Plugable 5-in-1 Thunderbolt Hub review: Tiny USB4 connectivity

Price When Reviewed

$189

Best Prices Today: Plugable 5-in-1 Thunderbolt Hub (USB4-HUB3A)

If youre searching for a Thunderbolt 4 hub with USB4 capabilities, search no further than Plugables 5-in-1 Thunderbolt Hub (USB4-HUB3A). Otherwise, that is an exceptionally niche product that may not be worthwhile to nearly all PC users.

What the Plugable 5-in-1 Thunderbolt Hub does, it can well: Its tiny (4.9 x 2.9 x 0.5 inches) and weighs significantly less than a pound, with a 30-inch Thunderbolt 4 cord connecting it to a PC, supplying 60W of capacity to a laptop. You can find three additional Thunderbolt 4 ports (with 15W of power apiece) and a legacy 10Gbps USB-A portand thats all. The USB-A port will not supply power for charging. Inside is Intels older Goshen Ridge Thunderbolt device chipset from 2020.

Note: This review is section of our roundup of the best Thunderbolt docks. Got there for buying advice, product comparisons, and recommendations.

Dont consider this as portable, however, as theres a chunky power brick that accompanies the dock. It is a tiny little hub that otherwise slips neatly right into a bag. (We look at a Thunderbolt hub as you that essentially splits the Thunderbolt connection into several additional ports. A Thunderbolt dock is normally powered, with many legacy connections. The Plugable 5-in-1 Thunderbolt Hub has components of both.)

Plugable officially doesnt support PCs built with a Thunderbolt 4 port with this particular devicewhile Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 3 have become similar, Thunderbolt 4 has more stringent requirements that may cause incompatibilities in a few systems.

Why buy this? Well, the Mac world will emphasize Thunderbolt-connected displays a lot more compared to the Windows world, which means this may be a stretch for PC buyers. A small number of high-end displays for the PC market have Thunderbolt ports, as do some high-end SSDs. Dont worry an excessive amount of concerning the USB4 capabilities, either, as you wont find way too many USB4-specific peripherals, either. Otherwise, however, displays with either HDMI or DisplayPort are a lot more common, and youll have to choose USB-C dongle or perhaps a simple (included) adapter for connecting in their mind.

Plugable / Amazon

Since we lack Thunderbolt-connected displays among our test bed, we couldnt try this capability. However the box does add a USB-C to HDMI adapter, so that you can certainly connect one display natively from the box, then attach aUSB-C hubfor connecting another. Theres a standalone 10Gbps USB-A port, aswell. Sure, connecting another device appears like a hasslebut for Plugables price of $180 roughly, you may find yourself trading saving some money for some extra clutter. These additional capabilities work very well enough, though we didnt have sufficient high-speed peripherals readily available to saturate most of its external Thunderbolt 4 ports.

So, to reiterate, we couldnt try this dock to its full capabilities. However in terms of charging power and throughput, it lived around its specifications. The hub did get yourself a bit warm, but its metal construction dissipates heat effectively.

Plugable backs the 5-in-1 Thunderbolt Hub with a two-year warranty, and contains an excellent reputation for customer care. Several Plugable products already are on our set of the best Thunderbolt docks, so were confident that the USB4-HUB3A should deliver aswell.

Best Prices Today: Plugable 5-in-1 Thunderbolt Hub (USB4-HUB3A)