Tech
Dell's Dual Charge Dock might be the last laptop dock you ever buy
Dell’s Dual Charge Dock does the obvious — connect your laptop to an external monitor — but it also doubles as a wireless Qi charger for your phone or earbuds.
Dell is introducing a simple concept today that I’m surprised every major computer manufacturer isn’t already offering — a USB-C laptop dock with a Qi wireless charger built in. It’s called the Dell Dual Charge Dock, and among a bunch of new laptops and accessories Dell announced today, it’s a surprising standout.
Contrary to Dell’s claims, the Dual Charge Dock doesn’t seem to actually be “the world’s first laptop docking station with a wireless charging stand” based on a cursory Google search, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the first one from a company you can probably trust to not burn a hole through your desk.
The new dock delivers up to 90W of power to a connected laptop and up to 12W of power to any smartphone or wireless earbuds you drop on the Qi charger up top. Naturally, the functionality doesn’t stop there. There’s a load of ports in this thing too.
Ports — There are four USB-A ports, one USB-C port, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, and an HDMI 2.1 port. I’m a bit disappointed Dell isn’t going full steam ahead and having USB-C handle all charging and display duties on the Dual Charge Dock, but I respect the spread of options here.
What matters to me is how this dock could clear up particularly nightmarish desk setups, a perfect pairing for either of Dell’s new XPS models paired with a monitor. I’ll take one less charging cable if I can get it!
The rest — If the Dual Charge isn’t your speed, Dell has options with better compatibility with non-windows machines and anyone heavily invested in Thunderbolt-compatible devices.
Dell’s Universal Dock is designed to work with “any operating system regardless of manufacturer” with fast charging up to 96W, according to Dell. It has four USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, and four video ports.
The Dell Thunderbolt Dock has two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a USB-C DisplayPort, an HDMI 2.0 port, and two DP 1.4 ports. The Thunderbolt Dock is designed to be modular so that ports and be traded out over time as new, and ever more complicated standards are adopted.
Laptop docks aren’t the most exciting product on paper, but good simple ideas deserve to be celebrated. Even if all they do is charge your phone and connect your laptop at the same time.
The Dell Dual Charge Dock and Universal Dock will be available on May 12 for $368.99 and $459.99, respectively. The Thunderbolt Dock will be available sometime in Q2 for $469.99.
