Hubs vs Docks Explained

You might have frequently heard the words Hubs and Docks, majority of the times they are used interchangeably. Practically, it is a difficult task to find differences between the two as they are very similar in their functionality and looks. Despite this, each of them is unique in their own ways and have their individual importance. However, we have few pointers that would help you differentiate between a Docking Station and a Hub: What is a docking station? A docking station is a workstation which provides connection to your laptop. If you have a laptop at your workplace and constantly need to connect it with other devices to add a larger screen, keyboard, printer, etc, then docking station is the perfect solution for you. You need to connect your docking station to all the external devices and whenever you feel like converting your laptop to a complete workstation, simply connect it to the docking station. In simple terms, the cable converters that require mains power are also docking stations. The Docking station can support a wide variety of connections ranging from DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI, VGA or even Gigabit Ethernet, Audio connections, SD card readers, etc. What is a Hub? Nowadays, Laptop comes with very limited connectivity for input ports, it becomes difficult to connect multiple devices to it. The simplest available solution is the Hub. The Hub basically works a spitter that lets you plug more devices into a given port, especially the USB-A and USB-C ports, or an Ethernet port for wired Internet connection. You can check out the examples of Docking stations and Hubs from ALOGIC to understand more:

1. ALOGIC Dock Wave: The ALOGIC USB-C Dock Wave works as first of its kind 3-in-1 solution comprising of USB-C Hub with Power Delivery, Power Bank and Wireless Charger. The Dock features 4K HDMI output for external displays, SD and micro SD card readers for convenient transfer of data, dual-port USB 3.0 and USB-C for pass-through power delivery to charger your laptop. It acts as a perfect companion which can be used on your work desk to convert your laptop into a complete work station and the one that can be carried on-the-go since it is designed to be very compact and portable.

2. ALOGIC USB-C SuperSpeed Combo Hub with 2 Port USB-C and 2 Port USB-A: This SuperSpeed Combo Hub adds two USB-C and USB-A type ports when connected to your USB-C enabled Desktop, you can connect devices such as a hard drive, flash drives, camera, keyboard, a mouse or a smartphone with an appropriate USB cable. It is compatible with USB 3.1/3.0/2.0 devices and manage to quickly transfer data the USB peripherals and your USB-C desktop. Apart from the obvious question of either opting to purchase a Docking station or a Hub, both of them individually help over a common motive of keeping your work desk organized and enabling connection with multiple devices.