Five Docking-Friendly Laptops For Your WFH Setup

The Coronavirus Pandemic changed the way we work, perhaps forever. Many businesses are still transforming themselves to be more attractive to remote workers, and this segment of the workforce grows every year. Found a remote job recently and need a new laptop and dock to get set up? This is the guide you're looking for.

I'm a PC

It could be argued that most WFH setups could benefit from using a mini PC or a desktop instead of a laptop, and there is wisdom in that thinking.

Regular PCs don't have to deal with batteries or hinges. They don't need docks and dongles, they are easier to repair and maintain. They have more ports.

The portable aspect of laptops is what ties it all together. While some people do want a dedicated workspace supported by one or two external monitors, others would like the freedom to work wherever they are comfortable now and then.

Plus, the laptop is load-shedding proof. Mostly.

For a basic setup to start, you will want to look for a docking station that connects all your peripherals and charges the laptop at the same time. This way, a single cable is all you need to plug in and have everything work with no fiddling.

Cheap, no-frills docks can start from as little as R700, like the J5Create JCA379. Others like the Vantec Link can be found for as little as R1,199. Apple MacBook enjoyers will have to splurge a little bit if they want dual-monitor support - a competent DisplayLink dock like the UNITEK D1103A01 retails for as much as R2800.

Monitors with USB hubs and KVM features are useful on their own, but a separate dock gives you the flexibility to change out pieces as needed, including the monitor itself.

To make the most out of your dock, you'll need a laptop with a USB Type-C port that supports DisplayPort Alt Mode. This lets you use a single cable for video, power, networking, external storage, and connecting peripherals. Pretty neat, huh?

Let's look at some options.

ASUS P1503CTA-C82G0W ExpertBook P1503

The ASUS ExpertBook lineup is a new series of laptops designed for a wider range of uses other than doing homework. In the past, cheap laptops would have been mostly relegated to internet browsing and media consumption. But the P1503 starts off strong with an Intel Celeron N150 quad-core CPU, 8GB of soldered RAM, and a 256GB NVMe SSD.

The rubber feet are set to different heights, so the laptop starts off with a slanted keyboard and a hinge that swings out quite far. The port selection is excellent, with two full-featured USB Type-C ports that support DisplayPort and 65W charging via Power Delivery. Two USB Type-A ports, HDMI 1.4, and RJ-45 Ethernet round off the unusually well-equipped chassis.

This would be the cheapest, most capable budget laptop you could get for a WFH setup that will see it regularly plugged into a dock. And it comes with Windows 11 pre-installed, while remaining competitively priced.

This would be suitable for remote work that includes content writing, light photo editing, and anything that can be done in a browser or productivity applications like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

ASUS P1503CVA-I38512B0W ExpertBook P1503

Doubling the budget sets us up with another ExpertBook, but this time with a Core i3-1315U processor, upgradeable SO-DIMM RAM, and a Windows Hello capable fingerprint reader.

The upgradeable memory will help with extending the useful life of the laptop, and this model supports up to 32GB of DDR5 memory. A second M.2 NVMe slot helps with local storage needs as well, should you need more space.

But it is the fingerprint reader that is the most attractive upgrade. Windows 11 by default will prefer to encrypt the local drive using Bitlocker to protect your data, and most people will sign into their Microsoft account with a password or PIN. A fingerprint reader removes the hassle of logging in manually, but it also enables some neat security features.

With a Windows Hello login secured by biometrics, you can use the fingerprint reader to authenticate yourself on apps and services that support it. Integrations with password managers are also easier to setup - services like 1Password and Bitwarden support authenticating users with Windows Hello biometrics.

The extra CPU horsepower will see this laptop being a little better suited to photo and video editing, in addition to more demanding software like CAD rendering or Visual Studio for programming.

WootBook Y14

Increasing the budget again to around R13,000 brings you to our Wootbook Y14. Like the other laptops it includes a Type-C port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery. At this level you also get niceties like a backlit keyboard, a bright 120Hz IPS display, WiFi 6E support, and a webcam that supports Windows Hello.

As it is a barebones unit, you get to add in your own memory, storage, and your choice of operating system.

The AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS is also notable because it includes a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to accelerate local AI workloads, something that is slowly becoming useful in Windows itself. For now the NPU is only used for basic tasks like background removal and noise reduction for video calls, but future versions of Windows 11 will do image and text generation locally, and may unlock features like local coding assistants and Recall.

Together with a login backed by biometrics through Windows Hello (using face or fingerprint recognition), Recall takes snapshots of your desktop and stores it in a secure enclave that only gets unlocked when you authenticate with Windows Hello. It will then let you search through things you've done or seen on your PC, searching using natural language to find something that's on the tip of your tongue but can't remember.

The Y14 is well suited for use as a portable workstation. Video editing, programming, local AI image and text generation, game development, pretty much anything you can think of can get done on this machine - a great starting point for a remote workhorse.

Apple MC8K4ZE/A MacBook Air M3

While most people will want to stick with Windows for their work, some jobs either support or fully require macOS, and you'll want a MacBook for that. modern MacBooks all come with Thunderbolt USB Type-C ports that integrate video, power, and USB connectivity in the same cable.

Apple's MacBooks are also now using their in-house M-series processors. These come complete with their own hardware accelerators for all kinds of things, including local AI features. Apple Intelligence has been slow to roll out to Apple's complement of apps on macOS, but progress has been steady. Apple currently supports on-device image generation and coding assistance, writing tools, message summaries, and much more.

Similarly, MacBooks also support fingerprint readers with secure login functions, and all the same benefits also apply when authenticating to password managers, secure websites, or when making payments online.

The baseline MacBook Air M3 models are well equipped starting with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage - all soldered. The displays are great, the keyboards are nice, and the battery life is almost unbeatable. It will do anything you want without complaint, on top of Apple's reputation for rock-solid reliability.

WootBook Core 16 Fire

Some laptops can't be fully powered by most docks or USB Type-C chargers, and may still require their own power adapter. These are usually high-performance laptops with discrete graphics, purpose-made for gaming or heavy graphics work. While their power consumption is high, the tradeoff is worth it for the performance you get in a portable chassis.

Our Wootbook Core 16 series fills that role, equipped with a Ryzen 9 16-core APU and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 12GB. It includes two USB Type-C ports with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, as expected, along with a webcam that supports Windows Hello. The chassis is even made of aluminium.

It also doesn't make tradeoffs like older gaming laptops used to. The 99Wh battery is enormous, the mylar trackpad feels like smooth glass, the display is super sharp, and you even get 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet. It's light for a 16-inch laptop at 2.3kg.

The Core 16 Fire is a desktop replacement, essentially. You can run DeepSeek locally on it, or edit 8K video, or run Matlab models for scientific research. It'll happily chug along without complaint.

And when you need to take your work with you, it's only one (sometimes two) cables to unplug. Simple, elegant. Science did that.