I was looking for a new USB-c hub and came across this article. It’s an interesting write-up of what is on the inside of some popular options
Did about a year of a docked laptop setup. Basically anything CableMatters is good. I used the 201331-BLK-J (DisplayPort Ultrawide) and the 201310-BLK-N (HDMI 2.1 OLED TV).
I would pass through my 100W charger and it worked fine. Audio would be sent over the video connection which meant no driver issues. I had speakers connected to the monitor.
The rest of the USB ports were miscellaneous and at least one cable going to the monitor to use its USB ports.
/me proceeds to Google, type cable matters Usb-C, click on website… First link “usb-c docking station with remote controller”
Wait, what?!?
Haha, yeah I see have one. It seems targeted for Samsung DeX and/or using it on a TV. It has a straight up a wireless keyboard on the back of the remote. Could make sense since, if you’re trying to use it as an Android TV replacement, you can’t use the on-screen keyboard.
Their website is easier to find stuff and each product has an Amazon link.
We bought those anker hubs as bootleg docks at the height of the supply chain crises. Because I had 150 laptops to deploy and nothing to connect them to (we were replacing desktops and older dell e dock types)
These generally have been serviceable en-masse. I expected higher failure rates but was surprised pelasantly. We still have and use them for imaging on our workbench. Many we gave to folks for hybrid folks under the agreement they keep their mouths shut and never bring them back. Only trusted users even got the offer.
We had about 5 doa. Another 5-10 died in the first year of service. The rest, still going strong.
USB-C hubs all seem to be dodgy crap made by anonymous Chinese companies and resold through various companies, including the likes of Apple. There’s an absolute dearth of hubs made by actual reputable firms.
Was the issue that he was getting knock offs through Amazon?
One of the ones he bought is sold on Apple’s website, so I don’t think so.
I’ve use a CalDigit TS3 Plus on my MacBook Pro for a couple of years, it’s pretty reliable. There is a lot of noise over the headphone port though, so I don’t use that.
The Dell D6000 actually works pretty well. I have it running two monitors, keyboard, mouse, Ethernet, USB-A microphone, and analog speakers via 3.5mm. Every once in a while I’ll need to reseat the cable if the HDMI-based monitor doesn’t wake up.
Can confirm, Dell’s docks work great because they just have to provide high-quality docks to their business customers (such as my company).
The only complaint I have is that some of their dock (dunno if it’s the 6000 series or other ones) use DisplayLink when you connect multiple monitors, which is a closed protocol with shoddy support on Linux (according to some colleagues it has gotten better, but YMMV). Everything else works has been working perfectly for years though.
Thanks for the tip. I have a random “Pluggable” brand docking station that works fine with Windows but not my Linux laptop, neither with Zorin or PopOS. I get nothing from either monitor and can’t get DisplayLink to properly install on either OS.
I will look into Dell. Do you know of an easy way to tell if DisplayLink is required? I’m looking at this one and don’t see it mentioned:
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-dual-charge-dock-hd22q/apd/210-bexl/pc-accessories
It’s a pain in the ass with Dell. The one I have on my desk right now is a
K20A001, which works great, but I know the newer Dx000 series that our ICT department bought all use DisplayLink. However those seem to be explicitly mentioned on the spec sheet, so there’s hope that if it just says “DisplayPort” then no DisplayLink is involved. Maybe double-check google just to make sure, if it’s DisplayLink there should be people complaining about it.
That’s been a good one for me too. I have been running the Dell D6000 for over 4 years now for work, no issues. Every port but the 3.5 and one of the USB-Cs being utilized daily.
Same here. I’ve had one for close to 4 years and I haven’t had many issues with it at all.
Hubs are one of the reasons I pushed my brother to get a ThinkPad for University. He has all the ports he wants, no need to carry a stupid USB hub.
Just imagine how easy things would have been if these 3000$+ computers had the necessary ports built into them.
3 usb type-c and two type-A ports, hdmi out, sd card reader should be bare minimum. A 3.5mm headset jack and collapsible rj45 or very least rj45 to usb adapter should also be included on machines intended for professional use.
Edit: for those complaining about having to disconnect multiple cables, sure you can buy a hub or dock if you want ease of use. But that would still be possible on a machine with its own ports. You don’t have to have a working dock to actually use the machine.
No thanks, I plug 2 cables into my MBP and get:
- Multiple USB-A/USB-C ports
- Ethernet
- 3 monitors
- Power
- Sound
- SD card reader
- And a few other things I don’t use
Contrast that with my old MBP that had “all the ports”, I’d have to plug multiple things in, I still had to use hubs, and it struggled to drive 2 monitors. No thanks.
You can use a thunderbolt hub if you want. The point is that with every other brand, you don’t have to.
My Latitude has 3 USB-A ports, micro-SD, RJ-45, HDMI, audio jack, Dell power connector, and a full-sized thunderbolt USB-C port that you can also use to charge your laptop while doing all the things that Apple’s mandatory USB-C ports do.
So now if I’m at my desk I can plug one cable just like you, in the same hub that you do. And if I’m on the go and need to plug something in… well let’s just say it’s a pleasure of mine to lord it over the Apple-only guys that I don’t need 300€’s worth of cable spaghetti to connect to the beamer in the meeting room.
