Best USB-C hubs and dongles 2023: Add ports to your laptop or tablet

Can a USB-C hub really feel elegant? This one does. Anker’s 7-in-1 USB-C hub feels surprisingly weighty (3.5 ounces), with a premium metallic (aluminum and polycarbonate) sheen. It’s additionally a bit dearer than its rivals. Anker’s hub was among the many coolest we’ve examined below load, at about 87 levels.

General, Anker’s hub is nicely designed, with ample spacing between the 2 5Gbps USB-A ports. There’s additionally a 5Gbps USB-C connection for information, plus a second USB-C port for energy enter at as much as 85W rated. (The charger permits as much as 100W in, however provides 85W.) An HDMI port permits for 4K/30Hz video or 1080p/60Hz video to a single exterior show, customary for the class. Ethernet is excluded, nevertheless, so that you’ll want to make use of Wi-Fi as an alternative. Twine size is about 8.5 inches, above the usual 6-inch size.

Anker’s hub was among the many quickest we examined to ship information below load, together with simultaneous information switch between USB-A ports whereas the SD ports have been lively. The hub gives an 18-month guarantee, and it even ships with a carrying pouch. 

We advocate not shopping for the dearer $79.99 Anker 8-in-1 Hub on Amazon until you’re pleased connecting to 2 1080p (and never 4K) shows…which is completely positive. In any other case, the 2 HDMI ports will solely help two 4K shows at an eye-wearying 30Hz, not 60Hz.

Yeolibo might not be a reputation you acknowledge, however this USB-C hub is impressively detailed, with a small however extraordinarily informative guide, clearly labeled ports, and well-rounded performance.

This hub gives three USB 3.0 (5Gb/s) Kind A ports, one USB 2.0 Kind A port, a USB-C (5Gb/s) port, a USB-C PD charging port rated at 100W of enter energy, and an HDMI port. There are additionally microSD and SD slots able to SDXC playing cards as much as 2TB and SDR25 (25MB/s) information charges. There’s no ethernet connection. The USB-C cable measures a snug six inches, although the connector on the finish was just a little stiff and took some fiddling to insert.

We didn’t have a 100W USB-C charger available to check, however the hub accepted 62.5W from our 65W USB-C charger. It stayed cool all through. The hub performed again protected content material by way of its HDMI port, as anticipated, however dropped extra frames than we hoped for when taking part in again 4K content material over YouTube. (Solely 4K30 resolutions are supported, however that’s common.)

Lasuney’s 10-in-1 hub (two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, two HDMI 1.2 ports (4K@30Hz), DisplayPort gigabit ethernet, microSD/SD, USB-C energy enter) gives quite a bit to your cash, together with an uncommon mixture of not one, however two HDMI ports, and even a DisplayPort. Because of ethernet help, the hub can substitute lots of your wired connections. Energy enter is rated at 100W in, with about 87W out there to the laptop computer.

However the USB-C bus the hub runs on prime of merely gained’t help all of the ports getting used without delay, which is a little bit of a gotcha. Whereas we actually just like the pair of HDMI ports for dual-display configurations, the very fact is, you’ll most likely must restrict your self to a pair of 1080p shows to keep away from saturating the bus and slowing down the connection. Clients on Amazon have reported that they solely bought one to work, most likely as a result of the bus itself was saturated. The opposite downside we discovered is that the SD card slot is approach too sluggish. It took twice as lengthy to switch information in comparison with different hubs we examined. In all equity, our different disk-to-disk assessments took about the identical period of time.

Lasuney’s hub is nicely made, with good port spacing. It doesn’t get uncomfortably heat, both. Simply be real looking: We actually like the pliability that the Lasuney hub gives, however don’t purchase it considering you’ll be capable of use the whole lot without delay. If you happen to want that functionality, have a look at one of many dearer USB-C docking stations, beneath.

Current laptops have begun providing a USB-C expertise referred to as HBR3 with DSC, which we’ll clarify extra absolutely within the sections following our suggestions. The underside line is that the expertise gives one thing just like the DisplayLink expertise beneath, however as an business customary. In our expertise, though the expertise is considerably supported in laptops with Eleventh-gen Core processors, it really works greatest in Twelfth- or Thirteenth-gen laptops.

This slim plastic dock measures a hair over 6 inches vast and about 3 inches deep. It lacks a stand, and warms reasonably sharply below load. Nevertheless it packs a pair of HDMI ports on the rear, 4 5Gbps USB-A ports on the again, in addition to gigabit ethernet. The USB-C cable, measuring about 2.5 ft, snakes out from the facet of the dock. (CA’s guide and documentation is awful, by the best way, so we’re not fairly clear what HDMI port expertise it makes use of.) On the entrance is one other USB Kind A port and a USB-C port, too.

