The Surface Pro 8 finally added Thunderbolt 4 ports, opening the Surface line up to a bunch of new docks. Plus, for $299 it's relatively affordable for a Thunderbolt 4 capable docking solution. Overall, we think the Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock is the best dock on the market for Surface PCs with USB-C ports, as it offers excellent versatility and expandability due to its many ports. On the front of the dock is a USB-A and USB-C port, and around the back you'll find two more USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, an ethernet jack, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Kensington lock. The Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock supports 96W passthrough charging, and can drive dual 4K monitors at 60Hz. This means it's only compatible with PCs that have USB-C ports, which means it's only compatible with the Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, Surface Book 2, or Surface Go 1 and up. The dock itself is now slimmer, taking up less vertical space while maintaining the same footprint.Īnother big change with the new Surface Dock is that it now supports Thunderbolt 4, and swaps out the magnetic Surface Connect cable in favor of the more universal USB-C plug. Dubbed the "Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock," this product delivers the first major design change to the Surface Dock since the original launched in 2015. One other nice touch: CalDigit made the design reversible so you can flip it on your desk to have whichever ports you'd like facing forward.Microsoft is now shipping its latest offering in its Surface Dock portfolio. You can also disconnect it from your computer and just use it to power up your phone, tablet and other devices. That's not enough for more power-hungry laptops but fine for a Chromebook and smaller laptops like a Dell XPS 13 or Apple MacBook Air. The included power adapter (it's actually larger than the hub itself) can deliver up to 60 watts of charging power to attached devices. And the hub can be daisy-chained to another Thunderbolt 4 dock or hub for even more connections. It also gives you four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports with data speeds up to 10Gbps to add USB-A devices. The Element Hub, for instance, turns one Thunderbolt 4 port on your laptop into three Thunderbolt 4 ports so you can attach extra displays, high-speed storage and peripherals. A hub adds more ports to a computer to attach more devices. Most people, including me, use hub and dock interchangeably but they are different devices. However, if a more robust dock with Thunderbolt support is necessary, the best we've tested right now is the Accell Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station thanks to an attractive low-profile design and well-rounded port assortment, and it does not get hot when put to full use. EZQuest makes several other USB-C hubs including a 13-in-one model also on this list. It even has labels on the top to get your devices connected even faster. There are less expensive options, but the EZQuest combines an excellent assortment of ports, durability for travel and reliability over several months of testing. There are a lot to choose from, and this list has the best USB-C hubs that we've tested.įor those who want a full-featured travel dock, the best USB-C hub is the EZQuest USB-C Multimedia 8-port Hub. Of course, connecting all of those things at the same time through one USB-C port requires a little help from a USB-C hub or dock with multiple ports. A monitor, keyboard, mouse, Ethernet, external storage, microSD and SD cards, and more can all be connected through a USB-C port. USB-C greatly simplified how we connect everything to a computer.
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