Linedock Review: Escape from #donglehell
- jul
- 06
Look, I know I do more than my fair share of complaining when it comes to the new MacBook Pro. And while I find Apple's "courage" line as laughable as most folks, I do respect the company's … boldness in its attempt to force the rest of the industry to embrace a USB-C future. But the thing is, those of us in video production still live in a present very much dependent upon USB-A, SD cards and HDMI … and I've bought a lot of dongles over the past year in my quest to keep all of my equipment playing nice with my MacBook Pro 2017.
Linedock is a product that tries to go beyond the dongle. A flat aluminum plate 9mm in thickness, it resembles a laptop chassis that the factory forgot to cut a seam into. While its edges are indeed studded with enough ports to make a former MacBook Pro 2015 owner like me salivate, the story gets even more compelling when you pop the hood. Inside, a 72 Wh battery and a 256GB hard drive stand ready to extend your laptop's life and storage capacity … and even serve as a dual-boot companion should the mood strike you. Linedock is, in other words, much more than just a dongle.
Linedock is also, unfortunately, over a year late to market … and it carries a price tag that might give pause even to those with MacBook Pro money. Find out if it's worth the price (and the wait) in MrMobile's Linedock review above, and let me know what port extenders you're using for your own MacBook in the comments below!