Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs, and Liliputing may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on those links. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.

The Apricorn Aegis NetDock is a USB docking station for netbooks and notebooks that offers three things that mini-laptops are often short on: extra hard drive space, an optical disc drive, and extra USB ports. The company first introduced the NetDock in March, but it’s now shipping, and the folks at Apricorn were kind enough to send me a demo unit to review.

The NetDock comes in two configurations. For about $189, you get a model with a 500GB, 5400RPM hard drive, while $89 gets you a version with an empty 2.5″ hard drive bay so that you can add your own.

Both models have an 8X DVD burner and a 4 port USB 2.0 hub with 2 “always on” ports.

Because of the 3-in-1 nature of the NetDock, you can’t draw enough power to run the docking station from the USB ports on your computer, so you will need to plug the NetDock into a wall jack, which makes it a little less portable than many USB hard drives or disc drives. But at 6.25″ x 5.75″ x 2.13″ it’s really not much larger than many of those single purpose devices.

One thing I did notice is that the Apricorn Aegis NetDock is a little noisy at times. When I inserted a DVD to watch a video, the sounds coming from the disc drive were pretty noticeable for a few seconds before it quieted down.

Amazon is selling the 500GB NetDock for $177.45 plus free shipping. You can pick up the NetDock without a hard drive for $83.24 plus free shipping.

You can check out some unboxing photos and more hands-on photos after the break.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,546 other subscribers

5 replies on “Apricorn launches Aegis NetDock: Hard drive, disc drive and USB hub”

  1. I don’t understand why the specs claim this is 2.125″ thick. Is that the width of the stand?

  2. Brad, you’re missing a “1” in front of Amazon’s price for the 500GB model. Got my hopes up there for a sec…

Comments are closed.