Kensington StudioDock turns your iPad into a small iMac

There are a lot of iPad keyboard cases that aim to turn Apple tablets into laptops, but Kensington StudioDock is a bit different: it turns your iPad Pro into the world’s tiniest iMac.

This is a serious accessory for those who are serious about iPad productivity. (Yes, they exist.) This is a dock that lets you use your USB-C-equipped iPad Pro or Air in portrait or landscape orientation while giving it a whole lot more connectivity. Basically, if you ever sit and work at your desk with the iPad Pro, then StudioDoc may be for you.

By the way, even if you’re happy to spend $ 399.

The StudioDoc is mostly made of aluminum and is so strong that you can adjust the position of the iPad without moving to your desk, making it easy to switch between portrait and landscape modes or tilt the vertical viewing angle. (An iPad Pro is a great zoom device in a StudioDoc in portrait mode, for example.) The quality of the stand itself is solid, though the plastic back panel feels a bit underpriced.

On one side of the dock you will find a USB-C port and power button, while the other has an SD card slot and a headphone jack. There is a barrel connector, three USB-A ports, an HDMI port and a Gigabit Ethernet port for all-around power. The base of the stand also has two 7.5W Qi wireless chargers integrated, and (of course) two Kensington security locks. The iPad Pro connects USB-C and slots on a magnetic plastic panel that helps support the jack; The dock is available for 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPads, although the size of the magnetic panel is the only thing that differs between the two versions.

Once your iPad is connected to a keyboard and trackpad or mouse, it’s like having a little desktop computer with a touchscreen – and more ports than most Mac laptops these days. This is actually quite enchanting, if you find things like the idea of ​​wired internet connectivity on a tablet adorable.

Even if you’re not using a bunch of stuff, StudioDock is more comfortable to use on a desk than a laptop, because it enhances performance to a better angle. I have been reminded recently New yorker Cover with your laptop at home showing a woman that she is lying indiscriminately on a pile of books. Laptops stand out, obviously, but not everyone wants to use them, and I like that StudioDock means you’re not stuck with an unnecessary keyboard and trackpad.

An important element of this product is that it is quite easy to move the iPad away from the dock. It is still a bit wasteful and I wish this product uses the Smart Connector, but since no one other than Apple and Logitech has released products that actually use it, I think Kensington is the reason for that. Were. An advantage of this design is that it charges the iPad very quickly at 37.5W, so I didn’t have to think about charging it any other way at home.

Kensington also sent an Apple Watch charger that is attached to a USB-C passthrough port. It will be sold separately after StudioDock is released. I found it a bit plastic, like the back panel of the dock, but it worked fine. I already use an Apple Watch desktop charger every day, so I didn’t need it very much, but if you don’t have one yet, this would be a convenient add-on.

Meanwhile, wireless chargers are also a good addition. You won’t get the fastest speeds among them, but the ability to charge a phone and AirPod throughout the day is useful and saves space on your desk compared to separate pads. When the devices were fully charged, I did notice a slight coil noise – all of this is not uncommon with wireless chargers, but not all of them do, so it’s worth noting that this one Does.

StudioDock’s HDMI port supports 4K monitors at 60 Hz and should be ideal for an iPad dual-display setup, but Apple still doesn’t have the software on its part. Only a few apps show you different content on each monitor – the rest of the time when you’re working with a Pillarboxed mirror of your iPad’s 4: 3 screen. (One clever way around this is an app called Shiftscreen, Which is basically a browser that lets you run up to four web apps in two displays – useful for things like slits and multitasking in postures.) Before I go all-in, I personally have to go through iPadOS. An iPad desktop setup will be required, but if you’re used to using the laptop yourself, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro should be large enough for most tasks.

This is how I used StudioDoc most of the time, and it was generally a great experience. I really like the trackpad support I added to iPadOS last year, and to be able to combine it with a wired mechanical keyboard and still have a ton of connectivity options. I would just say that I would generally use StudioDoc as compared to a laptop balanced on a stack of books.

StudioDoc is clearly a niche product, and has its quirks. But for the most part, Kensington’s attempt to shape the iPad into a desktop computer actually works. To make sense for this you really need to be in the iPad-as-work-machine lifestyle, but the StudioDock and iPad Pro combination is a fast, fun computer that does most of what I want.

My biggest hangup is price. this Cost $ 399.99 for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro version, or $ 379.99 for models that fit the 11-inch iPad Pro and 10.9-inch iPad Air. This is obviously a lot of money to invest in third-party peripherals – this is more than a few iPads alone. And I worry about whether it will work with any future iPad Pro design, given the current pros have not had any significant updates since their introduction in 2018.

They are some very large cavities, but if you can overcome them, StudioDock is a great way to work on the iPad. This turns the tablet into a more comfortable, capable and flexible computer, and I expect Apple’s software will evolve to make such a use case even better.

Photography by Sam Byford / The Reporter Door