant to provide ports that are not available on the corporate laptops HP also announced. You want HDMI, you use the one on the laptop. You want more than three USB, you plug them into the laptop. I'm not sure if that's the most user-friendly approach, but at least it isn't as arbitrary as I initially thought.drothgery - Wednesday, February 7, 2018 - link
Also, DisplayPort to HDMI cables are not difficult to find or expensive.DanNeely - Wednesday, February 7, 2018 - link
I can see where they were going; but generally the point of a dock is so you only need to connect 1 cable not several. In that regard, not including an HDMI is a bit odd. More USB can always just be chained via a hub.Kornfeld - Wednesday, February 7, 2018 - link
Enterprise monitors have only recently started being offered with HDMI. Also with enterprise devices, you're largely talking about using integrated graphics and Intel is still largely only supporting HDMI 1.4. So, replacing one of the DisplayPort ports would be more limiting, especially if you wanted to drive two 4K displays.Kornfeld - Wednesday, February 7, 2018 - link
I'm curious if anyone has any info on these and whether or not they are designed to be "open" products. By open, I mean they are locking down the functionality so that these devices can only be used with HP products. I didn't have a chance to try the previous HP ThunderBolt dock, but I was told by several sources that they were locked down. I known the current Lenovo and Dell ThunderBolt docks are not locked down in this manner. Additional drivers might need to be installed to support the USB Ethernet devices and the USB audio devices, but that is easy enough. The Dell ThunderBolt dock does something proprietary to be able to deliver 130W over USB C to Dell models, but just 100W on other devices. So, while somewhat proprietary, it really isn't a issue when using it with other devices. The only feature I've found that won't work across devices is the ability to power on systems from the dock.