Hi Guys,
The missus got a Macbook Pro (Intel) at a new company and I need to redo the WFH setup.
I am after a dock that can support dual screen with the MacBook screen closed and also support a Windows machine with standard USB 3.0.
I have tried two Lenovo DisplayLink docks I had but no luck with the Mac.
Can anyone recommend a dock that fits in the Ozbargain way? Everything that I can find seems to be between $300 and $500 which is just ridiculous for a dock.
Cheers!
I too tried to find something similar; what I bought was not a dock but a usbc > 2x HDMI dongle:
Startech - was able to run 2x 4k60 monitors from both intel macbooks and windows - on M1 macbooks it would duplicate on both monitors (as well documented online)
In the end I invested in one of the Dell 34" ultrawide conference monitors, which does charging, monitor and hub through a single cable on both mac and pc, even has a webcam built in so no fluffing around with anything
Got used to it pretty quick over my previous 2x 27"monitors
I researched this specific issue to roll out 150, then eventually to another 1000 desktops, and it needed to specifically support Mac (m1 and intel) and windows as well as BYOD (but we could assume devices have USB-C)
The only technique we identified to achieve dual monitor (single cable) support on both Apple and windows is to use DisplayLink drivers on the mac via a DisplayLink compatible dock. Apple does not support displayport daisy-chaining (which is a different approach that does work for windows). DisplayLink is a software-based solution that is provided by a third party. It has a history of patchy compatibility and broken updates, but can be made to work at times but was high risk. We also decided we wanted first party OS support and didn't want to rely on third party drivers.
Apparently thunderbolt docks were a possibility as well but they were expensive and hard to source at the time.
The conclusion we came to was to invest in good USB-C ultrawides instead. This gives you a single cable solution and the ultrawides are almost as good, and sometimes better, than two monitors. You also don't need to buy a dock.