Plugable Universal Laptop Docking Station Dual HDMI Monitor for Windows and Mac (Driver Required), USB 3.0 or USB-C, 2X HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, Audio, 6 USB Ports (UD-3900)ClimatePartner certified

I don’t normally write reviews because like everyone else on this planet I’m busy, between my graduate degree, work, and life in general, my spare time is valuable. However, I struggled for months trying to find the right combination of things for my specific situation and I am hoping this will help other people make an informed decision that they are happy with. After talking with tech people at work and in stores, and in addition to my own internet research I finally settled on the Plugable USB 3.0 Docking Station (Model UD-3900, Dual Monitor Docking Station).I’ve included my thoughts on the Plugable USB 3.0 Docking Station as well as some helpful hints that users who are not super computer savvy might find helpful (I will add, I’m not a super techy person myself).First, my thoughts on this product:It accomplishes my “wish list” without having to spend hundreds of dollars on a Docking Station.I have two computers – an older, personal computer (from around 2013/2014 time frame) that does not have a 4K screen and a brand new 2019 screaming machine that is provided by my job that does have a 4K screen. My home monitors are two 27” LG Class Full HD IPS LED with dual HDMI connections that I purchased around 2 years ago. This means that I am dealing with resolution differences across all of my equipment (I’m working with 3 generations of technology). Each computer has the following connections – 1 HDMI port (both computers), 3 USB ports (older computer - 1 USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0), 2 USB ports (newer computer – all USB 3.0) and 1 USB-C Port (newer computer).My wish list included the following:1. Connect and EXTEND my desktop display to my two 27” monitors.2. Keep a resolution that does not blow everything up to a size that is unusable (an issue when dealing with 4K and not 4K capable equipment)3. Plug one cord into my computer (rather than multiple)The Plugable USB 3.0 Docking Station does exactly this with minimal effort and without spending hundreds of dollars. I was really pleased when I plugged everything in and changed the display setting to extend and everything just worked. (As a note, I did tinker with the resolution settings on both computers to get my mouse to move screen to screen anywhere along the side borders – I did not observe a noticeable change in the image on my computer or on the monitors after doing this.) I was fortunate that all I had to do was plug and play and did not even have to restart either computer after plugging the unit in for the first time. The little informational booklet that comes with the product is actually pretty helpful if you know a little bit about what you are doing and want to accomplish, though it is brief and mostly contains pictures. There is also a web page and email address listed in the booklet if you need troubleshooting help. In short, if you have lots of cords that need to connect to your computer (for whatever reason), you don’t care if it charges your laptop, and you need two additional displays I would definitely recommend this docking station.Here are some things I learned along the way in regards to my specific situation. This is not meant to be a how to for all systems or set ups, just information that hopefully helps others. There is a lot of functionality in this little device way beyond what I have covered below - again, I'm not a really tech oriented person, a lot of what follows is laymen's terms.1. Calling this a “docking station” is a bit of a misnomer – a true docking station, when plugged into your laptop, will charge it (this product does not charge the device it is plugged into). True docking stations also have a multitude of other capabilities, including supporting more than 2 screens and device charging and will run you in the $200 - $400 range. I would dub this a “docking station Jr.”, some but not all of the capabilities of a true docking station. That being said, it does have the option to plug in an Ethernet cable to it, thus eliminating an additional cord attached to your computer (super convenient!). I’m all about fewer cords if possible and if you have to be hard wired into your internet this is definitely a plus.2. The order of the monitors (1, 2, 3) is as follows on the back of the Plugable USB 3.0 device (keep this in mind if you are picky about how your mouse will travel from one monitor to the next)a. Monitor 1 will always be the device you are duplicating or extending by defaultb. Monitor 2 will be the DVI portc. Monitor 3 will be the HDMI port3. Cables…there are so many choices and some are directional and some are not and some need adapters and some don’t and, and, and… jeepers cats batman why can’t this be more simple!!! Here’s what you need to know about your computer and monitors to make THIS PRODUCT work.a. Do you have a USB 3.0 Port on your computer? It will say SS (super speed) next to the port. Most new computers have at least one USB 3.0 port, some older computers, like mine have 1 USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0. I recommend using the USB 3.0 rather than the 2.0. The basic difference is in the speed of data transfer, but either should work according to the box. (I did not try using the USB 2.0 since I have a USB 3.0 available on both computers.)b. Does/do your monitor(s) have any of the following ports on the back – HDMI, DVI, D-SUB (also sometimes called VGA)? I don’t recommend using the D-SUB (VGA) port, it doesn’t support very good resolution and you may end