I will never get how and why Apple shills defend the shit that Apple does. How does proving less functionality benefit ANYONE but Apple? This behavior is so obviously against your own interest! Like, get whatever laptop you want, I don’t care and I see that Apple does some things right. This isn’t one of them and there is zero objective reason to defend them for removing standard connectivity from their laptops.
I will never get how and why Apple shills defend the shit that Apple does.
They want the product because it looks fancy and they don’t know any better about the specs to realize it’s overpriced. Or they do know and don’t care because it’s a status symbol. Which is worse, really.
I mean the first iPhone couldn’t even use the music on the phone for ringtones. There were like 10 pre-loaded rings and that was it. Meanwhile my Windows smart phone could use any MP3 on the SD card (which could also be used to play music). But people were lining up around the block for the iPhone even though it was objectively worse that the other phones at the time. It was just shiny and didn’t require thinking to use, just blind acceptance.
Last I checked my work MBP M1 has an hdmi port and 2 ways to charge it. Don’t need more than that in a conference room. For home use, a dock is a must, since I’m not unplugging a million connectors every time.
Besides, my Dell XPS laptop doesn’t even have that hdmi port. It’s not just an Apple problem, everyone did it now.
Just imagine how easy things would have been if these 3000$+ computers had the necessary ports built into them.
That would only solve some problems. My typical problem of not wanting to wire up 6 or 7 cables every time I switch between home-office and office would still go unsolved. Just plugging in a hub that already has keyboard, mouse, headset, monitors, and preferably even power attached is very nice to be actually flexible with the setup (also when quickly moving to a conference room and back).
The problem is they stopped making the dumb click in docks that just connected right to the motherboard. I think they did this for “thin” and also those docks just worked too well, and basically never died. And you needed one from the laptop vendor because they were model specific. But man, the USBC crap is STILL not really an improvement.
You do realize that you can have both, right? Your laptop could have 6/7 ports but you could choose to use a usb-c hub for convenience. And, if you’re travelling or your hub breaks, you still have all the ports in your laptop.
I have some small usb adapters I keep around for travel that work with all my laptops. They work fine in a pinch for my desk it my main hub goes down.
Which is, why I said, it would only solve some problems (stronger highlight this time). Sure I can have both. But the hub would still be a problem if it broke after not even a year and/or burns my house down.
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But… but then you’d have to make them 0.01mm thicker.
That’s the excuse they feed you for sacrificing on usability, durability and also added expenses of buying more and more dongles.
3 usb type-c and two type-A ports, hdmi out, sd card reader should be bare minimum. A 3.5mm headset jack and collapsible rj45 or very least rj45 to usb adapter should also be included on machines intended for professional use.
Who decided that’s a work requirement? 2 usb c, 1 usb a, and hdmi is about all the average person needs for work use. Anything more than that and you should just get accessories. Usb hubs aren’t a new concept.
Not surprised to hear more people having this issue. I wanted a dock with usb 3 and usb c and a ports a few years back and was shocked at how few actually items were available. I tried a few that advertised as usb 3 but were obviously not. Not surprised to learn how much of a clusterfuck it was and still is.
The problem is that almost all electronics available online (not just on Amazon) are rebranded Chinese bargain bin garbage marked up by 10x and people think “it must be good because it’s expensive”.
Really your only option is to either accept that everything is disposable and will need to be replaced frequently, or to find the “good” brands and stick to them.
That last part is by design… it’s why a lot of this shit is perpetuated by the same parent company under a different name, to create a “hostile environment” to make it so you can’t shop around for cheaper prices.
This comment is basically just a tl;dr of the OP
TL;DRs are valuable contributions!
Also, his last point is synthesizing a new argument that the situation is a deliberate confusopoly.
That’s fair. I’d call the last point new commentary more than an argument since he didn’t really provide any evidence that it’s true. /pedantic
All valid reasons, but the underlying of it all is that the USB consortium that comes up with these standards and fucked up the usb-c standard leaving us with this quagmire of cables and dangles. Remember the first USB-C cables? The ones that caught on fire? Or where USB 2.0 with USB-C connectors? Pepperidge Farm remembers
Far too many technological products of almost any kind are like this now. Often hiding behind complex and useless warranties (our new $6000 Carrier home HVAC device failed after 16 months – warranty requires us to remove and ship back!).
It’s all such a shit show.
If yoi are looking for something good, Microsoft Surface Docks tends to be a solid yet underrated option that I rarely see people talk about, as their hardware design is usually exceptionally good.
Otherwise, I’d say Lenovo or Dell’s business lines, because corporate IT had to deploy so many of them that most issues would be ironed out at that point.
Yeah, but paying $300 for one is crazy for the average home user. If I am spending company dollars, then sure, there is a reason to go for the brand name. But for my home setup I want something between cheap and crazy expensive.
In your scenario, I would say the best option would be buying used enterprise stuff for your home setup if you want both quality and relatively low price.
Tl;dr: Mac driver has issues with an often used cheap and buggy realtek network chip.
This is why I basically buy all my minor electronics off Aliexpress. All of those “air pods” are all the same. The $60 are the same as the $40, which are exactly the same as the $8 ones, they just have fancier packaging and English insert that is actually readable.
Does the 8$ one have ANC?
ANC that actually works? Depends if it’s the $8 eligible for free shipping one or the $8 one with $15.99 shipping one lol.
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