Beelink has shown its new Expand F docking station. The device has space for an m.2-2280 SSD and a 2.5″ drive. In addition, the dock offers USB ports, two HDMI ports, a LAN port and it has a 19 volt, 4.7 amp adapter. .
The m.2-2280-ssd slot works with the sata-600 interface and according to Beelink can handle a maximum transfer speed of 440MB per second. For a 2.5″ hard drive, a maximum of 140MB per second read and 70MB per second write would be feasible, according to the company. Active cooling for the drives does not appear to be there, but the heat from the drives can be dissipated by two metal plates.There is also a button to put the drives in a sleep mode.
The two HDMI ports are capable of producing 4k resolutions, although there is no mention of a maximum refresh rate. The Ethernet port supports gigabit speeds. There are also a total of five USB 3.0 type-a ports and a TRRS port for audio devices with 3.5 mm connections, including a microphone.
Connection to the computer, or optionally a tablet or smartphone, is via the supplied USB-type-c cable. The dock is also able to charge a laptop via this cable with up to 90 Watts, although that amount is expected to decrease if, for example, the drives require energy.
Beelink quotes a price of $149 for the model without included drives. It adds a 512GB SSD for an additional $50 and a 1TB HDD for another $40, bringing the final total to $239.
