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It features a full array of 8 ports, including: USB-C 3.1 for 85W Power Delivery (PD) charging of the laptop; an HDMI port (4K at 30Hz) for attaching to an external display; two 5Gbps USB-A 3.0 ports and another USB-A port with 7.5W for faster charging; Gigabit Ethernet for wired Internet; and SD and Micro SD card readers. Apple’s USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter allows you to connect your USB-C enabled MacBook port to an HDMI display, a standard USB device, and a charging cable – all at the same time. The USB port allows you to connect incompatible USB accessories (flash drives, cameras) to your USB-C enabled MacBook.
This is your simplest solution to needing to add a USB-A (USB 3.0) device to the USB-C slot on your laptop, Mac or PC.There are still a couple of caveats here. First, your device needs to support a DisplayPort 1.4 video output over USB-C, which will count out many Chromebooks and some MacBooks and Windows laptops. Second, the hub itself takes 15W of power, which means that – even with a 100W USB-PD charger – you may find some laptops not charging at their highest speeds. But if you’re happy to live with these compromises, this is one of the best USB-C hubs we’ve seen. Look for hubs that offer passthrough charging, so you can charge your laptop even though you are using up one of the laptop’s USB-C ports for the hub itself. Most don’t ship with a charger, so you’ll need to add your own, and remember that it needs to be a 100W charger to give 85W and above charging if offered by the hub. Lower wattage chargers are fine but will limit the hub’s charging potential. Many of the USB-C adapters tested here have a Gigabit Ethernet port, but none except the TrendNet TUC-ET5G can boast 5X gigabit speed for the absolute fastest wired transfers. Plugable has a much cheaper alternative, at about a third of the price. And it looks pretty identical. As far as USB-C hubs go, the EZQuest Multimedia Hub is the best out there. With a competitive price, all the right ports to manage extra PC peripherals and storage devices, the added perk of 100W passthrough power delivery, and compatibility with virtually every platform, this sleek and travel-friendly hub will get the job done.
While not certified as either USB4 or Thunderbolt 4, this compact and very portable 5-in-1 USB-C hub (AMS-5IN1E) offers 40Gbps data-transfer via its USB-C port, and is designed for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros introduced in 2021, or MacBook Airs introduced in 2022. A smart cutout keeps access to those MacBooks’ MagSafe charger port. Both SD card and MicroSD card readers are included, but at the slower UHS-I speed. A 3.5mm combo In/Out audio port rounds off the impressive 10 ports.
Moshi USB-C Multimedia Adapter: £55, Moshi
Some USB-C hubs go further by incorporating USB-PD passthrough. Here the idea isn’t so much to power the connected devices as to power the laptop the hub connects to, so that you just connect the laptop to the hub, and it charges as you use it without the charger taking up the spare USB-C port. The key thing here is how much power the hub can supply. Most will deliver 80W or more when used with a 100W charger, which should more than cover any laptop. However, with some you’re looking at 50W or less, which might mean missing out on fast-charging modes on some of those laptops that support them. Connecting directly to two of the MacBook’s Thunderbolt ports, it boasts a bunch of ports that should be enough for most of us. The hub receives 40Gbps from each of the Thunderbolt ports on the Mac (so a total of 80Gbps). 40Gbps is used for the USB4 pass-through port, while the second Thunderbolt port distributes 40Gbps of bandwidth to the rest of the ports on the hub. Ethernet is easier, as it’s hard to find a hub that doesn’t support Gigabit Ethernet speeds. That said, a small number now support the faster 2.5 Gigabit (2.5GbE) standard, which isn’t a priority for most home networks, but a plus for advanced users or just for future proofing.
The Startech.com USB-C Multiport 4-in-1 Video Adapter can connect your USB-C laptop to a VGA, DVI, HDMI or Mini DisplayPort (mDP) display. It has pretty much everything except full DisplayPort. It doesn’t have its own power supply but offers passthrough PD charging at a more than healthy 100W. Essentially, it's a tiny, super-fast connector that many of the best laptops today have a connector for, with the only downside being that USB A or USB B connectors can't be used with a USB Type-C port (that's where a USB Type-C hub comes in handy). Note that the USB-C cable that connects to your computer is quite short (15cm) so it will have to sit right next to the host. Of course, the ports can accept any length of cable for the required devices and accessories. It boasts four 40GBps Thunderbolt 4 ports (compatible with USB-C, Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4) plus four 10Gbps USB-A ports. One of the TB4 ports is upstream, so connects to the computer; the other three are downstream for connecting other devices.The version 2.0 HDMI is an upgrade on most adapters with HDMI 1.4, and can get to 60Hz with 4K displays. USB4: Using the same connector as USB-C, USB4 is, like Thunderbolt, a more sophisticated and often faster connection standard. It also has an extra USB-C port for 60W pass-through charging, so you can keep your laptop powered up while it’s in use. Also included are an SD card reader (that can support a microSD card with an adapter). This is rated at UHS-I (104MBps) so not the fastest but speedier than some other hubs tested here offer. Weighing just 46gand both slim and short, the hub/adapter boasts dual USB 3.0 ports for standard accessories and a 4K HDMI port for displays and projectors.
Satechi’s well-named 4-Port USB-C Hub boasts four USB-C, which will at least double most laptops’ port count and help add Type-C SSD drives, flash drives, and other peripherals. Few people have a full range of USB-C or Thunderbolt gear, so you’ll likely need a USB-C hub to add different ports—such as old-school USB-A—to your Mac.It is compatible with MacBook models with two side USB-C ports on the same side. It does not support MacBook models with a single USB-C port.
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