So there are excellent options for USB-C hubs, especially if what you really want is TB4, but of course you pay for that ‘luxury’. So what if you want cheaper and less fancy…?
A senior colleague of mine has an M2 MBA and is very happy with it apart from only 2 ports to which she’d like to attach (when in her office) a lot of stuff: power, iOS devices, and a couple SATA-based SSDs interfaced through USB-C. Nothing dramatic so I figured a simple little 4-port USB-C hub with support for >35W on the host port as well as 15-W supported on those 4 client-side ports would fix her problems.
To my big surprise our department’s IT suppoprter said he knew nothing that fit that bill. Hubs with downstream USB-A ports aplenty, but not USB-C. ??? WTH? I couldn’t believe it, so I started searching Newegg and Amazon and others, only to find indeed he was absolutely right.
So, anybody have any ideas? The closest thing I can find to match that bill is a type of hub that wants to plugged in directly which is not what she likes. I guess you could always plug in a 3-ft 100-W 10-Gbps cable in between to fix that, but elegant it ain’t. There’s also this 4-port USB-C hub, but it has abysmal wattage on the downstream ports so you can’t use them to decently charge a modern iPhone.
Somebody here must certainly have found something decent somewhere. Please holler if you know.
Thanks, yeah, but unfortunately those just offer USB-A ports downstream. Considering the advantages of USB-C and its predominance in Apple world over USB-A, I’m looking for a hub with USB-C downstream, not A.
The OWC Thunderbolt Hub ($125) is the only one I’ve run across so far. 3 downstream TB/usb-c ports, 1 usb 3.2; 60W power delivery, and you can attach three hubs to the host hub if you want more ports.
Note that price is NZD and includes local sales tax
If you can’t find one where you live, PB Tech is a reputable supplier I use regularly. I believe it does deliver internationally (dunno timeframes or costs).
Thank you. That fits the bill. Looks like a cheaper version (without the extra 3 A-type ports) of the CalDigit Elements TB4 hub I linked to above. It’s actually a decent deal: at $125 it’s just half the price but still offers the same 3 C-type downstream ports. And on both I detest the port placement. I’d really like one side (ideally the front) with nothing but perhaps a downstream port and all else kept to the back.
I’d really like to see one of these hubs with more than 3 downstream ports. I wonder what the issue really is. There’s plenty of 3.2 hubs with 4-7 A-type downstream ports, but with C-type you almost always see just 3 max. And usually those are technically TB4 hubs, not just C. I wonder if there is indeed some kind of odd limitation with C-type USB. Power perhaps? After all, every downstream port should in principle be capable of delivering 15W.
Well thank you. This is almost a winner. It’s got 3 downstream C-type ports that can each deliver 7.5 W. That’s not exactly huge when you’re charging an iPad, but so far it’s the best I’ve seen for any non-TB hub. And at $59 shipped here in the States it’s also quite a steal.
This is a fairly new product so not many reviews so far to go on. I’m anxious to hear if anybody has any hands-on experience with it. Maybe I’ll just have to get one myself to test.
That fits the bill. Looks like a cheaper version (without the extra 3 A-type ports) of the CalDigit Elements TB4 hub I linked to above. It’s actually a decent deal: at $125 it’s just half the price but still offers the same 3 C-type downstream ports. And on both I detest the port placement. I’d really like one side (ideally the front) with nothing but perhaps a downstream port and all else kept to the back.