I recently had the great pleasure to test the UltraAV docking station from Accell. The UltraAV is a highly portable dock that provides a bevy of ports. It’s light enough to not bog down travelers trying to take the fastest route to the airport gate, and since it’s part of the Designed for Surface program, it complements the mobility of the Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 3 tablets. It’s not manufactured solely as a Surface tablet (works with any tablet), but the box does bear the branding – probably in hopes of taking advantage of Microsoft’s popular tablet line.
If you already own a Microsoft-branded docking station for your Surface Pro 2 or 3, and you travel quite a bit, you might consider the UltraAV as a second dock just for the mobility capabilities. The Microsoft version isn’t mobile at all and is meant to sit, stationary, on a desk. Because of the UltraAV’s size and weight, it easily transports in the same bag you probably already use for the Surface Pro 2 or 3 without much additional bulk. And, since the UltraAV comes with International power plugs, world travelers will find it a valuable purchase.
Available from Amazon.com for $149.99: Accell UltraAV DockingStation
Specs:
- Provides two Mini DisplayPort 1.2 output ports
- Expands a USB 3.0 port to three USB 3.0 ports
- Includes one Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- AC adapter with US, EU, AUS and UK power plugs
- DP 1.2 max link rate: 5.4 Gbps (HBR2) per lane
- DP++ enabled Mini DisplayPort outputs
- Supports DP 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport (MST)
- Ethernet supports Wake-on-LAN technology, crossover detection, auto-correction
- Supports USB 3.0 Charging Downstream Port (CDP)
- Compliance: DisplayPort 1.2, 1.1a, VESA DDM, HDCP 1.3, DisplayID and EDID 1.4
