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. 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.

best USB Type-C hubs in 2023 | Laptop Mag The best USB Type-C hubs in 2023 | Laptop Mag

HDMI: A hub can be very useful at a desk, especially if you want to hook your computer up to an external monitor. We connected each of the hubs via HDMI to a Philips 272P7VUBNB/27 monitor with the resolution set to 4K, and we used the Blur Busters UFO Motion Test to confirm the refresh rate. Most hubs support only a 30 Hz refresh rate (the image refreshes 30 times a second) at 4K resolution, but a handful now support a smoother 60 Hz rate, and we prefer those hubs that do. The existing USB 3.1 can transfer data at up to 10 gigabits per second using two lanes (5Gbps per lane), but the new USB 3.2 tech aims to double that to 20Gbps, or 2GB/sec, by allowing for 10Gbps per lane.USB 3.2 has arrived, but what on earth does that mean? Allow us to explain the ins and outs of this new USB standard.

USB 3.2 | USB-IF USB 3.2 | USB-IF

Still, for Windows laptops, MacBook, and Chromebook users who only need a couple of reliable ports, this makes it onto our list of best USB-C hubs.

Put simply, then,USB 3.2 refers to how data is sent across cables, while USB-C technology is a physical specification that dictates the appearance of plugs and wires. USB 3.2 – What’s new? Just to make things even more confusing, so far we’ve had USB 3.1 gen.1 which unfortunately ran at the same speed as USB 3.0 – the standard used by the previous USB A cables.