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 dock that can power it, so at best this will be a two-cable solution. Not ideal but not totally inelegant.

Anyway, I removed most of the cables coming out of the laptop and now just have the single USB-C cable coming from one of the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports to the dock (plus the power cable, of course). The dock has two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI- and DVI-out for video, an Ethernet jack, and a standard 3.5-mm headphone/speaker jack.

I’m using most of that already: I have the webcam, Focusrite microphone interface, and keyboard/mouse dongle in 3 of the 4 USB 2.0 ports, and I’m using the headphone/speaker jack and Ethernet ports as well. So there are two USB 3.0 ports, unfortunately, both are in the back of the dock, free, plus HDMI-out for video.

After a bit of re-recognizing the devices—I’ve always been sort of weirded out that Windows needs to do this when you switch USB ports—I was back up and running, and Skype and Teams had correctly configured the microphone and speakers, something that doesn’t always happen. I’m still using the HP’s built-in display, and still have the laptop suspended at a good, ergonomic height using the Nexstand Laptop Stand I wrote about previously.

The next step is to incorporate an external display. And that’s where things get complicated.

I’ve been using a 27-inch HP Z27n G2 display since April 2019 and I really like it. But because it’s 1440p—compared to 4k/UHD for the Envy’s internal display—I have some decisions to make. Normally, I’d just use the external display and leave the laptop’s display lid closed. But with such a difference in resolution, switching between the two displays will be painful, with applications and other windows resizing and displacing themselves each time I move between docked to laptop-only configurations.

The alternative is to use both displays when docked. I know a lot of people, especially power user types, really like this configuration, but I never have. But then that’s kind of the point of a series like this, so I’ll figure out a way to make it work, at least for as long as I can stomach it. Who knows? Maybe I’ll emerge a convert.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about, of course, is PC-based gaming. And while I’ll have a lot more to say about this in the future, I did spend some time yesterday afternoon playing Halo 3 through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on this PC, and I have to say, it’s a great experience. I purchased a new Xbox One controller for this purpose—and, well, because my normal controller is dying—and it was easy to set up and configure, with a simple console-like interface, and great graphics and sound.

The only “issue,” such as it is, is that the PC got quite warm—almost untouchably so—especially on the bottom, but also on the right wrist rest. Granted, I was lying on a bed with the laptop right on the bed, and not well-ventilated, and I will concede that’s not a normal scenario. I will keep testing, and try other games and services, as we move forward. Here again, who knows? Maybe I’ll emerge as a born-again PC gamer on the other side of this too.

I guess you never know.