usb-c

Working with three screens

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My home working environment showing a laptop with Windows 11, and two external screens, for a total of three screens

In a further evolution of my home working environment, I now have three screens available to me when I’m working at home. Today marks the start of my second week on a phased return to work, where I’m working a couple of hours a day at home.

Last year, I got an updated work laptop, but it took me until last week to find that it could support more than one external screen, as well as its own. It’s a relatively standard issue Lenovo Thinkpad, if you’re wondering. Whilst the laptop has one HDMI port, it can also pass video data through its USB-C port, and so I could add another screen using this and my Orico docking station (sponsored link) that I reviewed last year.

The third screen

The screen is an old square-ish 15″ Dell IPS screen. I think I picked it cheaply up at a junk shop many years ago, and I had used it with my Mac Mini, back when that still worked. I don’t know exactly how old it is, but it only has an analogue VGA connector – i.e. no DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI, Thunderbolt or USB-C. Bearing in mind that I bought a similar-sized screen in 2005 which included DVI. Of course, since it only has a VGA port, I had to buy an HDMI to VGA adaptor (sponsored link) to be able to connect it to the Orico docking station.

It’s been tucked away in our spare room for years as my previous laptop could only support one external screen. Whilst it had a single USB-C port, this couldn’t carry video data. So it’s nice to be able to use it again.

Once I’ve got some more strength in my arms, I’ll get it raised to a better height, in line with the other screens. The stand looks like it can be removed and replaced with a VESA mount, but it’s quite sturdy and so I can probably just stand it on some chunky books.

As for how it is to work with three screens? Much easier. I can have Outlook open on my laptop screen, our main web-based work IT system open on the large 24″ screen in the middle, and use the smaller 15″ screen for a remote desktop session.

And having three screens isn’t quite as extreme as some. Famously, the late Sir Terry Pratchett worked from six screens, arranged in a double row. “Why do I have six monitors?” he said. “Because I don’t have room for eight.”

Using an iPad as a desktop PC

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An iPad connected to a docking station for use with an external screen, keyboard and mouse

If you have one of the newer iPad Air or iPad Pro models, then you can plug in an external keyboard, mouse and screen, and use it like a desktop PC. All you need is USB-C docking station with USB and HDMI ports. Indeed, I’m writing this blog post on the WordPress iOS app, but using my USB keyboard, mouse and external display.

Docking station

The docking station I’m using is this Orico model (sponsored link), which has an HDMI port, three USB-A ports (two USB 2, one USB 3) and a USB-C port. This USB-C port supports Power Delivery, and so it can be used to charge your iPad whilst it’s plugged in.

Other docking stations add Ethernet and readers for SD and TF cards, but this one doesn’t. And yes, iPad OS does support Ethernet when connected to an adaptor – I’ve tried it myself with a USB-C Ethernet adaptor that I normally use for my laptop at home.

What it’s like to use

Apple’s information page about using an external display is a bit vague. In my experience, the external screen would only show output once I had also plugged in my keyboard and mouse – it wouldn’t work with just the screen plugged in. That may be a quirk of the Orico docking station.

Rather than mirroring the display, the external screen was an extension of the iPad desktop. Apps would open on the iPad screen, and to get them to open on the external screen, I had to flick down from the top to reveal the menu bar and use the Window menu to move them across. With Stage Manager enabled, you can have multiple apps open in different windows on both screens.

I didn’t see a noticeable reduction in performance – the iPad seemed pretty capable of outputting to two screens. But it did deplete the battery faster, as I hadn’t plugged in a USB-C cable into the docking station to charge.

But why?

So why would you want to do this? Compared to my Windows laptop, which takes a minute or two to boot up, my iPad is always on and launches immediately from standby. Therefore, if I need to do something on a big screen quickly, it’s quicker to plug my iPad into a docking station than booting the laptop up.

It’s also a way of experiencing how Apple has repositioned iPad OS as being somewhere between iOS and macOS, rather than just iOS on a bigger screen. Apple wants the iPad range to be useful for actual work, rather than merely larger screens to consume content.

Finally, apologies for the photo above not actually showing the iPad with my screen, keyboard and mouse. My workspace is a mess at the moment, and I didn’t fancy tidying it up just for this blog post.

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