With its 17 ports, including 10 USB and four monitor outputs, the SD4880P looks more like an engineer’s fantasy than an essential accessory. One thing is certain, it fulfills its promises and proves to be exemplary in compatibility.
WE love
It is difficult to see how a user could reach the connection limit of a station like the SD4880P. Let’s start with the basic setup, as we plug our laptop –– a MacBook Air and an MSI Pulse GL66 in our tests – into its USB-C socket in the dock. This main port has a particularity which shows the seriousness of the beast: the USB-C socket that is inserted there is screwed, by a small additional head, guaranteeing foolproof stability.
You can first connect this station to not one, but up to four monitors if your computer allows it, two via HDMI and two via DisplayPort. Let’s specify here that a MacBook cannot have multiple monitors connected this way, and that our MSI Pulse GL66 does not have the appropriate USB-C output for this use. We were able to do the test with a ROG Zephyrus G14 and two BenQ monitors, connected via HDMI, to verify Kensington’s claims. The installation worked flawlessly, without installing any drivers and providing the maximum resolution allowed by our two monitors, i.e. 4K and 3K.
As you can imagine, this is an installation that is significantly more demanding than what the average user requires, and we have not pushed it to four monitors. On the other hand, the other possibilities of the SD4880P station are much more accessible. This brave beast first has a 3.5 mm audio output, an SD reader and a 2.5 Gb/s Ethernet socket.
For the good old USB-A connections, so useful for peripherals still mostly offered with this protocol, there are six. Enough to fully support all your keyboards, mice, USB keys and external hard drives.
For USB-C, there are four sockets, including one specially marked which can provide 30 watts. The other three provide up to 15 watts, while USB-A has a maximum of 4.5 watts.
Because this is the other possibility obviously open with the 4880P station: all these sockets can transfer data but also charge as many devices up to a combined total of 100 watts. There is virtually no need for a charger in an environment where this station is used, since even the standard laptop can fetch the watts necessary for its operation. For a video game computer that exceeds these capacities, you must of course keep its independent adapter.
Patiently tested one by one, these USB-A and USB-C outputs have proven to be reliable and instantly recognized by our Mac and our PC. The combined transfer capacity of up to 10 Gbps far exceeded the speed of the connected devices.
Finally, a little touch specific to Kensington who invented the concept, the station can be physically locked with a padlock and a secure cable to prevent its theft.
We like less
The 4880P station costs around $440, depending on sites. We have seen more expensive for such a specialized station but it is still a very high price if you are only looking for a hub for a few peripherals.
It is rather heavy, at 603 grams, and not at all discreet, this box measuring 21 cm by 10.5, 3.71 cm high. In short, not necessarily the equipment you want to move from one place to another, especially since you also have to plug it in with its supplied adapter.
Its availability is minimal. As of this writing, although Kensington lists 14 retailers, the station is only in stock on Amazon.
One buys ?
This is a purchase to consider if you are what we call a “superuser”, needing multiple monitors, numerous peripherals and devices to charge. The test here consisted of confirming that the 4880P station fulfills its promises, that its compatibility is flawless and that no driver installation has complicated the installation.
For such a user, Kensington delivers the perfect accessory.
reference: www.lapresse.ca