I fixed my desk’s messy cable situation with this 12-in-1 dock – how it works

Baseus Nomos NU1 Air Spacemate 12-in-1 Docking Station

ZDNET Highlights

• The Baseus Nomos NU1 is on sale at Amazon for $159.
• It is designed for laptops with advanced power management features, handling up to 100W PD to keep the laptop running at full speed.
• It’s a little expensive, but worth the extra money.

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Laptops have not yet completely replaced desktop PCs, but they are getting closer. Especially because most people spend more time at desks than on laps. This usually means that laptops have a nest of cables to connect to displays and other peripherals.

The tool to solve this is a dock. And if you get a good dock, you can let it become the hub of your command center.

Also: The Best Laptop Docking Stations You Can Buy

it’s exactly that Baseus Nomos NU1 Air Spacemate The 12-in-1 Docking Station packs a lot of power into its small footprint.

Compatible with both PCs and Macs, this palm-sized dock measures 6.54 x 4.37 x 3.74 inches and has two HDMI ports, two DisplayPort ports, two USB-C (10Gbps) ports, two USB-A (5Gbps) ports, a pair of USB-A 2.0, a 100W PD input port, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

Note that the dock doesn’t come with a USB-C charger, but the input USB-C cable is permanently attached. This works best with a 100W charger, which may be the same one you use for your laptop, or you can Buy an extra item for less than $25,

That’s enough ports to allow your MacBook to have twin 4K displays at 60Hz, as well as connect to a large number of peripherals. And the high-performance ports mean it’s ideal for video editing, 3D rendering, and other heavy-duty workloads.

This dock is specifically designed to extend battery life and accelerate charging for laptops using dynamic power allocation. While most cheap hubs for laptops provide maximum power for all ports (even unused ports), this dock reallocates that unused power to the laptop.

Also: Finally, an international travel charger that’s capable of powering my MacBook (and has a useful bonus, too)

This is definitely a professional-grade docking station. There is so much more.

There’s a glowing button at the top of the dock that will lock the screen on a connected Mac with a tap, and with a two-second press will switch the dock to a low-power mode that prioritizes Power Delivery charging.

While I’m talking about Mac here, the dock also works with Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS. So no matter what operating system you are using, you are protected.

Also: This battery analyzer I discovered is a power users dream – how it looks different

I guess one test to separate the wheat from the chaff is to connect as many peripheral devices as possible to the dock and put as much data as possible through it to see if it falls through. You’ll notice that poor quality docks will start to reduce data throughput, or the display it’s connected to will become flaky. I tried this dock to failure, but it remained completely solid in all my testing.

Exactly what I’d expect from a pro-grade dock.

ZDNET’s shopping advice

Hubs and docks are a fact of life, and there are plenty of options out there. While some are designed for portability and connecting your laptop to certain devices, others are aimed at turning your laptop into a full-on workstation.

Baseus Nomos NU1 Air Spacemate The 12-in-1 Docking Station (that name is a mouthful) falls into the latter category, and it’s just what you need if you want to connect a few displays and a whole bunch of peripheral devices to your system.

NU1 is not cheap. Its list price is $200 (I said it was a professional part of the kit), but you can currently get it $40 off, which sweetens the deal and brings it to a more mainstream price point. If your needs are more modest, you can get away with With a more reasonably priced docking stationBut if you want a dock that can work under pressure, you’ll have to pay big bucks.