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Well-liked accent firm Satechi gives all kinds of docks and hubs suitable with Apple’s Mac lineup, and I’ve just lately spent a while testing out the corporate’s $150 USB-C Twin Dock Stand that provides a big quantity of connectivity to your Mac whereas remaining tucked out of sight and even giving your laptop computer a bit of additional respiratory room.
Maybe essentially the most noteworthy design side of the USB-C Twin Dock Stand is true within the title, and that is the truth that it serves as a stand to raise your Mac laptop computer on a desk, permitting for further airflow to assist maintain issues cool and giving a pair further inches of peak to the show to deliver it somewhat nearer to eye degree and maybe make for a bit extra snug typing place in the event you’re utilizing your MacBook’s keyboard.
The dock measures proper round 12 inches (30 cm) broad, and its wedge-shaped kind issue sits properly beneath the rear portion of a Mac laptop computer. Rubber ft on the dock assist with stability, and there is a raised rubber ridge on the highest floor of the dock to your Mac to take a seat on with out scratching both the Mac or the dock. Openings on the back and front backside edges of the dock present some air flow for the dock itself, however I did not discover something getting considerably heat.
The dock is essentially constructed of area grey aluminum with a black high, and there is some clear Satechi branding in white on the highest, although all of this shall be basically invisible in the event you’ve received your Mac sitting on high of it. A 7.5-inch built-in twin cable stands out one finish of the dock, terminating in USB-C connectors for hooking the dock as much as your laptop. There is a area grey collar across the two connectors that areas them completely to connect with adjoining USB-C ports on latest Macs with a single movement, or in the event you’ve received a suitable machine with completely different port spacing, the collar can slide again to provide you extra wiggle room with the person connectors.
Many of the dock’s different options are alongside the rear facet, permitting you to route cables out of sight off the again of your desk. Along with a color-coded sliding energy change and a white LED that confirms whether or not the dock has energy, the USB-C Twin Dock Stand contains 9 ports alongside the again facet. There are two USB-C ports (one supporting as much as 10 Gbps and one as much as 5 Gbps), two USB-A ports (equally with one at as much as 10 Gbps and one at as much as 5 Gbps), and a Gigabit Ethernet port in the event you want a wired knowledge connection. For show compatibility, there are two HDMI 2.0 ports every supporting as much as a 4K show at 60Hz, plus a DisplayPort 1.4 port additionally supporting as much as 4K60Hz.
Relying in your Mac, the USB-C Twin Dock Stand can assist as much as two exterior shows, with both each linked by way of HDMI or one by way of HDMI and one by way of DisplayPort. The USB-C ports on the dock don’t assist video, so you may’t join exterior shows by way of that technique. When you’re operating an Apple silicon Mac, you will want one of many higher-level Professional or Max chips to assist twin exterior shows, and when you’ve got a base M1, M2, or M3 chip you will be restricted to at least one exterior show.
Along with Apple silicon Macs, choose Intel-based MacBook Professional and MacBook Air fashions are additionally supported, as are a handful of Home windows machines such because the Microsoft Floor Professional 9 and Floor Laptop computer Studio, Lenovo Yoga 6 and 7i, Samsung Galaxy E book 3 Extremely, and Dell XPS 15.
There’s one remaining port on the rear of the dock, and that is a USB-C port for accepting incoming energy. The dock might be bus-powered from the linked Mac, however efficiency beneath heavy load shall be hampered. Utilizing an exterior energy adapter, which is not supplied within the field however must be available to most customers, the dock can draw as much as round 15 watts whereas offering as much as 75 watts of passthrough energy to the linked Mac, guaranteeing you solely want one connection to your Mac for every part. I used the 140-watt Apple energy adapter that got here with my MacBook Professional, and it supplied all the facility the dock wanted whereas I additionally noticed 69 watts of energy going to my Mac, which was a lot to refuel it shortly and maintain it charged up throughout use.
Past all the rear ports. the USB-C Twin Dock Stand has yet one more trick up its sleeve, and that is a built-in SSD bay, letting you add some exterior storage (offered individually) to your Mac for backups or further cupboard space with out taking on any further bodily area. The enclosure accepts M.2 SATA and NVMe SSDs at as much as 6 Gbps for SATA drives and 10 Gbps for NVMe drives. SSD sizes of 2242, 2260, and 2280 are all supported, and I used a quick 2 TB WD_BLACK NVMe drive in a 2280 measurement for my testing.
