Monoprice 13-in-1 Twin HDMI dock overview: A stable contender

This Monoprice docks lands squarely in the course of the messy actuality that’s USB-C {hardware}: quite a few acronyms, ports, and options. What can this Monoprice 13-in-1 Twin-HDMI + DP MST Dock do? A good quantity, although it is determined by your PC.

What the Monoprice 13-in-1 dock’s documentation implies is that you just’ll have the ability to run a pair of 4K shows throughout this USB-C dock. (The “MST” within the product’s title stands for “MultiStream Transport,” which signifies that it may well energy a number of shows.) At an MSRP of $54.99, this would seem to supply a reasonably reasonably priced deal on the planet of USB-C hubs and docks.

Additional studying: This overview informs PCWorld’s roundup of the perfect USB-C hubs and docks.

What Monoprice doesn’t let you know is that this dock’s efficiency will depend upon which laptop computer you personal: The rule of thumb is the newer, the higher. A Microsoft Floor Guide 2 with an Eighth-gen Core chip inside didn’t produce any output over its USB-C port; a number of latest Samsung and Floor laptops with Twelfth-gen and Thirteenth-gen Core chips inside labored nicely, although.

So what’s the perfect you possibly can anticipate? Monoprice’s in-box documentation is complicated, however the precise product web page is considerably clearer: In case you’d like to make use of a single exterior show, you possibly can run it at 4K, 60Hz. (Our exams affirm this.) With two shows you possibly can run one at 4K30, and the opposite at 1080p60. Three shows? All of them should be run at 1080p.

However even on paper, it’s muddier: One HDMI port helps 60Hz; the opposite, 30Hz. Which one? Pull out the documentation. And in actuality, after I related two exterior shows — regardless of the configuration — one displayed 4K30, and the opposite defaulted to 1440p, at 60Hz. That’s higher than anticipated, but it surely’s nonetheless complicated.

Partially, that’s as a result of I had related the shows, through the dock, to my PC’s Thunderbolt port, which makes use of DisplayPort 1.4 as a transport protocol. When you have a PC or a laptop computer with DisplayPort 1.2 (and few folks know in the event that they do, offhand) anticipate even slower speeds. With out your laptop computer’s documentation in hand, you’re rolling the cube.

Get previous that, although, and this Monoprice dock simplifies itself. The dock saves cash by not supplying an influence brick, however attaching your laptop computer’s USB-C charger to the enter port works nice — as much as 100W of energy supply. Simply understand that the dock and any bus-powered gadgets you will have connected will eat up a few of that energy, too.

Mark Hachman / IDG

What ports does the Monoprice 13-in-1 dock embody?

In any other case, there’s a bunch of ports: 5 USB-A ports (three transferring knowledge at 5Gbps, and two at legacy 480Mbps speeds), SD and microSD readers (each transferring knowledge at a poky 104MB/s, or UHS-I speeds), an audio/mic jack, and gigabit Ethernet, plus the HDMI and DisplayPort ports.

Simply keep in mind that all the pieces is being transferred over the 10Gbps USB-C bus, so chances are you’ll discover slowdowns or stuttering when downloading one thing over Ethernet, transferring knowledge on a tough drive, and displaying it on a number of screens. That’s not the dock’s fault.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Monoprice’s dock doesn’t endure from any thermal points; the plastic chassis will get heat, however barely so. It measures 5.5 x 2.2 x 0.65 inches.

This 13-in-1 dock is priced pretty aggressively, too. We’re seeing 8-in-1 docks priced at about $25 to $35, relying on the configuration; the $54.99 feels applicable. That is actually extra of a high-powered dongle than a real USB-C dock, anyway.

Monoprice’s 13-in-1 dock is priced $5 lower than Lasuney’s providing, presently our decide for finest full-featured USB-C hub. We’re going to carry to that decide for now, however the function set may be very comparable between the 2. Ensure you evaluate costs on each that will help you determine.