Kensington sd200v USB Notebook Dock w/ Video Review

The Kensington sd200v notebook dock is a smart-looking peripheral with a small footprint, and its connection points are arranged in a logical progression on the back of the unit.

Kensington kept logical arrangements in mind when arranging the well-labeled connection points on the sd200v dock, too: on the back, from bottom to top, is the plug for the AC power source, the outbound USB port to connect to the host computer, a VGA monitor output, a four-port USB hub with active LEDs, a 1/8th inch microphone input and a 1/8th inch speaker output. On the front, the semi-translucent white facing is less busy: from top to bottom, a power LED that turns orange when powered on, and green when plugged into a computer; two icons that indicate (via green LED) whether or not the sd200v USB notebook dock is in DualView Extended or DualView Clone mode; a chrome-faced DualView switch button, and a single USB input. Protected by its thick black plastic shell, the sd200v sits on a black plastic foot for additional stability.

Overall, there's not much need for improvement in the sd200v notebook dock's external design: it's the right size and shape, with an attractive exterior and a smartly arranged interface. There are, however, four changes I think Kensington should make:

• Move the DualView icons and button further up the front face of the unit, to put them closer to eye level.
• More front-to-back stability so pressing the DualView button didn't rock the sd200v back and forth accidentally.
• Add an Ethernet port for wired connections. Even with the increasing ubiquity of WiFi, why limit users to just one type of connection?
• Change the VGA port to a DVI port.

Four USB ports, a microphone port and a headphone jack should be more than enough to keep you connected.

A more forward-thinking design would have included a DVI-I output.

Kensington sd200v Notebook Dock as a USB Video Card
After the short delay for installation, I was up and running immediately. I used two different sets of monitors, keyboards, and mice during my tests:

• Set 1: a Compaq wireless USB mouse, a Dell USB wired keyboard, and a Dell 2007FP 20-inch UltraSharp LCD monitor.
• Set 2: a Logitech G9 wired USB mouse, a Dell USB wired keyboard, and a ViewSonic VA720 17-inch LCD monitor.

Using the sd200v USB notebook dock in extended DualView mode with an external monitor.

During general usage tests (answering emails, typing documents, working with spreadsheets, browsing the web) on both sets of peripherals, I encountered widely varied results. Set 1 had two main issues: first, the sd200v has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 (1440 x 1050 for widescreen monitors); the default resolution of the Dell monitor is 1600 x 1200. I could use the sd200v with the Dell monitor, but only in the odd in-between state where the monitor uses the default resolution but only displays an image at a 1280 x 1024 resolution. Needless to say, this issue makes the sd200v unusable with any larger monitors, which seems like an oversight when larger monitors are becoming so common. Second, when using the wireless mouse, the cursor would occasionally disappear for a couple of seconds, as if the mouse was disconnecting momentarily. This issue only occurs when I use the mouse with the sd200v, which suggests there might be issues with wireless mice in general.

Set 2, on the other hand, worked flawlessly over eight straight hours of use. This compatibility is probably less surprising - despite the brand names, set 2 has fairly standard peripherals, after all - but it suggests that the sd200v notebook dock does not deal well with unusual configurations, like wireless peripherals.

The sd200v's audio output uses a separate USB audio driver to interface with Windows, so that instead of processing the sound through your soundcard, as I've seen on proprietary docks, the sound goes directly through the dock. I'm a big fan of using separate audio drivers when switching from a mobile to a stationary environment, because it forces Windows to keep two separate volume settings: one for the soundcard, one for the dock.

The sd200v and the Dock Icon
Earlier I mentioned the dock icon, which comes with the newest installation of the sd200v drivers. The icon is a particularly clever addition: it only loads when the sd200v connects to the computer, so it doesn't waste resources; and it gives you access to settings on the second monitor, including resolution, screen rotation, color depth, and the DualView modes. I like the dock icon because of its convenience; although you could reach over to the unit and change the DualView mode with the conveniently placed button, making the quick switch with the mouse is even easier.

Using DualView Modes
The sd200v USB notebook dock allows you to use one of three DualView modes with an attached monitor: disabled (no display on the secondary display), clone (secondary display mirrors primary display), and extended (secondary display extends the desktop). Clone seems like a good idea for doing presentations through a projector, especially with its ability to rotate the screen orientation in 90-degree increments, but might be a little superfluous; most laptops have built-in VGA outputs that can accomplish most of the same functions. In addition, clone mode forces the secondary display to use the same resolution as the primary display, so you may not even be able to use your external monitor to replace your laptop's display when you plug in the sd200v.

Extended mode is a little more useful: separate resolutions and color depths for each display, the same rotation options as clone mode, plus the option of extending the desktop to the left, right, above or below depending on the setup of your desktop. Getting used to the extra real estate took me a little while - I kept trying to put everything in the second monitor - but as far as the potential for extra productivity, two monitors beats one hands down, every time, especially when that one is a laptop display.

One issue I noticed with the extended DualView mode, on both testing monitors: the sd200v notebook dock suffers from some lag when redrawing some screens, like when I loaded up an Excel spreadsheet with several thousand rows, maximized it into the secondary monitor, and used the mouse to scroll up and down. On the laptop's display, the spreadsheet scrolled smoothly, without any noticeable lag between screens. On the secondary display, there was a noticeable delay as the screen refreshed with each set of rows. It's not enough to really slow you down, but can be annoying if you're looking for a specific piece of information.

The sd200v USB notebook dock uses the same DisplayLink technology as the Samsung Syncmaster USB monitor and IOGear USB External Video Card that we've also tested here at Everything USB. That these two products, on a faster testing computer, did not have the same display problems as the sd200v suggests that the slower speed of my computer's processor, which calculates all of the information for USB video outputs, might be the source of the lag.

Performance
To see how the extended DualView mode worked with fast-moving Flash video, I loaded up the guitar lesson videos at Guitar Shred Show. Overall, I noticed no difference in playback between the primary and secondary monitors; no choppiness, artifacts, or lag that would suggest a translation problem over the USB cord. Playing the video required about 80 percent of my system's resources in the primary display, but jumped to around 90 percent when I moved the video to the secondary display as the computer worked a little harder to keep playback smooth. If you're planning to use extended DualView to play back video (like in a kiosk setup, for example), the sd200v gets the job done handily.

Flash video from GuitarShredShow.com played fine through extended DualView mode.

Recap
The sd200v is a smartly designed, solid-feeling device that has a lot of useful features, including the extended DualView mode, the ability to control the secondary display separately from the primary display, and the dock icon. However, the very low maximum resolution is bit of a drag, the clone function needs tweaking to be more useful, the unit doesn't seem to be wireless-mouse friendly, and Kensington could add or change a few external connection points for more compatibility. Overall, the sd200v could be very useful to people who have certain peripherals, but it's not quite the dock for everyone.

Where to Buy?

Get Kensington sd200v USB Video Notebook Dock now for $118.00 at Amazon.com Marketplace

Reviewed by Eric Hanson, Contributing Editor