Set up was pretty easy, requiring straightforward removing of a canopy on the underside of the dock to entry the drive bay and set up of an adhesive thermal pad to organize for including the SSD. From there, it was only a matter of sliding the SSD into the socket within the bay, urgent it flat, and securing it with the supplied screw and screwdriver. Getting the tiny screw within the correct place down within the drive bay was somewhat little bit of a finicky course of, nevertheless it solely took a few minutes to get every part assembled.
With the SSD put in within the dock, the drive mounts when the dock is linked to the Mac supplying you with straightforward to entry to nonetheless a lot further storage you’ve got added. My testing confirmed write speeds of 975 MB/s and skim speeds of 880 MB/s, and whereas there are actually exterior enclosures on the market that may assist quicker speeds with this drive, the efficiency was fairly strong.
USB ports proved to be a bit extra of a combined bag. The ports on this dock are meant to be primarily for knowledge use, so they do not present important charging capabilities. They provide sufficient energy to assist most low-demand equipment like a thumb drive and even my Stream Deck, however they wrestle extra with higher-power units like bus-powered exterior SSDs. Considered one of my take a look at enclosures labored nice when linked to the 5 Gbps USB-C port on the dock, however my Mac threw up an error about drawing an excessive amount of energy once I linked the enclosure to the ten Gbps USB-C port. So simply remember that whereas this dock offers some good flexibility for USB connectivity, you will not be capable of join high-powered peripherals like Apple’s SuperDrive or shortly recharge an iPhone.
Show connectivity is as you’d anticipate, and I had no points driving a pair of 4K exterior shows in both the twin HDMI or the HDMI/DisplayPort configuration. Shows connected by way of the dock seemed good and I skilled no connectivity glitches. It is value emphasizing that with no assist for USB-C/Thunderbolt shows and a most of 4K supported over HDMI and Thunderbolt, you will not be capable of use higher-resolution shows just like the Apple Studio Show with this dock. However the reputation of 4K choices means many customers will already be utilizing shows that do work.
I did discover that bodily plugging and unplugging a few of the beefier connectors like HDMI and DisplayPort from the dock might be a bit tough because the dock tucked beneath my MacBook Professional tended to slip round a bit, however I received the dangle of stabilizing the dock on its two ends whereas manipulating the connectors. Fortuitously, one of many details of a dock is to permit your whole peripherals to stay linked, so that you should not should be plugging and unplugging each issues very often.
Total, Satechi’s USB-C Twin Dock Stand gives a pleasant set of options for these trying to beef up their MacBook desk setup. It gives sufficient ports to supply some further connectivity, plus the onboard SSD bay is a pleasant inclusion. The dock’s kind issue means it may be tucked cleanly out of the best way whereas additionally providing some minor ergonomic advantages. And whereas it is round a foot lengthy, the truth that it might embody an onboard SSD and runs off of both bus energy or the USB-C energy adapter you in all probability have in your bag already, it is pretty transportable.
The dock is lacking just a few options like assist for USB-C show connections and an SD card reader, but when its characteristic set meets your wants, it is worthy of consideration. Whereas you’ll find some USB-C hubs with twin 4K show assist for much less, $150 actually is not a nasty worth contemplating the additional options this dock brings. Simply bear in mind you will have to spend a bit extra for the SSD to go inside it if you wish to reap the benefits of that characteristic.
The USB-C Twin Dock Stand is on the market instantly from Satechi for $149.99, however B&H Picture has it for $129.99 on the time of this evaluation.
Observe: Satechi supplied MacRumors with the USB-C Twin Dock Stand for the needs of this evaluation. No different compensation was obtained. MacRumors is an affiliate accomplice with Satechi and B&H Picture. Once you click on a hyperlink and make a purchase order, we might obtain a small fee, which helps us maintain the location operating.Tag: Satechi
This text, "Evaluation: Satechi's USB-C Twin Dock Stand Provides an Array of Ports and Even Room for Further Storage to Your MacBook" first appeared on MacRumors.com
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