Lenovo Thinkpad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 Docking Station (433810U)

I've got a Lenovo Thinkpad T420 4178-6VU 14" Notebook (2.5 GHz Intel Core i5-2520M Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 Home Premium) which I carry between work and home daily. I bought this docking station for home use, to let me easily switch between my home PC and my laptop, while using my home equipment.Pro:+ Docking eject button easily ejects the machine, and it's easy to dock as well.+ No hiccups whatsoever hot / cold docking and undocking. Nice hardware, and Windows 7 got it right.+ Included a 90-watt power supply which lets me fully power the laptop+ LOTS of ports: 2 DisplayPort, 2 DVI, one VGA; Firewire, gigabit ethernet, six USB ports, audio, and so on. I think I actually have more ports on this than on my desktop box!+ Compact. Footprint is smaller than the laptop, except for the eject button off to the side+ Holds the laptop at a slight slant, which I like.Con:- NoneThere are cheaper docking stations for the Thinkpad if you want, in particular the Thinkpad Port Replicator Series 3. Don't pay for the extra ports unless you think you will use them, the cheaper model is enough for most people.I especially appreciate the DisplayPort connectors on the docking station, which allows me to use a Accell UltraAV B087B-002B DisplayPort/DVI-D Dual-Link Adapter (Black) to drive my Samsung 305T monitor at full 2560x1600 resolution. Beautiful!Overall, a great docking station / port replicator for a great laptop! Solid, reliable, functional.

I did A LOT of research on this. Even went to the extent of contacting Lenovo directly to confirm it would work the way I wanted it to. They, of course, tried to sell me the ThinkPad USB-C Dock Gen 2 for a whopping $179 USB. Fortunately, the second person I spoke to actually cared more about providing good customer service rather than selling me something I really didn't need.The ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 - 90W (433810U*) was EXACTLY what I needed and was looking for. I have my ThinkPad T520 seamlessly connected to three 21.5" AOC monitors via two DVI-D cables and one VGA. I can confirm that up to three, of the five, video ports can be used simultaneously. However, if using 3 monitors, one video port HAS to be the VGA and it's either/or the display port or the DVI-D port for the other two. I tried running two off the display ports and the third off of the DVI-D, but it didn't work.Video quality is great and this setup will perfectly suit my needs of allowing me greater efficiency when working from home.

This unit fits and is working well with my Lenovo T410. My laptop uses a 90 watt power supply, which is what comes with this docking station.

This docking system is not good, too many problems with the conections, the USB ports don't seem to work all the time, you need to play with the contacts to make them work, it doesn't seem to recognize all the attachments, I have had this product for less than a year

Had no issues installing or setting up. Worked well on first use on my Windows 7 laptop. It auto installed all the needed drivers on first use. I specifically purchased this because it has 2 dvi outputs. My old laptop and port replicator only had dvi and vga and could tell the difference between the 2 screens. The DVI connections makes the running dual monitors a breeze. I was originally running linux on the laptop and found drivers extremely difficult to find and get configured. If I had a couple days I'm sure I could have gotten everything to work well. I'm happy running things with Windows 7 and there was no real work to get everything working.

I thought I was buying something new. It's not new, its refurbished.I have a W530 Dual Core, 16 gb ram. it doesn't charge it and It don't have any HDMI ports on it, only DMI.I have two monitors but you can't use your VGA on the laptop it's self only on the dock.I ordered 2 HDMI-DMI cables and I'll let you know. as of right now i looks like i cant use it if it wont charge.Update: I got both screens to work and I figured out a trick to get the laptop charging. Put the computer on the charger and then on the dock.

I had been searching, for a LONG time, for a dock to enable multiple monitors to attach to a Lenovo X230. Finally, this vendor had the product I had been seeking and it was delivered very promptly and the dock (though used) had been nicely restored and has worked beautifully. Though I have only had it for about a week, I am excited and hopeful that this will serve well for a long time.

I use this for convenience, dropping my laptop in and out. It works fine but I am having a small issue with the eSata port. I have two eSata drives (Vantec enclosures with Seatgate 750GB drives). My newer enclosure works in both the laptop port as well as the replicator's port. My older enclosure works in the laptop port but does not work reliably in the expansion port. So there is something about the expansion port that isn't exactly the same. It could be a number of things, i.e. firmware on the laptop or the drive, cable, firmare or hardware in the older enclosure; so I can't say for sure there is a problem with the dock. But I think the connector in the dock may not be as tight as it needs to be. If I do have to return this item, it will be the first such return since I began using ThinkPads 10 years ago.It's a great product. ThinkPad products have been so good to me over the years that I would give Lenovo the benefit of the doubt. The only reason I mentioned the issue is to ensure that no pattern develops in the reviews.Cheers!