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HANDHELDVERDICT

Glossary · Docks & Hubs

Dock

A dock connects a handheld to an external display, power, and peripherals, turning it into a compact desktop or console. The bottleneck moves off the chip and onto the plumbing: a dock needs enough power delivery to charge and drive a display at once, and enough bandwidth to output your target resolution and refresh. A great handheld with an underpowered dock stutters or drops refresh, so the dock deserves as much scrutiny as the device — the cheapest ones are the usual culprits.

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