LandingZoneDock Docking Station for The MacBook Pro [Model A1425 & A1502] with Retina Display (13-inch MacBook)

Hello boys and girls. This is my review for the LandingZone DOCK 13” Secure Docking Station.TLDR;Pro’s:Great for expanding ports and adding external monitor without the hassle of plugging and unplugging cables all the time.Aesthetics are great. Looks nice on my white desk. And helps me organize my cables.Ports work well and produce at expected speeds.Docking the MBP is not as difficult as others have claimed. Mine went in multiple times with no alignment or adjustment needed.Con’s:None really.Full Review;To be honest don't expect some spectacular review, because honestly I'm not much of a speechwriter and that's exactly what writing a review is. But I will tell you this, all of the opinions listed here are my own, not taken from any other review, and not paid for in anyway.I purchased this item as a way to connect to an external monitor and extend the ports on my 2015 13 inch MBP Retina. At the same time I wanted a way to reduce the clutter from cables everywhere. As you can see you in the before picture my desk was a mess. So my first priority was to find a docking station or a hub that would allow me to organize my desk and get rid of some of the clutter. And as you can see from after picture while it may not be perfect (I'm not much of a cable organizer), it does get the job done in reducing some of the cable clutter.After hooking up all the wires getting everything organized, it was time to connect my MacBook. Now I have seen in a few reviews customers talking about having to adjust their MacBook in order to get it position correctly. I did not have this problem the dock has two guideposts which allows the MacBook to sit in alignment. As long as there is nothing under the dock, or the MacBook, then thing should lineup fairly well. My first time putting it in I had to slightly slide my finger under the left side in order for the thunderbolt port to lineup. But not wanting to have to do that every time I took a close look I noticed there was a little edge of a cord preventing the Dock from sitting flat. I cleaned off underneath the dock and tried again the second time and every time since then it has gone in and out without any alignment issues.Now as you can see from the pictures, I have a Logitech mouse in a mechanical keyboard from Unicomp (the people who make the original IBM model M). I plugged both the mouse and keyboard into the USB 2.0 Ports, connected to 3 TB external drives to the USB 3.0 Ports, external display to the thunderbolt pass through, and speakers to be headphone port and powered up the MacBook.Now obviously it did not take long to boot since it has a PCIe SSD. And within seconds of booting the mouse is working as well as both external hard drives and the display. But the keyboard did not work. I double checked all the connections and everything was secure so I thought, at first, that I had a defective Port. I need a keyboard worked as it has been connected directly, but just to check I swapped keyboards. The keyboard I used was one that came with my Lenovo server. A cheap membrane keyboard. And it appeared to work fine. So I disconnected it reconnected the mechanical, and still it didn't work. I was getting little frustrated so I got up and got me a cup of coffee and on the way back to my desk I noticed I had not plugged in the dock to the surge protector. I got underneath my desk plugged it in and voila everything worked.Then I set about to test all the ports and make sure that they were going to work according to specs. Since the network port on the dock requires a driver from the manufacturer I headed to their website and downloaded it. It took just a few seconds to download in about one minute total to install and restart. It does require a restart or did for me. After it came back up I connected the network cable which is connected to a gigabit switch. First thing I did was perform several different speed test for the Internet connection. Using random server selections at speedtest.net the speed was approximately the same on both wireless and wired. I expected as much as neither can be saturated by my connection. I pay for a 50 Mb/s connection and my speeds vary between 40 and 120 Mb/s. The real test going to be connection to my server. First I chose a 3 GB ISO and downloaded it from the server to my MacBook via wireless. And then I downloaded it with the docks gigabit Port. Then I chose a folder with several documents in it approximately 2.5 GB and repeated the downloads both wireless and wired. Wireless (peak) Wired (peak)2GB Small Files (av. Speed) 22MB/s (27MB/s) 86MB/s (112MB/s)3GB ISO 29MB/s (35MB/s) 124MB/s (133MB/s)This was only transferring FROM the server not TO. To speeds would likely be a bit slower as there are Mechanical Drives in Raid 5 config so the write speeds are not the fastest.Next I wanted to test the USB drives. For that I used Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. As you can see in the Screenshot Max write was 165.4 MB/s for the 3TB External Drive.So overall, I would have to say the ports work as expected, producing speeds I have come to rely on. And the Gigabit Ethernet port works very well and I couldn't be happier.I will up date this review after I have used if for a while and see if the speeds and satisfaction hold up. It will be a daily user so I will know shortly if there will be any issues.I only have on Con. I learned that LZ offers a education discount and I may have saved a few dollars but I had already ordered it from Amazon. Oh well, you live and learn. Still a great product.

