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While I don’t generally get too excited about netbook accessories, or docking stations, the Aegis Netbook Docking Station was a different enough product, that it warranted a closer look.  The folks at Apricorn were kind enough to provide us with a review sample, so special thanks to them.  The selling feature of this device is that via one attached USB device, 3 deficits of a netbook could be remedied to provide a DVD burner, a 4 port USB hub, and even a 500 GB hard drive, all in on attractive package.

What arrived on my doorstep, courtesy of UPS was a box that contained the following:

• Aegis NetDock
• Vertical stand
• AC adapter
• USB cable
• Software CD
• Quick start guide

The Aegis Netdock is actually pretty compact for all the functionality that it promises.  The dimensions are 6.25 x 5.62 x 1.19 in (159 mm x 143 mm x 30 mm), which is not much larger than a compact external DVD drive.  It comes painted in an attractive, but hardly subtle, metallic red and gloss black paint job.  For those of us that are sick of beige or silver accessories, it is a refreshing change, and it looks great on a desk, although not drab enough for corporate America.  The NetDock can also minimize its footprint when it is in the included vertical stand.

The first feature is that it works as a USB hub.  With most netbooks having a max of 3 USB ports, and some only having 2, I find this an important function.  As a hub, I like that it has 4 USB ports, and they are far enough apart to be useable, and not too cramped.  Two of the ports are always on, which means that you can use the NetDock to charge all those USB devices, like mp3 players.  The NetDock is powered via an AC adapter, but it is good that the device powers itself off when not in use.  I connected three accessories to it (mouse, printer, scanner), and there were no issues with any of them.

The next function of the NetDock is the DVD drive.  As netbooks have no optical drive, this is an important function.  While I use my optical drive less these days, it is still nice to have when installing new software, or watching a DVD.  The drive is a Teac notebook drive.  The max burn speed of a CD is 24x, and it supports burning both DVD-R and DVD+R.  It also supports dual layer media, although not Blu-ray, as it would make the device too expensive, and most netbooks would not have the horsepower to decode it anyway.  I’ve included a screenshot of NeroInfo Tool in the gallery of images below.  It is unclear if the firmware can be upgraded.

The last function is that it is also a USB external drive.  This is particularly valuable as most netbooks have only 160 GB or 250 GB hard drives.  The NetDock is sold as either with the included 500 GB hard drive, or without it and can be added later.  This can be easily done by removing one screw, and the whole shebang slides apart.  The hard drive is a 2.5″ standard SATA one, which can be swapped in or out with ease.  This is perhaps the most valuable function of the NetDock.  Even with formatting, the capacity is a large 465 GB which should take just about anyone a long time to fill up.

The included software includes some freeware programs.  It includes:

• VLC Media Player
• BurnAware CD/DVD Burning software
• Microsoft SyncToy Synchronization software

I like and use both VLC and SnycToy, and they are both great pieces of software.

Overall, there is a lot of functionality here for the price.  By the way, it retails for $189 for the NetDock with the 500 gig hard drive, and $89 sans included storage.  It can also be found on Amazon for a little less.  For this kind of money, I give the NetDock the thumbs up as it provided the needed functionality that your average netbook lacks.

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