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This does make it reasonably hefty but still much easier to travel with, and is perfect for laptop professionals often on the move and working on location. At 150W, the power supply should accommodate most of your needs, with up to 60W reserved for powering the laptop or tablet—enough for all but the biggest, meanest laptops. We would have preferred to swap one of the USB-A ports for a second USB-C, but appreciate the powerful 20W charging capability of that USB-C—enough to fast-charge a phone or other smaller device.
4 USB hubs | Argos
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. The minimum requirements for USB 4 are much lower at 20Gbps, while Thunderbolt 4 is at 32Gbps. Likewise, the minimum power requirements for Thunderbolt 4 are double those of USB 4 at 15W versus 7.5W. 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).
4-in-1 USB-C Expansion
Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 are easy to confuse, not least because both offer the same USB-C connector and the same maximum data transmission performance (40Gbps). Though USB 4 can only send at this rate over 1 meter, half that of Thunderbolt 4. USB 4 is even based on the Thunderbolt protocol, but the two are not the same. They're just very similar.
Thunderbolt 4 hubs and docking stations 2023 Best Thunderbolt 4 hubs and docking stations 2023
Still, for Windows laptops, MacBook, and Chromebook users who only need a couple of reliable ports, this makes it onto our list of best USB-C hubs. Take some of the claims made by some manufacturers with a pinch of salt. We tested a couple of hubs that promised high-end features but failed to deliver during testing. For example, they might promise 4K at 60Hz, but you might find that this only works on specific laptops and displays. It is priced the same as the Caldigit Element Hub, which is still our favorite Thunderbolt 4 hub, with its four 40Gbps/18W Thunderbolt 4 and four 10Gbps/7.5W USB-A ports. However, if you own a large power-hungry laptop, the Belkin’s 96W USB PD charging will impress.
The best USB hubs you can buy in 2023
One of the TB4 ports is Upstream, for connection to your computer. The other three are Downstream, for connecting other devices.