New 3rd party dock in town

[goodintentions]

I just did a search on Amazon and found this thing.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=surface+pro+3+dock

Anyone here tried it yet? It costs considerably cheaper than the official dock.

 

[kundas1]

is it this one? if so it doesn't look at all solid...

 

[markusbeutel]

Looks way more portable though, good find OP.

 

[malberttoo]

I just did a search on Amazon and found this thing.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=surface pro 3 dock

Anyone here tried it yet? It costs considerably cheaper than the official dock.

That IS a great find! Thanks for posting it! Looking forward to some member's review.

 

[surfdock]

Neat product. A little more info here: http://etauro.com/en/productdisplay/dp-usb-charger-duc
This picture is key:

Instead of breaking out everything via one connector like the official dock, this has three. So what you're getting is a no-name USB 3.0 hub, a miniDP->extension, and a 12 power supply. If the miniDP and USB bits are to spec, they will have significant insertion force required and in order to get it to dock nicely, the manufacturing tolerances would need to be pretty tight.

Looks like he's designing for the future with a provision for a network port or HDMI instead of the miniDP. Would probably be best to just have a full size DisplayPort since that's the most versatile for desktop environment. It would be nice to see a DisplayLink chipset in there too to provide an additional monitor output.

BTW the eTauro brand seems to be affiliated with the old tech blog: http://cn0086.info

 

[hughlle]

Not really a dock, more a usb hub, and looks flimsy as hell. Don't think i'd want to risk my ports with something bulky like that hanging off the side of the tablet.

 

[bluegrass]

That was my thoughts as well. With this device you don't get access to two display ports or an Ethernet port. You also get a USB hub off of the Surfaces USB 3 port instead of 3 USB 3 ports created off of the Surfaces internal buss. It might have some versatility for the road warriors. I think it's basically, you get what you pay for. At least in this case you wouldn't have paid that much. Maybe will see some reviews from some gamblers on this new Surface 3 hub.