Best MacBook Air Docking Station

Im not sure they make one, unless its one that plugs into one of the USB ports from a third party. The Thunderbolt connector is very new, and the ACD with Thunderbolt acts as a very nice docking station, but it is one more zero that you are wanting to pay.

At this point in time the ACD is likely the only game in town that will deliver everything you're looking for with a single (not counting the magsafe connection) point of connectivity.

There are many decent USB hubs out there, not many USB to FW options that I'm aware of though and the display port connection is another story in itself.

There are some nice docking options for MBP's that do all you're looking for and they are elegant in their simplicity made possible by the all left side connections of the MBP design and the native FW.

The Air design is problematic for simple docking as the connections are both left and right. This isn't out yet, but looks promising. http://www.bookendzdocks.com/

Good luck with your studies.

Thanks, I didn't even know a 3rd party was starting to make TB docks. And while not exactly docking stations, http://holdan.eu/Sonnet/Accessories/Presto™%20Gigabit%20Ethernet%20Thunderbolt™% 20Adapter#tab=description is planning to release TB > GigE and FW800 adapters as welll.

Thanks for that info as well. I would like to have the TB to FW option for scanner and Time Machine drives going forward. It makes the new Airs even closer to desktop replacement level. Just too bad they couldn't/wouldn't squeeze in the 8GB of RAM.

BookEndz makes a dock that fits your description but it will be more than $100. Heres the link to the 13-inch dock you would need: http://www.justdockit.com/bookendz-docking-station-for-13-macbook-air/

11-inch: http://www.justdockit.com/bookendz-docking-station-for-11-macbook-air/

A new docking station specifically designed for MacBook Air is now out on Kickstarter. It's a pretty clever design that uses MacBook Air's USB ports on each side for easy docking. It has all of the docking features of the ACP (except Thunderbolt) without the Display of course, and adds Kensington Lock slot to boot.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/29222207/landingzone-the-docking-station-for -the-macbook-ai

I'm not sure what you decided to buy but there are new thunderbolt docking stations on the market have you seen the Belkin

http://www.belkin.com/thunderbolt/

or the Matrox one which does not have FW on it but it's only $299 vs the Belkin $399.

http://www.matrox.com/docking_station/en/ds1/

I hope this info helps someone.

Actually, the price of the Matrox unit is $249!

The LandingZone PRO Dock does the trick for me. Finally a good dock made for the Air!