Line Dock

Portable ports, power, and SSD in one

$299 From linedock, linedock.co Features 20,000mAh battery, 9 USB, video and SD ports, SSD Here’s a USB–C dock with a difference. Well, two: a builtin battery and (optionally) an SSD. Where many rival docks are desktop–bound, or so portable they don‘t have room for fancy extras, this one is especially sized to sit under a 13–inch MacBook Pro — that form is really a bonus in that it packages several things in one neat enclosure in your bag.

The dock gives you three USB–C ports (one connects to your Mac), three USB–A (with 5Gbps bandwidth and the ability to fast–charge other devices), Mini DisplayPort, HDMI 2.0, and an SD card reader. Either video output can drive a 4K display at a comfortably smooth 60Hz.

Line Dock’s design is neat, but there’s a cost beyond the price tag: adding almost exactly the weight of a 12–inch MacBook to your bag. A large part of that is down to the battery, but also the thick metal body.

Adding a 256GB SSD bumps the cost up by a competitive $100, but 1TB for $450 is a lot; you can get a 1TB Samsung T5, for example, for $250. Our review unit had a 256GB SSD, but transfer rates were just okay — peaking at 250MB/sec.

the bottom line. A convenient design, but think hard about its weight and the optional 1TB.