Pills and laptops are only becoming more powerful, but rarely there are plenty of ports to utilize all these abilities. Although Bluetooth accessories are definitely their place, you can prefer the speed and accuracy of the wired periodic periodic period.
5 You have two main options for adding more contacts to your tablet or laptop: a docking station or a center. Both provide some combination of additional USB, HDMI, SD card slots, Ethernet and/or 3.5 mm ports so that you can connect the monitor or wired mice and keyboards such as peripherals. Doctating stations are large, AC power is needed and usually means stationary. On the other hand, a USB-C hub is more portable and does not need its power source. We tested more than a dozen options to come with the best USB-C hub to maximize your ports, and we have added advice to find out what you find before buying.
The table of content
The best USB-C hubs for 2025
What do you find in the USB-C Hub
Hub vs. Docking Station
The first thing to decide is whether you need a USB-C hub or USB-C docking station. There is no fixed standard to distinguish them, but docking stations have more ports, offer a separate DC power adapter and cost some more, which reaches $ 400. We have a separate guide for the best docking stations to check that you are looking for a bigger thing than we are talking about here. On the contrary, the USB-C hubs are between four and 10 ports, can support the passage charging and usually cost between $ 30 and $ 150.
The hubs, sometimes called dongles or even a multi -port editor, have only a few peripherals, such as monitors, a wired keyboard and mouse, and sometimes with small setups with external drive. They are also more portables, because they are small and they do not need dedicated power. This may be useful if you change the workplace but want to bring your accessories with you, or if you want to replace your laptop with a more powerful tablet. A docking station has more meaning to someone who needs a strong setup for his laptop, which includes numerous external monitors, webcams, stream decks, microphones and so on.
It is easier to capture your laptop from your desk for both robbers and other short migrations, and when you come back, you just need to plug into a cable just to re -connect all your accessories.
Ports
The first port is on your laptop or tablet to consider. The USB-C center to work, it needs to connect a port that supports video, data and strength-all of them are covered by anything better, including USB4 and Thunderbolt 3 and 4. Of course, the port also needs to be type-C. The sea of laptops there is very wide, so it is difficult to do, but the modern laptop should have at least one USB-C port that will be enough, and in fact,, the best laptop’s our every side should choose each of us.
Next, it’s a good USB-C center finding the right contacts for your needs. Most hubs offer some scrolls of HDMI, USB, SD card reader, Ethernet and 3.5 mm ports. If you have a 4K monitor and they want at least 60 hits refresh rate, you will need a center with HDMI 2.0 port – HDMI 1.4 goes up to 30 hits. HDMI will handle 2.1 4K for 120 hezs, but the hubs who have adopted this standard are not so common. Keep in mind that low refresh rate can cause your screen to retreat, making your mouse look bad and delays the movement of your webcam.
Additional USB ports on these accessories are usually type-a or type C. They can support different transfer rates, usually with 5GBPS or 10GBPS. Some ports only handle the pass throw power and no data, and some can do data, power and video, so it is better to check the list of the list you are helping. Keep in mind that a hub can bail itself as 7-in-1, but one of these ports can be used for anything other than charging.
Standard SD and microSD slot cameras and such data are useful for transfer. Ethernet ports can provide your Internet speed faster than Wi -Fi, and a center with a 3.5 mm jack can withdraw the wired headphone connection, which has been excavated by some laptops.
Power supply
Almost all of the USB-C hubs I examined the support passthrough charging. This means that if your laptop or tablet is charged only by USB, you do not need to take any other port on your laptop to keep everything up. Unlike the docking station, the power of a center is optional. One of the exceptions is that if you want to close the lid on your laptop while working on an external monitor. Most computers will go into sleep mode if the lid is off without electricity, so either the laptop or hub will need to be plugged into the wall to prevent it from being.
