Choosing the right dock for your needs can be a very daunting task indeed. To make matters worse, docks and their ports are notorious for suddenly dying on you! So we thought we would tell you about our favorite dock and why we love it 🖤.

Why we chose the CalDigit SOHO Dock

Criteria to make the cut

The most important factors that influenced our pick were;

• Reliability
• Portability
• Versatility
• Functionality

Reliability

Not all docks are created equal. This is a truism for so many docks and hubs in general, due to a long reputation for poor reliability commonly associated with these products. This is often the result of poor build quality and cheaper materials used to make them. For example many docks are built from plastics and over time the connections become loose, but also plastic does not do much for heat management which over time stresses parts and components leading to problems. Lower cost power supply units fail, ports loose their shape or strength because of these materials and the signal carrying connections can become flakey.

I am a big proponent of spending a bit more to get something that is going to last. Another reason why we love the CalDigit USB-C SOHO Dock is because it is made from top-notch aluminium that manages heat effectively and actually keeps the unit quite cool. The internal components are also comprised of the high quality parts which ensure thermal integrity and importantly the longevity of the dock.

I am sure most people at some stage have experienced those green, pink and blue lines appearing across the screen when connected to a suspect cable, hub or dock. If you have a better dock may be your answer. The SOHO Dock uses gold plated connectors, this is very different to gold flash plating used on many other cheaper docks. The former offers better conductivity ensuring excellent signal quality, providing much better reliability of the connection between your device and the peripheral.

Portability

One of the iPads greatest strengths is it’s portability, so the last thing we want to do is opt for a large cumbersome dock that is not designed with this in mind. Another feature we love is the detachable cable, this makes transport even easier. The SOHO dock is small enough to fit in your pocket or in the palm of your hand, and it weighs in at 0.19lbs/ 90 grams!

This makes it ideal to pop into a laptop case or tech bag pocket when you are flying in and out for a business trip or holiday. I love taking mine on holiday’s, for when I need to offload drone footage from my SD card to my iPad. Similarly this would be great for photographers needing to free up storage from their SD cards.

Versatility

Even though our SOHO docks were chosen in part for their ultra portability, they sit plugged into our external monitors on our desks 90% of the time. This is because the SOHO dock small footprint helps it to disappear, giving our desks a less cluttered, more minimal look and feel, whilst still providing all the essential ports you need for a desk-based dock. Another reason the SOHO dock is perfect for desk use, is the detachable cable which enables us to use our own custom cable length, meaning you can place the dock anywhere on your desk, so long as the cable reaches.

A major plus is that the SOHO dock is also “Bus powered”, which means it doesn’t need an external power adaptor to run it, simply connect it to your iPad and you are good to go.

Functionality

The SOHO dock punches well above its weight and it packs some serious hardware for its size. It is designed to work with USB-C, Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 devices.

All the ports you need.

The SOHO Dock features 8 ports!

On the back, the dock has an HDMI 2.0 port and a DisplayPort 1.4, to connect to even more types of monitors. It also has a “Pass-Through” charging port, giving you up to 100W of power to charge devices connected.

On the front, you get 1 x USB A port and 1 x USB-C port offering 2X the performance of regular USB docks, giving you 10gb/s transfer speeds. The front also features SD 4.0 and Micro SD 4.0 Slots with UHS-II speeds, that greatly improve file transfer speeds, ideal for professional photographers and video editors.

Conclusion

You can’t go wrong with the Caldigit SOHO Dock, it’s high quality, very versatile, ultra-portable, and ideal for most types of users.

Here is a a nice summary of the features.

Visit CalDigits website to learn more about the SOHO dock here, it‘s an absolute winner and an iPadProductivity Top Pick!

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Chat soon,

Matt