Price When Reviewed

$329.99

Best Prices Today: Ugreen USB-C Triple Display Docking Station

$299.99

The most complicated factor in regards to the Ugreen USB-C Triple Display Docking Station is its title—as a result of, inexplicably, it doesn’t match what’s on the field. Although its engineering is great, whoever orchestrated its advertising and assist wants a talking-to.

Stay with us for a second. On Ugreen’s web site (and Amazon) this dock is named the Ugreen USB-C Triple Display Docking Station (12-in-1), and that’s what we’ve chosen to establish it as. Ugreen’s precise field, nevertheless, labels it because the USB-C Multifunction Docking Station PRO (Model CM555), as proven above. However, a hyperlink inside the CM555’s documentation directs you to the “Triple Display” Ugreen link, which value $329.99 at press time. (Amazon’s worth is a bit much less.) It will get stranger: The Ugreen web site additionally incorporates a “2023 Recommend Docking Station” with a “Christmas discount” within the URL, which seems to be precisely the identical dock—but $90 cheaper.

The driver hyperlink additionally hints at one thing Ugreen doesn’t inform you: that it is a DisplayLink USB-C dock, which makes use of compression software program to facilitate the interface.

This isn’t a nasty factor; as we’ve seen with DisplayHyperlink docks, these can be cheaper, stabler options that provide nearly every little thing {that a} true Thunderbolt dock does. Here, the value pushes into conventional Thunderbolt dock territory, however with mainly all the options of a Thunderbolt dock, and with out needing a Thunderbolt port in your laptop computer — only a extra generic USB-C interface.

This assessment informs our checklist of the best USB-C hubs and dongles, which incorporates shopping for suggestions and recommendation.

Ugreen is a Shenzhen firm, the Chinese startup hub that homes seemingly a whole bunch of small corporations that develop I/O peripherals. As such, generally the businesses have a tendency to chop corners. The drivers are one instance: You’ll must obtain and set up the DisplayHyperlink software program earlier than utilizing the dock, however Ugreen buries point out of it on its product web page and provides it through MediaFire, a third-party internet hosting service. If this provides you the heebie-jeebies, attempt downloading the official DisplayLink drivers from DisplayHyperlink’s homeowners, Synaptics, as an alternative.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Another instance of lower corners is the charger. Ugreen’s Triple Display Docking Station can present as much as 100W to your laptop computer, however you’ll want to offer the charger itself. Virtually all powered docks ship with an influence brick, however this one doesn’t.

With a number of USB-C-powered laptops already across the workplace, this wasn’t an issue. But should you’re working with a gaming laptop computer that makes use of a barrel charger, you’re going to be ticked off if you uncover that you simply’ll must spend money on a USB-C charger, too. On the flip aspect, should you already personal a compact 100W GaaN charger, you win. If you don’t, Amazon bundles the two together for $309.99, which looks as if an honest compromise.

That issues, for the reason that Ugreen USB-C Triple Docking Station is remarkably compact so far as docks go: about 5 inches tall by 2.5 inches deep by about 2 inches vast. The aluminum and plastic body weighs about 0.22 kilos, and doesn’t get overly scorching underneath load. This is an answer that may work on the street, supplied you personal a charger.

On steadiness, although, Ugreen’s dock is a pleasure to work with, from the small pointless (however welcome) energy button and LED on the highest of the unit to assorted variety of ports to work with. On the entrance of the dock, Ugreen consists of each a microSD/TF and a full-sized SD card slot, alongside each a 10Gbps USB-C slot and a 10Gbps USB-A slot. A headphone jack is there, too.

On the rear of the dock, Ugreen consists of two 5Gbps USB-A slots for legacy mice and wired keyboards, the 10Gbps USB-C hyperlink to your laptop computer, and the USB-C charger enter. There are additionally three show ports: a 4K/60Hz-capable HDMI port, a equally configured DisplayPort, and an HDMI port able to 8K at 30Hz. (Ugreen doesn’t present actual specs.)

DisplayHyperlink docks are terrific for productiveness: They’ll energy a pair of 4K shows at an eye-pleasing 60Hz simply tremendous. What they sometimes don’t challenge are any HDR capabilities, even when the show helps them. (Trying to allow HDR brought on one check show to show off.) They additionally don’t sometimes energy high-refresh-rate shows. However, the “8K” port does put out sufficient bandwidth for a 1440p show at 144Hz, Ugreen says, which pushes into gaming eventualities.

Mark Hachman / IDG

How does the Ugreen USB-C Triple Display Dock carry out?

The downside with USB-C docks is that the bandwidth you’ll see could be depending on the dock, your laptop computer’s ports, and the out there GPU—and most distributors don’t trouble breaking that down. On a Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio with Thunderbolt capabilities, Ugreen’s dock drove three separate shows concurrently: the interior laptop computer show, two 4K shows working at 60Hz, and a widescreen 1440p show able to 144Hz, although at solely 100Hz. We discovered that to even be the case for an HP Victus laptop computer with a discrete GPU, a Surface Laptop 4 (Ryzen), and a Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360. (The Surface Laptop Studio and Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 embody Thunderbolt ports; the opposite two laptops don’t.)

Under every state of affairs, the dock carried out very nicely, supplied that the laptops put in the right DisplayHyperlink drivers. (If you don’t, the show output will stutter.) But they’re not miracle employees, both: With the three exterior shows every working 4K streamed movies, the video started “surging”: enjoying video at regular pace, then slowing down a bit, although noticeably. It didn’t ship sufficient energy to entry an exterior SSD, and when streaming video from an exterior onerous drive at the side of the streamed video, every little thing slowed down noticeably.

Still, enjoying all of that again over a normal 10Gbps USB-C connection was a wonderful expertise. Remember that working in Word, Outlook, or in Edge or Chrome will put much less stress on this Ugreen dock, and it ought to carry out even higher.

Ugreen doesn’t particularly name out any of the ports for charging functions, however all the USB-A ports ship 3.7W—not nice, however typical of comparable docks. The front-mounted USB-C port does higher: 7.8W, which is sufficient to cost a smartphone, although not fast-charge it.

Ugreen’s USB-C Triple Display Docking Station undoubtedly has some actually odd quirks, lower corners, and different foibles. It’s additionally fairly costly, too, particularly since it’s a must to provide a charger. We couldn’t discover any guarantee info, both. However, if you will get previous the naming confusion and unearth the right driver, this USB-C dock undoubtedly delivers.