Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 review: Superb USB-C dock, superb price

Price When Reviewed

129.99

Best Prices Today: Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station

$129.99

Is it a USB-C docking station? Is it a dongle? The Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station tends extra towards the latter, however it’s an indication of issues to come back: shrinking sizes, however with extra highly effective capabilities.

This dock (hub?) contains three show ports, all providing 4K show capabilities (two at 60Hz, and a 3rd at 30Hz). However, the USB-C twine is constructed into the dock itself, and also you’ll want to provide your personal (USB-C) energy twine to route by it.

Neither Ugreen nor Windows Task Manager recognized it as a DisplayLink dock, which suggests that it could be utilizing a generic type of compression often called HBR3 (High Bit Rate 3) with DSC (Display Stream Compression), which is constructed into the DisplayPort spec. That’s a little bit of an issue: As Dell has noted previously, most 11th-gen Intel Core and newer PCs ought to help this know-how, and thus this dock. But it’s not 100 % assured.

However, this dock gives just about all the capabilities of a extra highly effective, costlier Thunderbolt dock, however at an enormously cheaper value. We’ve used this evaluation to tell our roundup of the best USB-C hubs and dongles.

Ugreen manufactures some very attention-grabbing USB-C {hardware}, however its attain is proscribed: You can buy it from Amazon and that’s about it. American patrons can’t even buy this dock from Ugreen itself, because it solely provides the product by way of its European web site. And then there’s the title: While Ugreen calls it the Revodok Pro, on the field it’s known as the USB-C Hub Multiple Display Adapter, or the 13-in-1 USB-C Multifunction Adapter, or the CM681. (If you’re in search of different purchasing websites, seek for “Ugreen 15978,” its mannequin quantity.) It seems to be an up to date, extra compact model of the Ugreen CM655 USB-C dock, which I actually preferred however now appears to solely be out there from Ugreen immediately.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The value, although, is intriguing, and so is the scale: 6.5 inches by 2.75 inches by about 0.75 inches thick, which is an inch or two longer and wider than what I’d affiliate with a conventional dongle. At about 0.7 kilos, although, it’s nonetheless comparatively mild. If you journey with transportable shows or have two ready at your vacation spot, I’d positively think about this dock to be a journey possibility.

Specifically, the Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station contains an SD/microSD 3.0 slot on one aspect, subsequent to a 3.5mm audio jack, alongside three USB-A ports (two supporting 10Gbps, and one 5Gbps). There’s a 10Gbps USB-C port, as properly.

On the opposite aspect, the Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station contains the enter port to your USB-C charger, able to accepting 100W into the dock itself. Then there are two unspecified HDMI ports and a DisplayPort, able to DP1.4. Gigabit Ethernet and one other 5Gbps USB-A port spherical out the port choice. None of them, it needs to be famous, are rated for powering a smartphone; that’s one concession all these unpowered docks make.

The different concession is the brief, docked (although braided) twine, which is about 9.5 inches lengthy. If the twine isn’t lengthy sufficient to stretch to your laptop computer, or within the unlikely risk the USB-C connection wears out or will get bent, you’ll want to exchange the complete dock. On my desk setup, the place I perch my laptop computer on a keyboard tray, the brief twine size positively required that I place the dock at an ungainly angle.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station efficiency

In a phrase, efficiency was wonderful — save for the charging. The dock provided simply 1.45W out of the USB-C port and a couple of.5W out of the USB-A ports — that needs to be sufficient to energy most if not all peripheral units. (Windows failed to acknowledge an exterior spinning laborious drive on one event, however it labored each different time.) Smartphones, although, will simply trickle cost.

I used a charger rated at 100W to energy my take a look at laptop computer, and 72W was transferred to the laptop computer after going by the Ugreen dock. That is likely to be an issue with some laptops whose chargers don’t present just a little additional charging oomph to accommodate a dock like this. (My Thunderbolt-equipped take a look at laptop computer generated sufficient energy by the Thunderbolt port to maintain the dock powered up with out an exterior charger.) Thought the dock is fabricated from plastic, I observed no thermal points.

I observed no anomalies when connecting to Ethernet, although I used to be pleased my RJ45 cable clipped in, due to the dock’s brief cable. There had been no audio glitches. There had been no glitches in any respect in connecting to or disconnecting from exterior shows, both — the steadiness was wonderful.

Weirdly, USB-C/DisplayHyperlink docks constantly outperform Thunderbolt docks in my storage assessments, and the Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station was according to that: 145MB/s on a related SSD, versus 130MB/s or so for the common Thunderbolt dock. Streaming efficiency throughout Ethernet was terrific, with an imperceptible 9 out of 10,000 frames dropped. The dock carried out principally the identical even whereas my storage take a look at was carried out within the background. Copying a 30GB folder with a bunch of multimedia information and different paperwork from the SSD by the dock to my laptop computer accomplished in a couple of minute, which is common.

The dock is proscribed to 60Hz at 4K decision, nonetheless. While I don’t have an 8K monitor to check, our 4K take a look at show does permit as much as 144Hz resolutions. However, unplugging the second 4K show, leaving solely the one 144Hz 4K show, didn’t permit for greater than 60Hz.

Should you purchase the Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station?

The Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station does have some caveats, in fact: the shortage of an influence provide, the brief twine, and the shortage of widespread availability. But I’ve been impressed with different Ugreen {hardware}, and the optimized construct and value are actual pluses. I positively suggest it.