ThinkPad Thunderbolt Workstation Dock: The new docking solution for the Lenovo ThinkPad P52

Docking solutions play a very important part in the world of business laptops, as they allow the user to transform their portable PC into a desktop-like computer without the hassle of plugging in many cables. Traditionally, business systems like Dell Latitudes, HP EliteBooks and Lenovo ThinkPads had a proprietary docking-port for a specialized mechanical dock at the bottom of the system. In the last years though, those kind of solutions have started to vanish, as a bottom-port limits how thin you can build a laptop.

Another "victim" of this trend: The recently released ThinkPad P52, the newest addition to Lenovo's mobile workstation lineup. In this case, the P52 followed suit after Lenovo removed the bottom dock-port from the other ThinkPad models like the ThinkPad T480 or ThinkPad X280 in January. Different from those machines however, the P52 did not include a new mechanical docking-port on the side. The reason for that being that USB C can only transmit up to 100 W over USB-PD – not enough for a workstation with powerful CPUs and GPUs. Instead, Lenovo announced a new dock exclusively for the ThinkPad P series, called the "ThinkPad Thunderbolt Workstation Dock". Not many details about this new accessory have been released, except for a picture showing that this isn't a traditional mechanical dock. Instead, its a cable-dock.

Thanks to the recently released userguide for the ThinkPad P52, we have obtained some additional facts about this new dock. The ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Workstation dock is indeed a cable-dock with a single cable to connect the dock with the laptop. Lenovo achieves this by melding Thunderbolt 3 and the proprietary Thinkpad Slim Tip charging port into a single cable. Curiously, the dock requires two chargers, one to power the dock and one to power the laptop.

Source(s)