The USB-C cable, measuring about 2.5 feet, snakes out from the side of the dock. But it packs a pair of HDMI ports on the rear, four 5Gbps USB-A ports on the back, as well as gigabit ethernet. It lacks a stand, and warms rather sharply under load. This slim plastic dock measures a hair over 6 inches wide and about 3 inches deep. In our experience, although the technology is somewhat supported in laptops with 11th-gen Core processors, it works best in 12th- or 13th-gen laptops. The bottom line is that the technology offers something similar to the DisplayLink technology below, but as an industry standard. Recent laptops have begun offering a USB-C technology called HBR3 with DSC, which we’ll explain more fully in the sections following our recommendations. If you need that capability, look at one of the more expensive USB-C docking stations, below. It doesn’t get uncomfortably warm, either. Just be realistic: We really like the flexibility that the Lasuney hub offers, but don’t buy it thinking you’ll be able to use everything at once. Lasuney’s hub is well made, with good port spacing. In all fairness, our other disk-to-disk tests took about the same amount of time. It took twice as long to transfer data compared to other hubs we tested. The other problem we found is that the SD card slot is way too slow. While we really like the pair of HDMI ports for dual-display configurations, the fact is, you’ll probably need to limit yourself to a pair of 1080p displays to avoid saturating the bus and slowing down the connection. Customers on Amazon have reported that they only got one to work, probably because the bus itself was saturated. Power input is rated at 100W in, with about 87W available to the laptop.īut the USB-C bus the hub runs on top of simply won’t support all of the ports being used at once, which is a bit of a gotcha. Thanks to ethernet support, the hub can replace many of your wired connections. Lasuney’s 10-in-1 hub (two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, two HDMI 1.2 ports DisplayPort gigabit ethernet, microSD/SD, USB-C power input) offers a lot for your money, including an unusual mix of not one, but two HDMI ports, and even a DisplayPort. Otherwise, the two HDMI ports will only support two 4K displays at an eye-wearying 30Hz, not 60Hz. We recommend not buying the more expensive $79.99 Anker 8-in-1 Hub on Amazon unless you’re happy connecting to two 1080p (and not 4K) displays…which is perfectly fine. The hub offers an 18-month warranty, and it even ships with a carrying pouch. Cord length is about 8.5 inches, above the standard 6-inch length.Īnker’s hub was among the fastest we tested to deliver data under load, including simultaneous data transfer between USB-A ports while the SD ports were active. Ethernet is excluded, however, so you’ll need to use Wi-Fi instead. (The charger allows up to 100W in, but supplies 85W.) An HDMI port allows for 4K/30Hz video or 1080p/60Hz video to a single external display, standard for the category. There’s also a 5Gbps USB-C connection for data, plus a second USB-C port for power input at up to 85W rated. Overall, Anker’s hub is well designed, with adequate spacing between the two 5Gbps USB-A ports. Anker’s hub was among the coolest we’ve tested under load, at about 87 degrees. It’s also a bit more expensive than its rivals. Anker’s 7-in-1 USB-C hub feels surprisingly weighty (3.5 ounces), with a premium metallic (aluminum and polycarbonate) sheen. Generally, the larger, powered docks offer more features.Ĭan a USB-C hub feel elegant? This one does. If you want to add a pair of additional displays (especially 4K), or high-speed SSD drives, we’d recommend you look at our list of 10Gbps DisplayLink docks at the bottom of this page or 40Gbps Thunderbolt docking stations. Here’s the short answer: If you want to connect your laptop to a printer, an SD card or microSD card, mouse, keyboard, or legacy 1080p monitor, stick with a basic 10Gbps USB-C hub/dongle. It can all be a little confusing, so we’ve included an expanded FAQ and a buying guide at the bottom. More advanced features lie within the best Thunderbolt docks, which we’ve listed separately. We’ll also introduce you to DisplayLink docks, an improved version which offers hardware-based compression to move more data over the USB-C port. The latter are a bit bulkier, but tend to offer more connections. We’ve organized our USB-C recommendations this way: traditional USB-C hubs on top, followed by our picks for the best USB-C docking stations.
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