The latter USB-C port can be utilized to cost your smartphone, because it places out 6.7W of charging energy, or sufficient to fast-charge a smartphone. In any other case, it is a powered dock, and it’ll provide 90W of charging energy to your laptop computer, too.

At 2.8 x 0.31 x 1.22 inches, IOgear’s Journey Professional Mini Dock is an odd duck: an affordable, comparatively tiny USB-C dock that plugs straight into your laptop computer, and not using a connecting twine.

“There’s no approach this can work,” you would possibly assume—but it surely does, with simply sufficient room to your laptop computer’s USB-C charger to sneak in a single facet of the dock, subsequent to an HDMI twine, then a USB key or twine, and a 3.5mm jack. (The Mini Dock helps as much as 60W of energy in from an exterior charger.)

That’s positive, in fact, in case your laptop computer’s USB-C port is all by its lonesome. In any other case, the Journey Professional Mini Dock will block ports because it tries to supply enlargement capabilities—and that’s an issue for laptops just like the Asus ZenBook, which forego a 3.5mm headphone jack however cram their USB-C ports too shut collectively to make IOgear’s dock possible.

We like the concept, however there are cheaper, higher docks on the market with extra flexibility.

That is our entry for an upgraded DisplayLink dock, which has its personal execs and cons—barely dearer than a USB-C docking station, however extra options, too.

Plugable’s UD-6950PDH doesn’t permit the bandwidth for the most recent HDMI or DisplayPort interfaces, but it surely preserves what we like about Plugable’s docks: two pairs of non-compulsory DisplayPort and HDMI connections to select from, in addition to 100W of charging energy to your laptop computer. One omission, nevertheless, is a devoted charging port for powering a smartphone, or any USB-C port in any respect. (VisionTek’s VT7000 contains these, however for a considerable premium.)

At about $199 MSRP, nevertheless, the value is totally proper for a DisplayLink docking station. Simply don’t overlook your smartphone charger.

Weirdly, what you’ll purchase at Amazon (the Ugreen USB-C Triple Show Docking Station) doesn’t match the identify on the field (the USB-C Multifunction Docking Station PRO). The opposite hitch? This can be a powered dock…however you’ll want to provide the charger.

These are some odd quirks, set towards what is kind of a pricy product. Get previous these, although, and that is actually a stable system — it really drives three shows! Simply make certain to obtain the DisplayLink software program as detailed in our assessment, beneath.

Lention’s CB-C35sH feels just a little low cost out of the field, with a little bit of a rattle that signifies a nook or two have been minimize within the development. It labored flawlessly, nevertheless. This USB-C hub is barely wider than most, with an influence enter rated at 60W subsequent to a HDMI 1.2 output (permitting 4K decision on an exterior show, at 60Hz) that permits protected content material to be performed again with no issues. (Energy enter solely reached 55W in our assessments.) The whole hub remained cool, even with a charger connected.

Along with the USB-C enter port and HDMI output, there are 4 5Gb/s USB Kind A ports, and that’s it—no microSD slots, ethernet, or audio connections. We might have preferred to see the latter as an possibility for many who want it. However connecting a mouse and keyboard, in addition to transferring information over the ports, labored nicely inside the constraints of the USB-C connection.

Each our present total prime choose, the Anker A83460A2, and the Yeolibo 9-in-1 a are higher total choices, with one exception: their HDMI output is simply at 30Hz, which might fatigue the eyes over lengthy intervals. Lention delivers a extra comfy 60Hz on the similar decision. And when you have points, Lention gives a 12-month guarantee with a 24-hour help turnaround.

This Rshtech RS-516 USB-C port splitter makes use of an unusually lengthy 2-foot cable to separate a 5Gbps USB 3.0 enter (over USB-C) and divide it amongst 4 USB 3.0 Kind A ports. It’s additionally unusual to see these ports managed by LED-lit button switches, and an non-compulsory 5V/2A adapter powering the entire affair.

The port splitter takes the 5Gbps enter and splits it among the many ports, that are solely lively if the corresponding LED-lit button is depressed. This is applicable to each energy (the hub will cost, although not fast-charge telephones) and information. Port spacing isn’t a problem, and the ABS/aluminum assemble handles warmth nicely.

The Rshtech hub wouldn’t at all times establish and hook up with a bus-powered SSD, but it surely discovered each different system we related to it. The efficiency of a powered exterior laborious drive plunged to about 20 p.c when all ports have been occupied, however surged to about 67 p.c when the non-compulsory energy cable was plugged in—which Rshtech recommends when related to exterior storage.

That cable (with a proprietary plug) is a ache, and the problems discovering our SSD gave us pause. However we actually preferred how the hub allowed us entry to and management of exterior laborious drives, which spin up and down loudly and randomly.