Background: I have an X60s notebook and am in the situation, to rely on the serial and parallel interface (hardware development and debugging on RS232). A price comparison with corresponding PCMCIA cards (50) and a very reasonable offer here on Amazon (70) let me access at the dock.
Many ports on the docking station are already present on the notebook, the stationary operation is the UltraBase though considerably more comfortable, because the connections are (almost) all attached to the back of the dock.
The ability to use the placed on the right side of the UltraBase CD slot for either an optical drive, a hard drive or an extra battery is very pleasant. The exchange of the respective device is mechanically solved very well in the UltraBase.
On the front of the dock a button is for turning on / off of the notebook along with a lock for it. Centered in the UltraBase a recess is left, so you can operate the wireless switch also with docked notebook.
On the left side of the UltraBase is found next to the vents a lever with which to solve the laptop from the docking station. Since this can be a rather bad idea on the fly, sounds in this case, an acoustic warning signal. But in order to allow the release during the current computer yet, still, there is a button next to this lever, the functions of the UltraBase can be turned off with the and the separation is made possible. Next to it are still two USB-A ports and an opening for a Kensington lock.
The back of the base has on the left side of the connection for the power supply, followed by two USB-A ports. In the middle of the back of the ports for VGA, serial (COM) and parallel (LPT) are mounted. To the right you will find the possibility, microphone and speakers to connect with 3.5mm plug, and a RJ-11 and RJ-45 connector for analog modem and LAN.
The handling of the UltraBase is a little getting used to at the beginning. The notebook must for docking with the front first be pushed into the base then to be able to dock with the rear part. That's a little matter of practice, however, should be to learn relatively quickly.
Conclusion:
The docking station is certainly not without that you could not live. In particular, the fact that only a VGA output and no DVI is mounted on the back, the benefit decreases considerably because of the DVI presentation quality would improve but on an external monitor to some.
Nevertheless, if you want to connect the missing communication ports or another battery or drive to be x60 / x61, is well served by the device. Who does not need, will certainly also be able to live very well without the UltraBase, since it can not completely eliminate ultimately the small flaws of the Thinkpads.