up with a really grainy image on your screen, but in a pinch it functions exactly as it is designed to with an adapter to connect it to the docking station (the unit comes with a VGA to DVI adapter if you didn’t notice in the product description). You’ll need a DVI to DVI cable if you are going to use the adapter.c. IF YOU HAVE HDMI PORTS ON BOTH YOUR MONITORS - here are the cables you should buy:i. 1 HDMI to HDMI, spend a couple extra dollars and get a decent cable, my experience with cheap cables is they are well, cheap. The connection can be flaky and they just give up the ghost randomly leading to the purchase of, you guessed it, another cable.ii. 1 HDMI to DVI, again spend a couple extra dollars and get a good cable.d. You need to have at least one monitor with an available HDMI port for this docking station to work for TWO MONITORS. (Why, because of the type of connections available on the docking station and the way display data is designed to stream through the available connections on your devices – there’s a way more technological answer, but simply put 1 connection out on the docking station gets you 1 connection in for each monitor.)e. What direction should the cables be connected??? This relates specifically to the HDMI to DVI cable. The DVI side of the cable is the signal out; plug it into the docking station. The HDMI side of the cable is signal in; plug it into the monitor. You are moving the image from your computer/docking station (out) to the monitor (in).4. Duplicating a desktop vs extending a desktop:a. Duplicate means just that, whatever is on my desktop will be on my monitor(s), if I move my mouse on my desk top it moves on my monitor(s). Think meeting in a conference room where someone puts their computer screen up on the conference room monitor for everyone to see – duplicated.b. Extend means take my desktop and stretch it out across all three monitors. (Tricky, now you see where resolution problems can come into play.) For my set up my laptop is on the far right, monitor 2 is in the middle and monitor 3 is on the far left. This means that if my mouse starts on my laptop (far right) and I move to the left border my mouse will “exit” my laptop screen and “enter” my monitor 2 screen on the far right. The same will happen when I move from monitor 2 to monitor 3, and the reverse will happen when I move back towards my laptop screen.c. There a literally hundreds of YouTube videos on how to duplicate or extend your screen, simply look up “extend my computer screen” on YouTube to learn more.5. Resolution – tricky stuff if your equipment is all different like minea. Ever notice how when you go to arrange your screens in the order you want and some are pictured big and some are pictured small? This is because of the resolution that is set for each screen. This also means that you have to remember how you set up the order of your screens - where the borders touch in picture in the settings is the ONLY PLACE THE CURSOR CAN MOVE FROM SCREEN TO SCREEN.b. Normally the “recommended” resolution is sufficient. If you have a variety of equipment you may need to tinker with these settings. I don’t have a good step by step option because everyone’s equipment is different, all I can say is experiment; you can always change it back later. YouTube is another good resource for where settings are located and how to change them.c. If you want all of your screens to be the “same size” in the settings so your mouse can move from one screen to another at any point along the border you’ll want to set the resolution for each screen in the settings to the same thing. This might mess with how things look on your monitors and on your computer, again, tinker with it, you can always change it later if you don’t like it.Again, this is not meant as an official “how to guide”; I wanted to share some of the things I learned and clarify some terminology for those who are not super tech savvy. Hopefully this helps someone who is trying to decide if this product is the best option for their setup. Happy Computing!

Short version: Bought 2 of these along with a new Dell XPS 15 in lieu of the Dell docking stations after reading numerous reviews on many similar products. The Dell gives better resolution possibilities, but the Plugable seemed to work more consistently and would be more likely to provide support if needed. Also, the Plugable has one more USB port (important to me). After a long and irritating setup, I finally got this working on my 2 laptops and my desktop. In the end, it works great with a couple of caveats. The most important one is that if you want to use your computer for 3D applications or gaming, you HAVE to run the cable from your primary display directly to your computer and not through this device.QUICK TIP: Get the latest Display Link driver right from Display Link's site or by going through Plugable's site before you ever even plug this device in. There will be an on-screen prompt during installation for when to plug it in. When it asks you to restart, DO ITOkay, here was my experience.As mentioned, I bought this to allow me to dock my primary laptop in 2 locations. I also wanted to dock a second laptop on occasion. And, one location also has a desktop in which I want to be able to swap, similarly to a KVM. KVM won't work because the whole point is to plug and unplug as few cables as possible to the laptops to make it work.In the end, the connections for making things work are:Laptop 1: Power, 1x USB, and if I want 3D apps the primary display HDMI inputLaptop 2: Power, 1x USB - no 3D ever neededDesktop: Power, Ethernet, 1x USB, Primary display HDMI inputTHE CONNECTIONSAt the primary station I have plugged into the Plugable unit: