Asus' HZ-2 Docking Station is Versatile

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Asus has revealed its new USB 3.0-based docking station which comes with many connectivity options. The docking station, which is to be known as the HZ-2, will have enough connectivity in which to plug all your devices with only one cable going to your desktop or notebook.

The HZ-2 is powered with a power adapter and only has a single USB 3.0 cable that goes to the client. For outputs, users will find two (high-current) USB 3.0 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, 100 Mbit Ethernet, along with a headphone jack and microphone jack.

Due to the limited bandwidth of the USB 3.0 host interface, the resolution that the HDMI port or VGA ports are able to address is limited to 2048 by 1152 pixels. This is enough for Full-HD though, so it's not that big of a deal.

The docking station is also built to work as a stand, where it can be placed under the rear of your notebook in order to angle it upwards. It comes with additional feet to raise it even higher.

No word on pricing nor availability yet, though we have emailed Asus asking for information. We'll let you know when we hear back.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • CodeMatias
    This might actually be great for use with a Surface Pro 3
    Reply
  • jasonelmore
    Price? wish it had display port, then there would be no limitations
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    100 Mbps Ethernet only? Epic fail. I'd actually be interested in this dock, but I *need* gigabit Ethernet to work with my NAS. I don't see a reason why it can't be installed in HZ-2, USB 3.0 bandwidth is more than enough for it!
    Reply
  • chaz_music
    I agree with amk, the 100Mbps Ethernet is a market goof. Other than that, a nice configuration.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    I hope it's cheap, like $50-$70.

    What happened to docks with dgpus? I would LOVE to have a lets say Asus Zendbook and be able to play all my games with a GeForce GTX gpu in the dock. But then when unplugged, have the portability, versatility, and lightweight of a laptop.

    However, Gigabyte is working on such a system so I hope that is a success.
    Reply
  • Spectre694
    I hope it's cheap, like $50-$70.

    What happened to docks with dgpus? I would LOVE to have a lets say Asus Zendbook and be able to play all my games with a GeForce GTX gpu in the dock. But then when unplugged, have the portability, versatility, and lightweight of a laptop.

    However, Gigabyte is working on such a system so I hope that is a success.

    I had one of those AMD systems with the dock a few years back. Unless it improves I'll pass on it. It was junk never worked right. I hope Gigabyte does better because I really like the idea though.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    13606638 said:
    I hope it's cheap, like $50-$70.

    What happened to docks with dgpus? I would LOVE to have a lets say Asus Zendbook and be able to play all my games with a GeForce GTX gpu in the dock. But then when unplugged, have the portability, versatility, and lightweight of a laptop.

    However, Gigabyte is working on such a system so I hope that is a success.

    In order to do that you would need something with the speed of Thunderbolt, not USB 3.0. Right now 3.0 is too slow for that, especially with the overhead that comes with USB. 3.1 will be 2x faster but still will have a lot of overhead and I don't know if it supports something like ePCIe like Thunderbolt does.
    Reply
  • Rajat Khosla
    hope it worth for our penny and i like asus transformer T300 Tab which has been great feature and thank you for this great article on docking station,,
    Reply