DoBox Pro is an iPad Pro dock with a keyboard, trackpad, and more

What you need to know

  • DoBox Pro is currently available on Kickstarter.
  • It has a keyboard, trackpad, and ports.
  • It turns an iPad Pro into an iPadOS notebook.

DoBox Pro is an iPad Pro dock that turns the tablet into a fully fledged notebook complete with a trackpad and keyboard. Oh, and it has a few ports on offer, too. The only downside is you'll need to deal with Kickstarter in order to get one.

DoBox, the maker of DoBox Pro, says that it expects to ship the dock around February 2020 but if you want one you'll need to drop $199 right now. That's a lot, and the prospect of waiting four months for the product to arrive doesn't fill us with joy. But it might just be worth the wait.

The reasons for that are many. First, there's a built-in keyboard along with a trackpad sat atop a 16,000 mAh battery. That makes this thing super portable in terms of power – you won't need to charge your iPad Pro because of that extra battery.

And then there are the ports. The DoBox Pro has lots of them including a microSD card reader, HDMI, Ethernet, and even a 3.5mm audio output for those who just won't let it die. Two USB-A ports almost rounds out the collection of slots and whatnot. But we've saved the best for last.

On the side of the dock you'll see what appears to be a space for a SATA drive to be inserted. As Cult of Mac also points out, the DoBox is worryingly vague about it. It does say that it supports up to 2TB of storage, although of what type we aren't yet 100% sure.

The idea of a trackpad being built into an iPad Pro dock is a new one that is only made possible by the recent release of iPadOS 13.1. In that update Apple added support for mouse and trackpad input, something users have been crying out for in recent years.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.