HDMI primary 1920x1200 monitor, DVI secondary 1080 monitor, Headset, Keyboard that has built-in hub, Mouse, Webcam, USB hub built into Dell monitor, Xbox controller, and external hard drive.I use a 1 ft female to male HDMI cable from the Plugable so that I can easily swap whether the primary display gets plugged into Plugable, the laptop, or into an extension going to the desktop. This is so I can use 3D apps when needed.THE SETUP PROCESSI started the setup on my desktop. That was my first mistake. If I had started on a laptop I would have had the display and keyboard to more easily troubleshoot along the way.Per the instructions, I plugged it in, and it installed itself. "Sweet!" I thought. It was basically acting as a USB hub at this point but the monitors didn't immediately work. A reboot fixed that. Then I plugged in a pair of headphones into the headphone jack on Plugable. Everything crashed. I tried this several times and found that if any headset was plugged in, it would crash. I really thought I had a defective unit. I had tried the driver that came with it, the Microsoft default, and the newest from DisplayLink's site. Nothing worked.After spending a bit trying to debug the desktop's sound issue, I got irritated enough to give it up and started a return process. Then I figured what the heck, I'll plug it into the laptop. Sure enough, an install and a reboot later and everything worked perfectly, including the sound.With my motivation back to get the desktop working, I dug deeper and ultimately found that USB 3.0 drivers are still imperfect and Windows doesn't always handle them the best. I found the model for my USB 3.0 hardware, downloaded the latest driver, uninstalled Microsoft's default driver, and installed the new one. A reboot later everything worked on the desktop.THE IMPORTANT THING HEREIt seems like a lot of people are having USB 3.0 related issues. If you are, try finding your specific USB 3 hardware and get the newest driver for it. It just might work.NOW FOR THE PRODUCT ITSELF....DISPLAY:Works great. I haven't had any frame rate issues using 2 monitors through the Plugable, even while watching Netflix or YouTube. Based on other reviews for this and other products, I think the displays' consistency will depend on how much traffic the other components are handling at a given time. See Ethernet...AUDIO:So far so good. I'm still testing it. It is as good as the audio out on my desktop, but the Dell laptop puts out more power and feels a little cleaner on its own. I have yet to try it with plugging in my amp to it. If you have a dedicated sound card or built in HiFi DAC I would definitely recommend sticking with plugging in straight to that and not through the Plugable.USB:All working great. Keyboard is responsive and mouse doesn't seem to lag at all.ETHERNET:To be fair here, I haven't used it. However, here's my thought: I wouldn't use it. The reason is that the added traffic is probably not worth the usability. I feel like if anything would contribute to latency, it'd be Ethernet. If you're using a desktop, why bother? Just plug a cable straight in to the tower. It should be capable of higher speeds that way anyways. For laptops, my opinion and preference is to use the Wifi. I don't feel like Ethernet through the USB 3 would be faster with all the other traffic going on, and may only cause issues. Again, I have not directly tested this theory, and please correct me if I am wrong. I'll also report back if I do get around to testing that out.If anything changes I'll definitely update this review. For now I feel like it is definitely making things easier for me by only having to plug a power cable and a USB 3 cable to "dock" my laptop. When I want games or 3D apps I have one more: the primary display. I've set this all up so that primary display is very easy to switch around. I really like that I can bring in another computer and plug it in as well. The only thing is that I'll make sure to get Display Link installed first onto the computer I want to plug in, so things work as expected.I'll recommend it. Might buy a third soon for another location. It is not perfection, but I believe that to be in largely the lack of ability of current technology. This might be as good as it gets for this type of setup, for now.UPDATE 8/15/2016:Adding the 5th star because these things have held up great and because Plugable is active and a pleasure to deal with.I now have a third one of these and all three of them are working great.

I purchased the UD-3900 9 years ago to use with a laptop and it is still working perfectly. I recently had occasion to contact Plugable technical support after I upped the speed of my internet service to Gig level. I couldn’t figure out why my laptop wasn’t getting the higher speed. Even though it has been 9 years since I bought the docking station, the tech support I received was superb. After a several emails back and forth over a few days with some testing on my part, a solution was discovered. It was recommended that I try the Plugable USB – Ethernet adapter ($20 on Amazon). I added that to the UD-3900 and it worked like a charm. The old laptop is lightning fast now.This experience is not the only time I had amazing support from Plugable. I had a previous version of the UD-3900 (UD-3000) and had an issue back in 2013 when I bought a new monitor capable of HDMI. Even though the UD-3000 was past any warranty coverage, I received great support. I didn’t forget that experience. That is why I decided to email Plugable about my recent issue even though the device was 9 years old. They did not disappoint.The bottom line is that if you need a connectivity product and Plugable makes one, you should buy from them.