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If you plan to chain your habs to even more stretch the distance, it’s critical not to have more than 5 in a row. If you do, the whole set-up just won’t be working at all. Recent laptops have begun offering a USB-C technology called HBR3 with DSC, which we’ll explain more fully in the sections following our recommendations. The bottom line is that the technology offers something similar to the DisplayLink technology below, but as an industry standard. In our experience, although the technology is somewhat supported in laptops with 11th-gen Core processors, it works best in 12th- or 13th-gen laptops. If you have a recent-gen iPad with a USB-C connector, you may find yourself wishing you could connect a USB Type-A device, headphones or even an external display. Anker’s 541 USB-C Hub for iPads has you covered with a unique design that’s meant to snap right into the side of your tablet or even a USB-C laptop. There’s no wire as the USB-C plug and a slight, protruding chin hold the entire metal hub in place. We also connected an Android phone to the ports and recorded how many volts and amps it received. The phone charging test was probably the most realistic as it showed what kind of volts and amps a real device would negotiate with the hub. A USB over Ethernet cable offers a viable method of establishing an Ethernet connection when you have no open Ethernet ports available. With the assistance of a USB to Ethernet adapter, any open USB port can provide you USB over cat5/cat 5e/cat6 Ethernet connectivity. Just connect an Ethernet cable to the adapter plugged into your computer and then attach it to a modem, router, or network hub.
All MacBooks and many of the best Ultrabooks come with only USB-C ports, and just a couple of them. That’s why there are so many portable USB hubs that connect to a computer via a built-in USB-C cable and then provide a few Type-A ports, along with some extra goodies such as an HDMI out or a card reader. Anker’s PowerExpand 4-in-1 USB-C hub has one whiz-bang feature we haven’t seen anywhere else, and that’s a built-in 256GB SSD. It’s a very common mistake to think that if you connect several cables, you get a very long extender and will be able to connect a USB device in the next room. But that won’t ever work. The longer the 5e cable is — the weaker the signal and power level it transmits. For some bandwidth-sensitive peripherals like scanners or cameras, the maximum recommended distance to any of your computers can’t be more than 3 meters (that’s less than 10 feet) for USB 3.0 or 3.1 and 5 meters (roughly 16.4 feet) for USB 2.0. Not that much, isn’t it? Unlike cheaper hubs, it supports a full 60Hz refresh rate over HDMI, while there’s a Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 port for when you need a physical network connection. The Type-C and Type-A connections could be faster, with our SSD speeds limited to around 458MB/sec, but this is a great, fully featured hub that’s still affordable and – most importantly – it just works. The vast majority of USB hubs are self-contained units one can use with any computer or laptop that has at least one USB port. They can be split into two broad categories: the self-poweredand bus-powered ones.The chassis is aluminum, so it’s rugged yet lightweight, and it looks great, too. This is the ultimate hub for anyone who wants to connect several devices or transfer data from multiple USB sources simultaneously. It's worth noting that when plugged into a computer, there is some connection latency for the higher-count ports. But the first four ports are fast and responsive. Even though two USB-C hubs may have wildly different brand names, you may sometimes find that they’re otherwise identical or just very similar. It’s not exactly portable, but it’s certainly a good option for anyone who needs a massive boost in available USB ports. The option to fast-charge four mobile devices at once is ultra-convenient. Moreover, it’s plug-and-play compatible with PC, Mac, and Linux systems. Yes, but you must update to the latest version of the iPadOS. And due to the power input limit of iPad Pro, the maximum pass-through charging speed is 30W for an 11-inch iPad Pro and 35W for a 12.9-inch iPad Pro. FlexiHub: Windows host device only, but any platform can remotely access the USB of the Windows host. Easiest setup. Cost-effective as it is priced by active connections, not total number of devices FlexiHub is installed on. Secure with 256-bit encryption.
This beast is almost 9 inches long and weighs 1.8 pounds. Every port has a power switch and a bright blue LED indicator. You can turn ports on and off individually, and the light will tell you what’s powered and in use. It’s plug-and-play compatible with PC, Mac, and Linux systems. It has a built-in surge protector to keep all your devices and the hub safe and secure from electrical failures. When the hub is fully loaded, it may reach a surface temperature of around 122℉. However, this is normal for products of this kind. Windows® 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server® 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019 and Linux Powered or not? Some USB hubs come with their own AC adapters so that they can provide more power than your computer delivers from one of its ports. Bus power from your computer can be pretty low, not enough to juice several power-hungry peripherals at once or to charge devices at a reasonable rate. By definition, a USB hub that needs its own plug isn’t very portable.Despite this, image quality on our 4K display was crisp and free of any fuzziness, and it’s easy to get a working desktop setup on a laptop or tablet. You might want an extra Type-A port with a higher spec, but if you’re looking for a hub for life on the go, this one’s tough to beat for portability or convenience. Upstream connection (Type-A or Type-C?): USB hubs have multiple downstream ports to connect to your devices but only one upstream connector, which could be a port but is often a built-in wire that connects to your computer. Many laptops, including a lot of the best Ultrabooks, only have USB-C ports, so your hub's upstream connector would have to be Type-C.
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. Make sure your laptop supports a 65W input and that your charger and cable both support 65W charging. We looked at how SD cards were inserted—you’d be surprised how many don’t work unless they’re inserted upside down!Anker’s hub was among the fastest we tested to deliver data under load, including simultaneous data transfer between USB-A ports while the SD ports were active. The hub offers an 18-month warranty, and it even ships with a carrying pouch.
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