DockCase is a MacBook Pro protective leather sleeve with integrated USB-C dock
The MacBook Pro is a wonderful laptop. It offers excellent performance, a sleek design, and one of the best keyboards on the market. There really isn't much to complain about, other than a lack of ports. You see, Apple went all-in with USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports on its new laptop, meaning some users would need to rely on dongles for connecting legacy devices.
There are countless dongles, adapters, and docking stations on the market nowadays, all looking to provide a fix for this port pain-point. Today, a new such product from a company named "Seesaw" becomes available for pre-order on Kickstarter. The "DockCase," as it is called, intrigued me because of its unique design. You see, it is a protective leather sleeve for the MacBook Pro with a USB-C docking station built in. It sounds weird, I know, but it actually makes a lot of sense.
"Carrying around a handful of dongles is such a pain, and sometimes forget to bring the right adapter to get things done makes it worse. The DockCase packs the MacBook Pro with all missing ports back. You’ll never get wrong with the DockCase. It is designed to be the ultimate accessory for your MacBook Pro. Many dock solutions on the market are loose on the connection part, which makes data transfer more fragile than ever. The DockCase connects to your MacBook Pro stably with the provided type C cable that avoid connection loose and data loss," says Seesaw.
The company also says, "DockCase has a total of nine different ports with five connection types. With DockCase, you can connect your SD card, hard drive, flash drive, monitor, camera, printer, phone, and more, all at the same time. Save the time replacing and finding new adapters, enjoy the one-stop solution that makes a productive MacBook Pro."
The actual dock aspect of the product has every port you should need. There is gigabit Ethernet, three USB Type-A ports, HDMI, two USB-C ports (one for power pass-through/delivery), and both a full-sized and micro SD card reader. All of this is connected to the MacBook Pro with an adorably short USB-C cable. There is even a hidden compartment to hold the USB-C cable when not in use, making it all a very neat package.
The case itself will protect your MacBook Pro from scratches, but it will not protect from drops. What I find particularly cool, however, is when the MacBook Pro is in use, the DockCase can be put underneath the laptop to protect it from dirty tables at places like Starbucks. I'd rather put the DockCase in something sticky than my laptop!
I have an early version of the product in my possession, and I am in the process of testing it for an upcoming review. While I haven't had enough time to fully put it through its paces, it seems like a clever, well-made, product. If you have a need for such a sleeve with integrated dock, you should definitely take a look.
If you are interested in backing this project on Kickstarter, you can reserve one here starting at $69 for the 13-inch variant and $79 for the 15-inch model. This is "early bird" pricing, so if you want one, don't wait to order. Procrastinating could lead to a higher price.