Review: Kensington Wireless USB Docking Station

Jumping on Kensington's first-of-its-kind Wireless USB Docking Station is kind of like flying on a digital magic carpet.

Most docking stations are utilitarian devices that make station stops between a desk and the road a bit simpler. You know the drill: When you get back to your desk, the docking station lets you connect your notebook to a normal-size keyboard, mouse and monitor, as well as other assorted peripherals hanging around your desk. You still have to connect the notebook with one or more cables – not exactly catnip for a typical gadget geek, but a useful device.

But why bother plugging and unplugging your gizmos each time you want to use them? With Kensington's Wireless USB Docking Station, the moment you open your Wi-Fi-enabled notebook, all your desktop devices are ready to go. Like a one-night stand, you've got no strings, er, cables to worry about. We were amazed at how seamless the process is: The station recognized our 20-inch monitor, wireless USB mouse, keyboard and printer. It was as if they were always connected to the notebook.

Of course, there are a few gotchas. Wireless USB (WUSB) is a new standard and some notebooks can't hook up with this docking station. Relatively few vendors have WUSB-ready notebooks out just yet. Dell and Lenovo offer a few models and other companies should be out the gate by this fall. Don't have built-in WUSB? A few companies, including Belkin, D-Link and IOGEAR provide wireless USB adapters and hubs, so you can add limited wireless USB to existing PCs and peripherals. But so far only Kensington offers a full-fledged docking station that supports video monitors.

We admit to being a tad peeved by the dock's default for audio handling – it expects us to have USB speakers attached to one of its five USB ports and all sound from the notebook speakers is then silenced. By fiddling with Windows Sound controls we were able to adjust this, however. The video connector is DVI-only but a DVI-to-VGA adapter is included.

With its plain, geeky looks, the 11.4 ounce antenna-topped station could get lost in a field of wireless routers. But that's not quite enough to put our Battlestar boxers in a knot: the Kensington Wireless Docking Station is a snap to set up and makes mobile computing, well, mobile and hassle-free. You know, the way it's supposed to be.