(UPDATE 3/4): After using the dock for a couple months, I have found one of its most annoying features: getting the laptop snapped into it. Fortunately, I generally only do this once a week on Mondays, but it doesn't just snap into place. You actually have to sit there and work with it to get each one of the ports lined up *just* right (and hope it doesn't move every-so-slightly when you focus your attention to the right side after getting the left lined up). To make matters worse, because the plastic construction gives way (bends) very easily, you have to line each of the ports up both horizontally AND vertically on both the left and right sides of the laptop.If you remove your laptop infrequently, this won't be too much of a bother; but if you undock your laptop daily, you might want to wait to see what BookEndz comes out with.Original Review:This is the best docking station I've used for a Mac to date. The LandingZone Dock for Retina MacBook Pros gets 5 stars from me for functionality. I knocked it down a star for the relatively solid, but somewhat flimsy construction. The LZ is plastic (compared to BookEndz sturdier metal construction).First the construction: The Kensington lock is a very welcome addition, since Apple decided to remove the option from the laptop itself. Unfortunately, because it's attached to the dock, it's likely only as strong as the dock & the USB and Thunderbolt connectors holding it into place. Even with the lock in place, the ejection lever itself is not disabled. While the lock prevents the two ends from opening easily, because the lever isn't locked in place, it still allows you to place a great deal of leverage on the mechanism. I could be mistaken, but from the feel, I'm fairly confident I could remove the laptop with minimal effort, destroying the dock in the process. Nonetheless, it should be enough to stop a thief from quickly jettisoning it during office hours when people are around.All-in-all, the construction seems a bit flimsy. If it were $99, I probably wouldn't think twice about the build; but at $200, it seems as if it should be bit more solid.Now onto what makes this dock shine. LandingZone really built a lot of functionality into a small factor. Since Apple decided no one needs ethernet ports anymore (nevermind those of us trying to use Mac as work computers), to date, the only option has been an annoyingly oversized dongle. LZ fixes this by building a USB3 to Ethernet adapter right into the dock. Brilliant! The Ethernet adapter does require a custom driver to be installed from their site, which some Mac users may not be used to (I was surprised). Likewise, there is a USB to audio-out adapter as well. Not only is this convenient, but the additional audio controller allows you to have system sounds come from the built-in speakers, and other audio out your regular, external speakers.All your plugs are located in the rear of the dock, out of sight--VERY convenient. LZ has also built in a space for your MagSafe2 plug to live. It magically lines up with your computer when you dock it, and snaps into place upon closing the dock (no longer an extra step), so it feels a bit more like a normal, PC dock. You simply line up the USB ports on either side, and everything snaps into place when you close the handle.So far I'm really digging this dock. I'm coming from a BookEndz dock for my previous MBP that died. While it was more solidly built, it was a clunky and inelegant solution.Summary: Elegant design. I'm a fan.* Pros: built in Ethernet and audio ports; Kengington lock (even if it only offers minimal protection)* Con: flimsy-feeling construction, difficulty docking it

Really the only available option these days for a mechanical MacBook dock. Love all the extra ports and the way it connects.What I don’t like is ports on the side. They should all have been placed along the back of the dock, similar to Thinkpad Docks.Has made my life and desk setup easier and cleaner. I’ll be buying another one for my next MacBook.

landingzone dock works well.Thanks

It has a power supply so that the docking station does not draw power from the computer. The Docking station lock is perfect and gives a slight slant that helps in cooling and for using the keyboard.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) ＋外付けディスプレイ＋Yosemite環境にて、別売ケンジントンセキュリティーワイヤーは未使用の状態、LandingZone国内正規販売代理店 株式会社アーキサイトから購入のレビューです。購入の目的は…●MacBookを持ち出す時に大量のケーブル類の付け外しがとても面倒←これが主目的●ギガビットEthernetネットワーク環境を使いたいのに有線LANコネクタが無いのでThunderboltかUSB3.0の変換アダプタが必要だった●USBポートが全然足りないのでUSBハブが必要だった…のでThunderboltポート、USBポート、HDMIポート付きのドッグが欲しかった。Thunderboltポート付きのドッグを物色するとBelkin等高額の商品が多い中、こちらはなかなかのポートの充実ぶりで2万円強が相場といったところだったので購入検討。しばらくウィッシュリストに入れて2万円を切った時点で即購入。（MacBook Pro 2016ではこちらの製品は使えないので値下がりすると思ってた & 追加生産はないと思っていずれ品薄になると思った）価格と機能と品質を考えると満足度はかなり高いです。ギガビットEthernetポートも付いているので貴重な他ポートを塞がないのもうれしい。マイナスポイントは…●MagSafe 2電源アダプタはドッキングした状態でも外せる仕様にしておいて欲しかった。●先のレビュアーさんと同じく、色が白じゃなくてシルバーだったら更に良かった。●欲を言えばThunderboltポートはもう1つ欲しかった、その分値段が上がったとしても。●オン・オフのステータス表示ライトが眩しすぎる。注意点…●ドッグに完全にフィットさせて使う形なので、Macを2016以降の型に新しく買い換えたら使えなくなります。●MacBook用ハードカバー(底側)を装着したままではドッグにはまりません。●国内正規販売代理店から購入しましたが日本語版マニュアルは付属していません。LandingZone国内正規販売代理店 株式会社アーキサイトのサイトから日本語版マニュアルPDFがダウンロードできます。●そのままではギガビットEthernetポートを認識しません。上記サイトからイーサネットドライバをダウンロードしてインストールする必要があります。●最近のMacBookはDVDドライブが内蔵されていませんが、純正Apple SuperDriveはUSBハブ経由だとセルフパワーのものでも使えません。Apple SuperDriveを使いたい時はドッグのUSBポートではなく、MacBookに直接繋ぐ必要があります。（Appleの仕様）（ターミナルからゴニョゴニョしてUSBハブ経由でも使えるようにする技もあるようですが）--追記（2020年6月1日）LandingZone国内正規販売代理店 株式会社アーキサイトのサイトからダウンロードできるMac用イーサネットドライバは10.12までですが、それ以降の新しいOS用は本家LandingZoneサイトからダウンロード出来るものもあります。

Great product that works well. Allows a monitor, two hard drives, Blu-Ray/DVD recorder, a mouse, printer and sound through my home stereo. The only down side is that the USB ports are upside down and the alignment is a bit tricky during docking.