Basic Dedicated E-Comm. Your laptop fits snugly into them and receives additional functionality, making it more like a desktop computer when it's used at your desk. The port replicators are very useful if you need SCSI and or network ports at your desk at work.
Docking stations can offer what port replicators do, and sometimes a lot more.
There are docking stations that allow you to plug PCI cards and additional hard drives, CD-ROM drives and floppy drives into them, practically making your laptop into a full desktop computer when you connect it. Compare the cost of these devices against similar PC-Cards such as SCSI or network cards that will give your laptop similar functionality. Factor in the annoying cables that you'll have to connect to your tiny PC-Cards and you may want to go with a port replicator or docking station. All rights reserved.