AUKEY and other manufacturers have really started to flourish with companies offering USB-C ports – and some with only USB-C ports. And that is by creating dongles for these products, or hubs if you want to be technically correct. There are many of hubs out there already, some of them look really nice and blend in with the design of certain laptops, and then there are others that offer plenty of ports. This one from AUKEY is the latter of the two. It’s a great looking hub, that’s made of aluminum, but it has plenty of ports available, in fact just about everything you need is here except for a SD card slot. We’ve been using it for a few weeks, in our everyday workflow, so let’s talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of this USB-C hub.
This hub has a VGA port, HDMI, ethernet, two USB-A and a USB-C port available. Now for my workflow, I’ve used it plugged into my MacBook Pro (it will work with Chromebook’s like the Samsung Chromebook Pro and the Google Chromebook Pixel that have just a USB-C port), with a monitor plugged into the HDMI port, a webcam plugged into one of the USB-A ports and then the charger plugged into the USB-C port. So it has everything I need, plus a few extras, which is nice to have. Because you never know when you may need to use that second USB-A port, or the ethernet port. While most monitors don’t use VGA anymore, it’s great that AUKEY did still include it, as not everyone has a modern monitor – although most do.
As expected, there’s really no setup here with this hub. You just plug things in and it works, and that’s how it should be. There’s a pretty short cable that is connected to the hub, so the hub isn’t just sitting attached to your computer, but it’s not quite long enough to hide the hub. Which for those that hate seeing cables, that might be a disadvantage for this USB-C hub. What I would like to see from AUKEY in this hub, is a way to fold the USB-C cable along the side, so that it looks more tidy when you toss it into your travel bag. Other than that, it does everything you can expect. The USB-A ports are even USB 3.0, so that you are getting high-speed data transfers when you need them, and that’s always a good thing.
AUKEY’s USB-C Hub is a great pickup for anyone that has just bought a new laptop that has USB-C only, or very limited ports. Now, it does not have a SD card slot, which is unfortunate, and that’s the only thing missing for me, with this one. But for everyone else, this is basically perfect. Laptops like the Samsung Chromebook Plus or Chromebook Pro do offer a SD card slot, so if you did pick up either of those, this will work just fine. This is universal, so it will work with Chromebooks, PC’s and Macs. We did test it on a Chromebook and a Mac during the review process and it worked great on both. The price for this hub is pretty substantial. We’re looking at a price of $79.99 right now on Amazon. That’s actually about the price you’d see from other companies for a comparable USB-C hub, so it’s tough to say it’s too expensive. It’s likely expensive because USB-C is still a new technology, and therefore costs a bit to actually add it into products. You can pick up the AUKEY USB-C Hub from Amazon using the link below, and it is eligible for Amazon Prime.
For a limited time only, AUKEY is offering up a 19% discount on this USB-C Hub (as well as other AUKEY products) when you use the promo code AUKEYBB2 that brings the price down to $65. Make sure you purchase from AUKEY Direct and not a third-party seller, or this code won’t work.
Buy the AUKEY USB-C Hub
