Plugable UD-6950PDH USB-C Dual 4K dock evaluate: Reasonably priced power

Best Prices Today: Plugable USB-C Dual 4K Display Horizontal Docking Station (UD-6950PDH)

Plugable’s USB-C Dual 4K HDMI and DisplayPort Display Horizontal Docking Station with 100W Charging (or the UD-6950PDH for brief) falls into the class of a USB-C docking station, a DisplayHyperlink dock that can be utilized with both a Thunderbolt or generic USB-C port. It’s an outstanding worth, with a variety of options for an affordable value that’s consistent with most finances Thunderbolt docks.

Plugable’s UD-6950PDH doesn’t permit the bandwidth for the newest HDMI or DisplayPort interfaces. But the dock preserves what we like about Plugable’s docks: two pairs of non-compulsory DisplayPort and HDMI connections to select from, in addition to 100W of charging power to your laptop computer. One omission, nevertheless, is a devoted charging port for powering a smartphone, or any USB-C port in any respect.

Note: To find out about competing merchandise, what to search for in a Thunderbolt or DisplayHyperlink dock, and get shopping for suggestions, see our roundup of one of the best Thunderbolt docks.

A DisplayHyperlink USB-C docking station makes use of knowledge compression to push knowledge throughout the USB-C interface, approximating the expertise of a way more costly Thunderbolt dock. As such, it’s not plug-and-play, however requires a software program driver that may be simply downloaded from Plugable, after which your laptop will should be restarted. The driver isn’t particular to Plugable, so it’s going to work with different USB-C docks, too.

You in all probability received’t must discover many extra choices. The DisplayHyperlink docks we’ve examined typically present strong connections for workplace work, although the large quantities of information PC gaming requires can affect the dock’s efficiency. Specifically, the UD-6950PDH contains two teams of a DisplayPort 1.2 and an HDMI 1.4 port, one group per show. Plugable additionally contains 5 5Gbps USB-A ports (three on the entrance, two on the again) and each a microSD (supporting as much as MicroSDXC) and an SD slot (supporting as much as SDXC, RSMMC, or MMCPlus). There’s gigabit ethernet, a mic and a headphone jack, in addition to a small blue LED power indicator.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Note that Plugable doesn’t specify a velocity ranking for the SD playing cards, presumably as a result of the switch velocity between your PC will probably be affected by how a lot knowledge is being transferred over the 5Gbps, 3-foot USB-C cable at anybody time. However, utilizing AJA System Test’s storage benchmark on an SDXC UHS-II VP90 card, we discovered that the efficiency on the cardboard mounted contained in the dock (259MB/s learn, 240MB/s write) was comparable or barely higher than inserting the cardboard right into a devoted slot on our laptop computer.

A dearth of power

The downside right here is the exterior power that the Plugable UD-6950PDH offers—or slightly, doesn’t present—to particular person gadgets. The dock powered linked USB mice, keyboards, USB keys, and a pair of 4K shows completely acceptably for day-to-day workplace work, however Windows refused to acknowledge a 10Gbps USB 3.2 exterior SSD when linked to Plugable’s dock as a result of it didn’t provide sufficient power. It labored simply high-quality when powered by its personal, devoted laptop computer port, nevertheless. Given what we noticed in SD switch charges, we conclude that you simply’ll be finest served transferring and modifying images and video instantly on the SD card, or transferring them first to your PC’s SSD or exhausting drive for modifying.

Put one other approach, the USB-A ports provide simply 2.5W, high-quality for powering some peripherals and a few primary (not fast-) charging of smartphones, however that’s all.

You might also see some diminished body charges in video games, because the dock struggles to push sufficient knowledge throughout the bus. (Plugable doesn’t advocate this dock for gaming, both.) Plugable additionally notes that the HDMI 1.4 interface ought to solely be able to powering a 4K30 show, however ours reported a 60Hz connection.

In our video assessments, although, the UD-6950PDH dock carried out properly. We stream a 4K60 YouTube video and examine to see if it drops frames whereas taking part in again. The dock didn’t, both by itself or when pushing a gigabyte of information throughout the bus. The similar held true for taking part in the video over Wi-Fi or the dock’s ethernet. (Technically, it dropped 52 frames out of 10,000 over Wi-Fi, which we think about acceptable, and didn’t produce any noticeable video stuttering.) Netflix performed with out situation.

The $199 (MSRP) price ticket, although, makes this Plugable dock particularly interesting. Many USB-C docking stations that use DisplayHyperlink have been priced within the vary of Thunderbolt docks, and the UD-6950PDH matches throughout the area of interest we’d anticipate it to be: in regards to the value of a finances Thunderbolt dock.

The backside line: in the event you’re shopping for Plugable’s USB-C Dual 4K HDMI and DisplayPort Display Horizontal Docking Station with 100W Charging (UD-6950PDH) for workplace use, we expect you’ll be happy. Just don’t overlook your smartphone charger.