Gadget Review: Mokin USB-C to USB-C & USB-C & USB-C & USB-C & USB-C

You can never have too many USB-C ports, right? It's rubbish having a cheap laptop with only a single USB-C port. So, the good folks at Mokin have sent me a gadget which turns your single and lonely USB-C port into FIVE USB-C ports.

Along the side you get 4 USB-C 3.1 ports which are theoretically capable of 10Gbps in aggregate.

At the bottom is a USB-C 3.0 Power Delivery port which can take up to 100W of power.

There's also an obligatory blue LED to let you know it is working.

Speed

As will all modern hubs, there's nothing to install. Plug it in and it starts working. Copying a large file from a USB 2.0 phone got a respectable 90mbps.

When plugged into ethernet, it got up to 660Mbps - which is about as fast as my broadband goes.

And I don't think I have any faster devices than that to check!

Power

I used my USB-C PD tester. I plugged in a 100W capable charger into the hub's PD socket, and the output into my laptop. The hub passed through about 80% of the power I got when I was plugged in normally. So there is a bit of a hit in the power delivery.

That said, it happily charged the laptop and all the devices attached to it. Even without power attached, the hub drew power from the laptop and charged the gadgets.

It doesn't support "Fast Role Swap". So if you disconnect the power from the hub, your devices will briefly disconnect and reconnect again. Usually not a problem unless you're in the middle of a file transfer.

Downsides

The major issue is that there's no monitor output.

This is a USB 3.1 hub. As I've mentioned before, in order to do video over USB, you need 3.2 capable hubs and cables.

Feel free to supply your own rant about USB-C versions here.

Linux info

This shows up as 05e3:0610 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub and is supported by modern Linux kernels. I tried it on Ubuntu and Android and it worked just fine.

Verdict

You can get this for about £20 on Amazon depending on whether the algorithm likes you or not.

For the price, I think it is excellent. I can't find anything so cheap or slim which does support video. Or has as many ports.

If all you need are a bunch of extra C ports, this is perfect. Speeds are good, power transfer is good, and it works on Windows and Linux flawlessly. If you need video, try Mokin's USB-C Docking Station.

Discount

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Offer expires 2024-03-31