Thomas P. Ulrick
This Lives In My Backpack Now
My main laptop has two Thunderbolt ports. That’s it. If I want to connect almost anything else, I need a dongle or adapter. I got this hub to replace the smaller travel dock in my backpack, and it solves that port problem nicely.Interestingly, my unit actually has ten ports rather than the nine advertised: two USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, one USB-C data port, one USB-C Power Delivery input, HDMI, full-size SD, microSD, and Ethernet. Ethernet was one of the main reasons this hub won a place in my work bag, since modern laptops rarely include it and I use it regularly for work.I tested the Ethernet connection over my local network using multi-gigabyte files and achieved transfer speeds above 100 megabytes per second. That is very good real-world performance for a gigabit Ethernet connection.The HDMI output has also worked reliably with every display I’ve tried. My work frequently involves specialty menu boards and other marketing displays, so I have connected it to a fairly wide range of hardware. I successfully tested output at up to 4K resolution without problems. I could not verify the refresh rate of those displays, so I am not specifically confirming the advertised 4K at 60Hz performance.Power Delivery worked as expected. Using a 100W charger, my laptop reached its normal peak draw of approximately 50W through the hub. The hub became slightly warm during charging, but never more than slightly. I also used charging, Ethernet, display output, and external storage together without encountering disconnects or other problems.For USB testing, I copied multi-gigabyte files using both USB-C and USB-A drives. Large files help keep disk caching from distorting the results, and my copy times were very similar with and without the hub. In my testing, it did not introduce a noticeable performance penalty.I tried both card readers as well. Transfers from my cards were much slower than from my external SSDs, but these are slower cards that I normally use in single-board computers that would not benefit from faster ones. I therefore can’t use those cards to establish the maximum speed of the readers.The hub is approximately 5 by 2 inches and 3/4 inch thick. Its built-in cable is about a foot long, with a smooth, soft covering and basic strain relief where it enters the hub. It feels suitable for carrying in my backpack, although I keep small electronics like this in protective cases rather than tossing them in loose.This hub lets me connect nearly anything I normally need through one of my laptop’s two ports. It has performed well on both modern Windows and Mac laptops, and it has handled everything I’ve thrown at it.Ver másVer menos
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