USB-C hubs, and whether you need one socket or the whole desk through one cable

A thin laptop has two ports, and one of them is the charger. A USB-C hub is the answer everyone reaches for, and it is the right answer, but the shelf is confusing because every listing is a string of numbers. This guide is about reading the string.

First decide what the hub has to do

There are really three jobs, and a hub does one, two or all three of them.

More sockets. A mouse receiver, a memory stick, a printer cable. Any hub does this, and the cheapest one on the shelf does it as well as the dearest.

A monitor. This is where the numbers start to matter. A hub that says HDMI will drive a screen, but at what resolution and how smoothly is decided by two figures that the title may or may not give you.

Charging through the hub. If the laptop has only one USB-C port and the hub is in it, the charger needs somewhere to go. A hub with a PD socket takes the laptop’s own charger and passes the power through, so the one cable does everything.

Work out which of the three you need before reading a single listing. Most people need the first two. People with a single-port laptop need all three, and for them the PD socket is not optional.

PD 100W is pass-through, not a charger

Every listing here that mentions power says PD and a wattage, usually 100W. It is the most misread line on the shelf.

The hub has no power supply. The PD socket is where your laptop’s existing charger plugs in, and the hub passes that power through to the laptop. The wattage is the most it will pass, not something it provides. Plug a 65W charger into a 100W hub and the laptop gets 65W, less a little that the hub keeps for itself.

That is fine, and it is how all of them work. Just do not buy one expecting a charger in the box, and do not throw away the charger you have.

4K is not a refresh rate

Two of these say 4K@60Hz in the title. Others say 4K and stop. The difference is felt every time you move the mouse.

At 30Hz a desktop monitor shows thirty frames a second, and a cursor moves in visible steps. It is usable for a spreadsheet and unpleasant for anything else. At 60Hz it feels like the laptop’s own screen. Most HDMI hubs at this price manage 4K at 30 or 1080p at 60, and the ones that manage 4K at 60 say so, because it is the thing they have to sell.

If the title gives a resolution with no refresh rate, treat the refresh rate as unpromised, and ask the seller before you rely on it.

HDMI 2.1 is a ceiling, not a guarantee

One hub here states HDMI 2.1, with 8K at 60Hz and 4K at 240Hz in the title. Those are real HDMI 2.1 figures and they are also nearly impossible to reach through a hub.

The hub can only pass what the laptop sends out of its USB-C port. On most laptops that port carries a DisplayPort signal with enough bandwidth for 4K at 60Hz and not much more. Reaching 4K at 240Hz needs a port that supports the newer standards, which in practice means a recent gaming laptop or a machine with Thunderbolt or USB4, and the laptop’s own specification will tell you.

So the HDMI 2.1 hub is the right buy if you already know your laptop can feed it, because the older hubs will cap the screen at 60Hz whatever the monitor can do. It is a waste of money if you do not.

Gigabit Ethernet, the feature nobody asks for

Four of these have a wired network socket, and three of those state Gigabit. For anyone who works from a flat with a shared router, this is the most useful line in the title.

Wi-Fi in a busy building drops and stutters in ways a cable does not. Video calls hold, large downloads finish, and the laptop stops hunting for a signal. If there is a router within cable reach of the desk, a hub with Ethernet is worth choosing over one without, and the extra cost is small.

Gigabit matters because the older 100Mbps sockets are slower than most home broadband is now. If a listing says Ethernet or RJ45 without a speed, ask.

The socket count is padded

“5 in 1”, “8 in 1”, “8/7 in 1”. The number is every hole in the case, and it includes the PD charging port, the SD reader and the TF reader. An 8 in 1 hub might have three USB sockets you would actually plug a device into.

More to the point, the sockets are not all the same. One listing here states three USB 2.0 sockets alongside its HDMI. USB 2.0 is fine for a mouse, a keyboard or a printer. It is not fine for a memory stick or an external drive, where you will notice the difference in minutes. The sockets you want for storage say USB 3.0, 5Gbps or 10Gbps.

Count the sockets by type, not by the number in the title.

The stand-shaped hub

Three of these are laptop stands with the hub built into the base. The electronics are the same as a plain hub. What changes is that the laptop sits at eye level, the cables run out of the back of the stand instead of out of the side of the laptop, and the desk gets tidier.

The folding one states 4K at 60Hz, 100W pass-through and both card readers, which is as complete as any plain hub here. For a small desk or a laptop that lives next to a monitor, it is the version that solves two problems at once.

The trade is that it is not a thing you drop in a bag. If the hub travels with the laptop, buy a plain one.

What the titles do not tell you

None of these listings state a chipset, a certification or a test. The throughput, the wattage and the refresh rate are the seller’s figures. That is normal for this shelf and it is not a reason to avoid it, but it is a reason to read every top figure as an upper limit rather than a promise.

The safe way to buy is to choose by shape and by which sockets are present, and to treat the fastest number in the title as the best case.

What I would actually do

For a laptop that lives on a desk with a monitor and a router nearby, the 5 in 1 with Gigabit Ethernet is the one. Screen, wired network, two proper USB sockets and pass-through charging cover almost everything, and the listing states each of them.

For a gaming laptop with a high refresh monitor, the HDMI 2.1 hub is the only one here that can even try, and it is worth checking the laptop’s port specification before ordering.

For a cramped desk, the folding stand with the hub inside. Same sockets, and the laptop ends up where your eyes are.

If all you need is one more socket and nothing else, any of them will do, and the smallest is the right choice. Buy for the sockets, and keep the charger.