Apricorn Aegis NetDock Laptop Docking Station With Storage Drive, Optical Drive And 4–Port USB Hub – ‘Book Mystique Review

An unavoidable compromise imposed by the quest for smaller, thinner, lighter laptop computers is diminishment of built-in features. For example, Apple’s latest sales success phenomenon, the redesigned and price-cut MacBook Air, has no internal optical drive, and its lightning-fast solid state storage drives come in only 64 GB, 128 GB, and, at a stiff price premium – 256 GB, the latter available on the 13-inch model Air only.

Many users are obviously willing to work around the associated inconveniences in order to gain the benefits of enhanced portability, as well as the cool form factor, but optical drives aren’t dead yet, and the need for more storage capacity than 128 GB or even 256 GB is common with many laptop users. There are times when you’re going to need to install software or run a diagnostic or repair program that demands an optical drive, and burning discs is often the most economical and convenient way to move or store data. And especially for digital photographers and cinematographers, hard disk storage always seems to be at a premium these days.

It’s not only the MacBook Air of course. Many PC netbooks, and even most ultraportable Windows PC laptops these days have no internal optical drives.

Then there’s the USB port issue. The redesigned MacBook Air does have two USB 2.0 ports, which is a 100% increase from the original Air’s pathetically oversubscribed single port, but even two is not really sufficient. Most PC laptops do better than Apple in the USB port department, with even many netbooks having three ports, while the only MacBook that comes with three is the big 17-inch MacBook Pro. For many of us, two, or even three USB ports aren’t nearly enough. Currently, for example, I have three four–port USB hubs connected to my 13-inch MacBook, and only two ports are unoccupied. Earlier today it was just one. One of my axioms is that you can never have too many I/O port options.

There are workarounds of course. My cluttered array of USB hubs is one example. Apple offers an optional freestanding USB optical drive for the MacBook Air, and a vast variety of third-party external USB, FireWire (IEEE 1394), and e-SATA interface hard drives, Flash thumb drives, and larger SSD’s are available.

However, there’s one storage product that combines all of these features in a single, compact, relatively inexpensive unit. Apricorn Inc.’s Aegis NetDock docking station includes a 2.5-inch hard drive in available capacities of up to 500 GB, and a drawer–loading optical drive and CD/DVD burner unit, as well as a four–Port USB hub with two of its ports “always–on” for charging USB devices like mobiles and MP3 players while your computer is asleep or standby mode.

Included in the box are the drive enclosure (with or without drive installed), a vertical power supply brick, a USB cable, AC Power Adapter, a disk containing DVD Burning Software and Synchronization Software (Windows only), and a Quick Start Guide.

Note that the NetDock does require power from its included power supply brick, and does not bus power through the laptop’s USB port, which means that you can’t access data on it unless 120 volt AC is available. And while on the subject of power, the NetDock has is no manual on/off button; it powers down automatically when not in use.

The Aegis NetDock comes in any color you like as long as it’s metallic candy red with black accents. It suits my sense of aesthetics. The unit can be positioned in a flat–on–the–desktop orientation, which will be best when you’re using the tray–loader optical drive, and also in vertical mode supported by the included stand, which renders the device’s footprint substantially smaller.

I find it reassuringly stable when mounted in the stand, which has rubbery contact services that grip the drive securely but also allow it to be slipped in and out of its support channel easily. Nicely executed.

‘Book Mystique rating: five out of five. I really haven’t found anything to seriously complain about.

• Warranty: 1 year limited

• Mac System Requirements

Minimum Hardware:
• Apple G3 or later CPU
• 64MBs RAM
• USB,

Supported Operating Systems:
OS 10.x

• PC System Requirements

Minimum Hardware:
• Pentium II 350 MHz CPU
• 64MBs RAM
• 40MB of hard disk space for included software

• Supported Operating Systems:
Windows 2000 sP4, XP. SP2 or later, Vista, Windows 7

Prices:
• Hard Drive not included $79.00
• 250 GB – $129.00
• 500GB $149.00

For more information, visit:
http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=64

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Appendix:

Technical Details: Apricorn Aegis NetDock 3 in 1 Docking Station

• Power Supply: Input/Output: 100V – 240V 50/60Hz 2A / 12V – 2A and 5V 2A

Enclosure Interface:
• Hi-Speed USB 2.0
• 4-Port USB Hub with two “ALWAYS ON” USB Ports

Hard Drive Specs: (Model without hard drive also available)
• RPM: 5400
• Buffer size: 8MB
• Average seek time: 12 ms
• Shock – non operating: 1000G 1ms
• Shock – operating: 300G 2ms

Optical Drive Specs:
• Dual Layer Recording: 4x
• DVD±R DL Write Speed: 4x
• DVD±RW Write Speed: 8x
• DVD Read Speed: 8x
• CD-R Write Speed: 24x
• CD-RW Write Speed: 24x
• CD-ROM Read Speed: 24x
• Buffer Underrrun Protection

General Specifications:
• Dimensions: 6.25 in x 5.75 in x 2.125 in