In reviewing monitors, I came upon this Dell monitor, the Dell UltraSharp 27 USB-C Hub Monitor – U2721DE.
With all of the other bells and whistles, it comes with an RJ45 ethernet jack and what appears to be not only a Display Port (IN) but also a Display Port (out). So for the life of me, I cannot figure out why either of those two ports are something I would want?
1. What’s the reason for connecting a monitor to my network?
2. I get the different input options, but why would I be outputting video from my monitor?
I’d love to understand what cases there may be for these options.
[https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-ultrasharp-27-usb-c-hub-monitor-u2721de/apd/210-awkh/monitors-monitor-accessories](https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-ultrasharp-27-usb-c-hub-monitor-u2721de/apd/210-awkh/monitors-monitor-accessories)
In: Technology
This is essentially a Thunderbolt 3 dock built into a monitor.
Most higher end laptops these days have at least 1 Thunderbolt 3 Port. This is an extension of the USB-C specification that allows a LOT of stuff to run off of the one cord. For instance, my work laptop has, in it’s Thunderbolt 3 dock, two HDMI monitors, four USB 2.1 ports, Ethernet, and a headset jack.
This monitor would be like having the dock in the monitor, with that monitor already plugged in. If you run the cord to a laptop, it’ll get those USB ports and the Ethernet port all passed through to it.
Modern ultrabooks have shifted to having just a couple (sometimes only 1) USB C ports which can connect to accessories and also serve as the charger. You can’t make an ultra thin laptop if you put an Ethernet jack on it because the Ethernet jack is thicker than some of these laptops
The monitor is meant to serve as a dock so instead of hooking your laptop to a dock which is hooked to your mouse, keyboard, monitor, and ethernet, you instead just connect the USB C port to the monitor and it sends the video data down that link like a Display Port, and connects to the accessories hooked into the monitor like Ethernet, other USB devices, and even daisy chained devices.
Display Port supports daisy chaining displays so you can take a single display port cable, run it to one display, hook that display to another, and hook *that* display to a third to have your GPU control 3 screens from a single Display Port cable. This helps clean up the mess of wires that traditionally runs behind a desk.
The goal of this screen is that when you get to your desk you hook up a single cable from the screen to the laptop and you’re done. Your wireless mouse and keyboard are already hooked to the screen, your ethernet is hooked to the screen along with power, and you really only have 3 total cables on your whole desk.
This thing works like a dock for a notebook: All devices, power cable and ethernet plug into the screen, and then your notebook connects to the screen with a single USB C connector.
You can connect your laptop to it via USB-C and get wired ethernet through it instead of always using wifi. Same with your mouse and keyboard. It’s like a docking station.
This monitor isn’t intended to be a peripheral for a desktop PC, it’s part of a workstation setup where you’re connecting a laptop to it.
The monitor itself then provides wired power and internet connectivity to the laptop – that presumably belongs to someone who is often working remotely or in the field.
Video *out* on a monitor may be useful if you’re planning to be running presentations on another screen somewhere.
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