If you're using an external storage device – perhaps an NVMe drive you've put in one of the best SSD enclosures– you’d benefit a great deal from using a hub that supports 10 Gbps connections – alternatively known as USB 3.1 Gen 2 or USB 3.2 Gen 2. Unfortunately, very few USB hubs actually support these higher speeds and even fewer still support the 10 Gbps speed when it comes from a Type-A, rather than a Type-C, port. We also like the choice of cables, with a short, pull-out cable that stows inside the case for travel, plus a longer desktop cable for when you need to stretch a little further. It gives this unit a little more flexibility than other USB-C hubs. At 4.8 volts, which is around the minimum voltage most USB devices will tolerate, we got 1.25 and 1.32 amps from the charging and data ports, respectively. When I plugged my Android phone in to charge, a real-world situation because a device will negotiate the best combination of volts and amps, the charging ports sent 4.78 volts at 1.35 amps while the data ports gave the same amount of volts, but just 0.35 amps. To make a long story short, you'll get 6.4 watts from the charging ports, which is decent but not the 15-watts that fast phone chargers provide. All three charging ports should be able to deliver this at once. Where I am seeing severe degradation in transfer speeds using USB 3 hubs is from SSD to SSD connected to the same hub. Any extra connectivity? Some USB-C hubs will come with HDMI out, allowing you to connect to a monitor, provided that your PC can output video from its Type-C port. Other hubs have microSD or SD card readers built-in.

In addition to the SSD, the Anker PowerExpand has an HDMI out port and two USB 3.x Type-A ports that operate at 5 Gbps. There’s a USB-C power pass-through you can plug your laptop’s power adapter – up to a 100-watt unit – so that you can charge your computer while using this hub (the USB-C port does not work for data transfer; we tried). Razer looks at power distribution differently from other manufacturers and we still can’t quite understand how each port shares its charging capacity, but it worked well in testing. It boasts four Thunderbolt 4 (all at 40Gbps bandwidth and 15W charging) and four USB-A 3.2 Gen.2 (10Gbps and 7.5W) ports. That’s more than any other Thunderbolt 4 hub we have seen or tested.It matches the excellent Caldigit TS4 on port speed with 10Gbps US-A and USB-C, UHS-II SD card reader and 2.5Gb Ethernet alongside the two downstream Thunderbolt 4 ports— differing mainly by its choice of the more popular HDMI video port compared to the TS4’s DisplayPort. Ethernet: A wired Ethernet connection is almost always faster than Wi-Fi and is more reliable, too. Most hubs with Ethernet ports support gigabit speeds, meaning data can transfer at up to 1,000 megabits a second. For each model in the test group, we verified the connection speed in Network Utility on a Mac, which displays the maximum link speed. (Note that unless you have reliable Gigabit Ethernet service, you won’t be able to measure if the port is actually performing at full speed.)

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 – just works. 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. Lasuney’s 10-in-1 hub (two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, two HDMI 1.2 ports (4K@30Hz), DisplayPort gigabit ethernet, microSD/SD, USB-C power input) offers a lot for your money, including an unusual mix of not one, but two HDMI ports, and even a DisplayPort. Thanks to ethernet support, the hub can replace many of your wired connections. Power input is rated at 100W in, with about 87W available to the laptop.Example, using a sabrnet USB 3 hub to transfer a 9Gb file SSD to SSD (hub port yo hub port) takes over 9 minutes, while it only takes 15 seconds to transfer to or from the computer.

If you need to keep all your connected devices powered up at the same time as your laptop, the Echo 20’s 150W power supply should suffice but is nowhere near the TS4’s mighty 230W supply.

Tired of switching plugs in and out of sockets or looking for an easier way to connect? Splash out on one of the best USB hubs to buy

Similar to the Sabrent HB-U3CR, the Atolla delivered 1.2 amps at 4.8 volts on our power test and it charged our phone at 4.78 volts and 1.35 watts. The Atolla hub also offered similar performance to other hubs; we detected no slowdowns when copying files with our test SSD. This UGreen unit is another basic USB hub, with four USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 1 ports connecting through a single USB-A connection. Disappointingly, what looks like an aluminium casing turns out to be plastic, which feels a little creaky in comparison to some models, but it’s robust enough for daily desktop or mobile use. The big advantage this one has over similarly priced rivals is a 5V micro-USB input, meaning it can charge devices while in use (without any fast charge support) and run one or more USB SSDs or HDDs – we tried it with one of each without any issues. The only downside? You’ll need to supply your own charger and cable, but it’s hard to grumble at this price. We looked at how SD cards were inserted—you’d be surprised how many don’t work unless they’re inserted upside down! Speed: Most USB hubs operate at standard USB 3.0 (aka USB 3.2 Gen 1) speeds of 5 Gbps. However, a few can deliver 10 Gbps. There are also some cheapies that are limited to USB 2; avoid those at all costs.

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. I have been using the Sabrent HB-BUP7, the nearly-identical 7-port sibling to the HB-B7C3, as my daily driver for more than a year, and having these buttons is a real game changer. Changing default audio devices in Windows is a royal pain, requiring one to go into the control panel to, for example, make sound come out of your headset instead of your speakers. But with the power switches, I just turn off my USB speaker and turn on the wireless headphone dongle, or vice versa. Power pass-through: All the hubs we considered also have a USB-C port that allows you to plug in your charger without taking up a second port on the computer itself (if it even has a second port). USB-C supports power at up to 100 watts, while laptops take anywhere from 30 watts (for a small machine such as the MacBook Air) to 45 watts (for many midrange laptops, as Chromebooks tend to be) to 97 watts (for the 16-inch MacBook Pro). We’ve found the Power tab in macOS’s System Report to accurately report the wattage of the power source, and in our tests we compared the figures stated there against what each company advertised. All the USB (5x USB-A, 3x USB-C) and Thunderbolt ports (3x TB4) are super fast and offer impressive device charging—at the front, there’s a USB-C port with 20W power. 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.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. 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. Keep in mind that the hub’s power port is for taking power into your laptop, and not outto a phone. But your hub may still be able to charge your phone, with some caveats. A “bus-powered” USB hub connects to your laptop and pulls power from it, which it has share with several devices—and it won’t do it that well. Best of all, you get three display outputs, with a single 4K/60Hz HDMI 2.0, a lower-spec HDMI 1.4 and a 1440p-capable DisplayPort, giving you the option of using two or three screens at the same time. It might have been nice to have a faster 10Gbits/sec Type-C or Type-A port for your storage, but for connecting a laptop to a desktop setup, this is one of the best hubs around. Windows users can add up to three displays, using the two HDMI and one Thunderbolt 4 port. The TB4 port can attach directly to a USB-C monitor or you can buy a USB-C adapter to connect to a DisplayPort or HDMI display. One 8K display can run at 30Hz, or you can have two 4K at 60Hz. Video resolution for up to three displays is dependent on your laptop’s capabilities.