Toshiba's Dynadock wireless docking station enhances your laptop's productivity

Toshiba has recently unveiled Dynadock Wireless U, a universal docking station that connects wirelessly to your Windows laptop and allows you to quickly gain access to a number of devices such as mouse, full-size keyboard and external monitors while featuring additional capabilities like two sleep-and-charge USB ports, automatic laptop connection and support for two additional monitors.

Docking stations are not very common in the consumer market, but they are becoming increasingly popular among businesses, which are adopting them as a quick and convenient way for employees to connect their laptops and obtain true desktop productivity within seconds, making it easy to print, scan or even just type faster from a laptop by automatically connecting it to external peripherals with a wireless connection.

While this is not the first USB wireless docking station we've encountered, Toshiba's Dynadock adds a few interesting capabilities to the package that make it ideal for manipulating media or effective multitasking.

With an embedded HD video card for connecting to a VGA and/or DVI monitor with a 1680x1050 resolution, dedicated wireless radio for enhanced video performance and integrated Digital Audio card for high quality 7.1 surround sound, media support is certainly one of the Dynadock's main strengths.

The station includes no fewer than six USB 2.0 ports, two in the front and four in the back, with the front ones featuring Sleep-and-Charge technology that allows you to charge your mobile phone or other device even when your laptop is turned off.

The station can be set up so that laptops are automatically connected to it when they are within range, and a button on the top of the station allows you to quickly disconnect all devices with a simple move, making sure that all peripherals are removed properly and no data is lost in the process.

Other perks include an Ethernet port and the ability to display different images on the two additional monitors, making it easy to switch very quickly between applications and allowing you to multitask even more than you normally could on a single-monitor PC.

The Dynadock is currently being rolled out for purchase to a number of consumer electronics shops, and is available for pre-order online from Toshiba Direct for USD$299.99. The device is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7. The drivers for the latter will be updated on October 22 from the device's website.