Many new hubs include a 100W USB-C Power Delivery (PD) port, which goes to a healthy 80 to 85 watts to your Mac, PC or tablet (hubs take a bit of juice for themselves, so there is a difference 15 watts or more). In my tests, a powerful USB hub went far beyond the charge when the charge was not being approved, so I prefer to give the computer direct strength to the computer using my charger. But without any additional ports for tablets or other devices, they are important PD options.
Some PD ports are also data ports – which are both good and bad. On the one hand, it seems useless to use a perfectly good data port to bore old electricity. But on the other hand, the USB-C connections that only take charge are less versatile, and it seems that it really has more accessories hook-ups.
Design
Surprisingly, there is very little design change. Most look like a flat slab, which is slightly smaller than the smartphone, and has a tinted type C host cable. The color is from a silver black to silver brown. Some are thin than others, some have all ports on one edge and some have ports on both sides. All this is just to say that aesthetics will probably not make and break your purchase decision.
A variable that can tip the scales is the length of the cable. When you arrange the hub at your desk, you will get more freedom, possibly even you don’t allow it to hide it behind your laptop. Or you can prefer a little to keep the hub clean near your laptop.
How do we test the USB-C hub
Before examining anything, we take a look at what is available and welcomed them through buyers, forums and other posts. When I was examining the docking stations, I became familiar with some well -known brands, so I also saw the centers of these companies. I focused on items that will help on the average day of production-no setup at the end of the highest or not demanding gaming conditions. Once I settled a dozen or so, he would become a good candidate, I sent him to my humble office in the desert and started examining them within a few weeks.
I used M-1 MacBook Pro as a host computer and plugged in accessories 4K Dell Monitor, a Zassa USB-C Erogo Keyboard, a Lajtic USB-A gaming mouse, an Elguto USB C 4K Webcam, a Logetic Streaming Light, USB-ASB-ASB-ASB-ASB-ASB-ASB-ASB-ASB-ASBA. Is . I used HDMI and USB-C cables at the high end to ensure that no data or contact issues were related to my luggage.
Then I kept each USB-C hub through an aspect of basic tests. I saw what could be plugged at the same time, the resolution on the monitor, the data transfer speed, the overall construction quality of the hub and the common use factors, such as ports and the length of cords. And, in the end, the price proportion of the price helps to determine the best people in different cases of use.
Other hubs we experienced
Hyper Drive Next 10 Port USB-C Hub
Likes a lot about it Next 10 Port USB-C Hub of Hyper Drive. The Teacher Cable is a royal 13 inches long, HDMI 2.0 port output is clear and crisp 4K visual on 60Hz and data transfer is screaming rapidly. It has lured a PD port in addition to two USB-C data ports, and there is also a headphone jack. The only thing that prevents complete throat verification is the way our unit handled the streaming light. Keeping it on the whole brightness every time webcam is filler. The problem went on 75 % of the shine, but the same problem I tested did not happen to the other center.
Squer 341 USB-C Hub (7-in-1)
There is no problem in this Squer 341 USB-C In fact, this is an current recommendation in our iPad Accessories Guide and it comes at a tremendous price of $ 35. It also gives you SD slot along with two USB-A ports. But at this point, a 1.4 HDMI connection, which only supports 4K resolution in 30Hz, feels a bit retro. There is only one USB-C-Downty Stream Port here and data transfer tests proved to be a touch slower than other centers. But if you’ve got a low resolution monitor and you do not need more than one USB-C, you won’t be disappointed.
Startic 4-Port USB-C Hub (Data only)
I just got acquainted with Startic when I started researching for this guide. The quality is decent and the yellow accent centers are a very welcome color in the brown world. Performance is solid, with no hiccups that I have to face. Of the brand 4-Port USB-C Hub There is a long bone that is wrapped around the center itself, which is unique. It is not disturbed by the power supply, which is not a problem if you can provide direct electricity to your computer. But four USB ports (three type-a and one type C) have a maximum out of 5GBPS and there is no HDMI connector. It goes for $ 46, and unfortunately for that, there are cheap ways to get some more USB ports for your setup.
This article was originally published on Enoget
