Universal Laptop Docking Station with Dual 4K Display, 100W PD Charging, USB-C & USB 3.0 Ports - Compatible with MacBook M1/M2/M3, MacBook Air/Pro & Windows Laptops - Perfect for Home Office, Remote Work & Multi-Monitor Setup

Having already used hardware compatible with the DisplayLink software to make an Apple Silicon Mac able to extend its desktop to two additional displays, and having recently bought an M3 Macbook Air, when I saw this I had to try it. While most DisplayLink-compatible hardware I have seen only have the absolute minimum of ports (typically a USB-C cable in and two HDMI ports out), the Silking Universal Laptop Docking Station has a lot more options added - most notably the option to use displayport for one or both of the outputs, but also three USB-A ports (each rated for 10Gbps, i.e. USB 3.1), a 10Gbit ethernet port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a full-size SD card slot and a TF (aka. microSD) card slot. So this covers a lot of port needs, letting you use it as a docking station as the name suggests.There are also two USB-C cables included, one to connect to power (more on that shortly) and one to connect to your computer. The cables aren't labeled in the packaging, but if you look at them you can see slight differences - the power cable has a little hole on the plastic part of the connector, while the data cable is white on the inside of the actual connector. The power cable is also shorter than the data cable.The power brick that is included is a great value addition in itself, as it is not just a straight-up power brick for this hardware but rather a multi-port (two USB-C, one USB-A) charger capable of delivering up to 100W in total. This means it can be used as a fast charger for your favorite electronics that support that kind of thing, and perhaps most importantly to this review also means it will charge your Macbook without any additional cables! That adds even more utility to this device than I had expected.I have not found anything negative to say about this other than very nitpicky stuff - sure, it gets a little warm but that's expected since there is no fan and it's not like it gets super hot or anything. Adding a fan would also have made it make noise, which I for one would rather avoid unless necessary.Another minor thing is that you do need to actively turn it on or off rather than just plug it in for anything except power delivery passthrough, which is absolutely fair enough - especially if you aren't always using it (which I am with my previous DisplayLink hardware since that's connected to an iMac and therefore stationary).Below I will be going into more detail about DisplayLink rather than the hardware itself, so if you are only interested in the hardware review that ends here - I highly recommend this, whether you are looking for a full-on docking station for your Apple Silicon laptop or just a DisplayLink adapter with bonus functionality.If you do decide to buy it and are unfamiliar with DisplayLink, read on :)In order to use this to extend your Apple Silicon Mac to two additional displays, you first need to install the DisplayLink software. This was created by a company called Synaptics and it basically provides a workaround to the fact that entry-level Apple Silicon SOCs only have the necessary chips included to use two displays - of which one is the internal display (where applicable). I'm not going to go into detail on how this works, it is enough to know that it will eat some of your CPU and RAM - but that would have been the case even if the hardware had been present to make this unnecessary.Installation is simple, you just need to follow the instructions on screen to provide the necessary access.Once you have it set up, I would recommend that you review the options available to you from the menu bar icon - specifically the "Launch automatically after login" if you want to use this often. I personally also like the "Use Apple Watch to unlock on login screen" and "Power sleep all displays and sleep if in clamshell" options, but those are obviously up to your personal preference and usage.Hope that helps you enjoy your new DisplayLink docking station!