Image: StarTech / Amazon
If you’re setting up a home office during this October Prime Day, seriously consider grabbing StarTech’s discounted USB-C docking station during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days.
Not everybody knows about DisplayLink docks, the cheaper alternative to Thunderbolt docks. DisplayLink docks use a compression chip to get more out of them, like support for additional monitors. (YouTube and Netflix already push compressed video to your PC and TV; this is similar, just between your laptop and screen. StarTech’s DisplayLink USB-C dock is on sale for $259.99, an all-time low.
StarTech’s DisplayLink dock supports four simultaneous 4K displays at 60Hz apiece (or two 5K displays, which no one really offers yet). That’s nuts. Crazy! And definitely enough if you’re building a home workspace for content creation, gaming, streaming, or whatever. Add to that 100W power delivery to a notebook, a 15W USB-C charging port, three USB-A legacy ports, and Ethernet.
The thing is, $259 isn’t really a premium price. Thunderbolt docks tend to hover around the $300 range, though competition is lowering their prices, too. The advantage of a DisplayLink dock is that they’re cheaper, flexible, and traditionally more stable than Thunderbolt — at least until Thunderbolt 5 rolls around, maybe.
The discount that Amazon and StarTech is offering isn’t profound: 16 percent off the standard price. But it’s still at a low point for the year, proof that these sales don’t come around often. And if this still isn’t good enough, check out our other October Prime Day deals on Thunderbolt docks plus USB-C hubs and dongles.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor
As PCWorld’s senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.
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