Yep, got the Razer TB4 Dock Chroma when the M1 MacBook pros came out, think it was $350. It’s VERY nice to be able to go from desk to couch when WFH and have everything right where you left it, but damn it’s pricey.
AND mine already died once as well. Replaced under warranty but it was a hassle that took a few weeks
That's pretty typical. 55" LCD TVs were $20k when they first came out, 256MB of RAM was hundreds of dollars when it came out, 128GB hard drives were hundreds of dollars when they came out. Someday, this thing will be dirt cheap and ubiquitous but not now.
Is your dock powered by your laptop? I didn't even know this was possible, all docks I've seen have their own power supply and actually offer PD to the connected device, not the other way around.
I have an Aukey dock and an Anker dock and they both work both ways. When there's no power supply connected to it, power is drawn from the laptop. When there is a power supply, my laptop gets charged instead.
We need a more robust connection more than we need a faster connection.
All USB/thunderbolt variants feel like they are a sneeze away from snapping. It's one thing if yiu are connecting things that aren't meant to be moved around, but damn do they feel flimsy for mobile devices that could get bumped around.
It would be pretty easy to make a locking mechanism for a standard usb-c cable. Like for example a slot that's the size of a usb-c connector, and after you put the usb-c cable connector through it to plug it in, you then rotate the slot 90 degrees to lock the cable head in place.