At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Excellent efficiency
• Great worth for the cash
• Optimized construct
• Completely secure

Cons

• Short, built-in wire
• You’ll want your personal energy provide/charger
• Requires a comparatively fashionable laptop computer

Our Verdict

The Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station actually does all the pieces you’d need in a docking station, with some quirks that don’t actually stand in its approach.

Price When Reviewed

129.99

Best Prices Today: Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station

$129.99

Is it a USB-C docking station? Is it a dongle? The Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station tends extra towards the latter, nevertheless it’s an indication of issues to return: shrinking sizes, however with extra highly effective capabilities.

This dock (hub?) contains three show ports, all providing 4K show capabilities (two at 60Hz, and a 3rd at 30Hz). However, the USB-C wire is constructed into the dock itself, and also you’ll want to produce your personal (USB-C) energy wire to route by it.

Neither Ugreen nor Windows Task Manager recognized it as a DisplayLink dock, which suggests that it might be utilizing a generic type of compression often called HBR3 (High Bit Rate 3) with DSC (Display Stream Compression), which is constructed into the DisplayPort spec. That’s a little bit of an issue: As Dell has noted previously, most Eleventh-gen Intel Core and newer PCs ought to help this know-how, and thus this dock. But it’s not one hundred pc assured.

However, this dock offers just about the entire capabilities of a extra highly effective, costlier Thunderbolt dock, however at an enormously cheaper worth. We’ve used this evaluation to tell our roundup of the best USB-C hubs and dongles.

Ugreen manufactures some very fascinating USB-C {hardware}, however its attain is proscribed: You can buy it from Amazon and that’s about it. American consumers can’t even buy this dock from Ugreen itself, because it solely provides the product through its European web site. And then there’s the title: While Ugreen calls it the Revodok Pro, on the field it’s known as the USB-C Hub Multiple Display Adapter, or the 13-in-1 USB-C Multifunction Adapter, or the CM681. (If you’re in search of different procuring websites, seek for “Ugreen 15978,” its mannequin quantity.) It seems to be an up to date, extra compact model of the Ugreen CM655 USB-C dock, which I actually appreciated however now appears to solely be obtainable from Ugreen instantly.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The worth, although, is intriguing, and so is the dimensions: 6.5 inches by 2.75 inches by about 0.75 inches thick, which is an inch or two longer and wider than what I’d affiliate with a standard dongle. At about 0.7 kilos, although, it’s nonetheless comparatively gentle. If you journey with transportable shows or have two ready at your vacation spot, I’d undoubtedly contemplate this dock to be a journey possibility.

Specifically, the Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station contains an SD/microSD 3.0 slot on one facet, subsequent to a 3.5mm audio jack, alongside three USB-A ports (two supporting 10Gbps, and one 5Gbps). There’s a 10Gbps USB-C port, as nicely.

On the opposite facet, the Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station contains the enter port on your USB-C charger, able to accepting 100W into the dock itself. Then there are two unspecified HDMI ports and a DisplayPort, able to DP1.4. Gigabit Ethernet and one other 5Gbps USB-A port spherical out the port choice. None of them, it ought to be famous, are rated for powering a smartphone; that’s one concession most of these unpowered docks make.

The different concession is the brief, docked (although braided) wire, which is about 9.5 inches lengthy. If the wire isn’t lengthy sufficient to stretch to your laptop computer, or within the unlikely chance the USB-C connection wears out or will get bent, you’ll want to interchange all the dock. On my desk setup, the place I perch my laptop computer on a keyboard tray, the brief wire size undoubtedly required that I place the dock at a clumsy angle.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station efficiency

In a phrase, efficiency was wonderful — save for the charging. The dock provided simply 1.45W out of the USB-C port and a pair of.5W out of the USB-A ports — that ought to be sufficient to energy most if not all peripheral gadgets. (Windows failed to acknowledge an exterior spinning laborious drive on one event, nevertheless it labored each different time.) Smartphones, although, will simply trickle cost.

I used a charger rated at 100W to energy my check laptop computer, and 72W was transferred to the laptop computer after going by the Ugreen dock. That may be an issue with some laptops whose chargers don’t present a bit further charging oomph to accommodate a dock like this. (My Thunderbolt-equipped check laptop computer generated sufficient energy by the Thunderbolt port to maintain the dock powered up with out an exterior charger.) Thought the dock is made from plastic, I observed no thermal points.

I observed no anomalies when connecting to Ethernet, although I used to be pleased my RJ45 cable clipped in, due to the dock’s brief cable. There had been no audio glitches. There had been no glitches in any respect in connecting to or disconnecting from exterior shows, both — the soundness was wonderful.

Weirdly, USB-C/DisplayHyperlink docks persistently outperform Thunderbolt docks in my storage checks, and the Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station was in step with that: 145MB/s on a related SSD, versus 130MB/s or so for the typical Thunderbolt dock. Streaming efficiency throughout Ethernet was terrific, with an imperceptible 9 out of 10,000 frames dropped. The dock carried out principally the identical even whereas my storage check was carried out within the background. Copying a 30GB folder with a bunch of multimedia recordsdata and different paperwork from the SSD by the dock to my laptop computer accomplished in a few minute, which is common.

The dock is proscribed to 60Hz at 4K decision, nonetheless. While I don’t have an 8K monitor to check, our 4K check show does permit as much as 144Hz resolutions. However, unplugging the second 4K show, leaving solely the only 144Hz 4K show, didn’t permit for greater than 60Hz.

Should you purchase the Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station?

The Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station does have some caveats, after all: the dearth of an influence provide, the brief wire, and the dearth of widespread availability. But I’ve been impressed with different Ugreen {hardware}, and the optimized construct and worth are actual pluses. I undoubtedly suggest it.