Living with a Laptop: Docking (Premium)

Given my history and how much I write, I can’t work on just a laptop: The constrained and non-ergonomic keyboards on such PCs cause carpal tunnel-like stiffness that could develop into a real issue over time. So I need to connect an external mouse, keyboard, other peripherals, and a display, or at the very least, elevate the laptop’s built-in display so that it is at an ergonomically-correct angle. And that’s where things stood at the conclusion of the first article in the series.

The problem with my initial set-up is obvious, given the mess of cables, but I threw that together purely out of necessity: With my NUC destroyed by lightning, I needed to get some computer---any computer---up and running in its place, and do so as quickly as possible so as to avoid any downtime.

That HP had sent an Envy 15 for review that very week was just a nice coincidence, and on two levels. Yes, it arrived within a day of my NUC being destroyed, but I had also been considering, yet again, what it would be like to work solely from a laptop. And I knew that laptop would need to have a 15-inch display.

As the folks from HP, Lenovo, and Dell whom I deal with can tell you, I’m always looking for a bigger display. Some of my very favorite PCs have 13.x-inch displays, but I always ask about when a larger 14-inch version might happen. Ditto on some of my other favorites that do have 14-inch displays: Sure, this is great, I’ll say; but what about 15 inches? Oh, the fun we have.

Obviously, I can get by just fine with a 13.3-inch display on the road. And a 14-inch display is, in many ways, an ideal compromise between portability and usability. But if were to actually just use the one PC full-time, I’ve long felt that it would have to be 15-inches. And most 15-inch laptops I’ve used in recent years, while excellent in some ways, each kind of fell short. (I never got to the review a 15-inch Surface Laptop or Surface Book, but feel that either would be an interesting choice if I could just experience it.)

Anyway, the HP Envy 15 was great timing. I love the look and feel of the device, its minimalistic design, and its powerful innards. This is a computer I could really use, and use full-time. And, well. Here we are.

To get past my initial, messy set up, I had to figure out a docking solution. I have several docks sitting around, including the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock I reviewed last year and a couple of Plugable docks, among others. I’m a big fan of Plugable, because their products seem to work really well and are generally inexpensive, so I went with a Plugable USB 3.0 Universal Laptop Docking Station that happens to be half-price, or just $89, on Amazon right now if you’re curious or in the market. (I thought I had written something up about this product, but I can’t find it on the site.)

Switching to the dock was simple enough, but because the HP Envy 15 has a large 200-watt power supply, there’s no USB- or Thunderbolt 3-based d...

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