Jonny Evans takes a short look at some noteworthy USB-C hubs. Of particular note is the HyperDrive kickstarter:
Announced last year, HyperDrive occupies two of your MacBook Pro’s four USB-C slots. In exchange, it provides you with twin USB 3.1 ports, a microSD and an SD slot, a single USB-C port (at 5Gbps), a Thunderbolt 3 port and HDMI video output. You can power two displays at 4K or a single display at 5K with this.
All this for only $69. Seems like a terrific solution, assuming it ships. Here’s the Kickstarter link.
Lol at “only” $69. That is still pretty expensive compared to buying three separate dongles but you do get a more nicely designed product. It will no longer work when they refresh the outer design (because the port spacing would probably be different) but based on past apple refreshes, the hyperdrive will be fine for at least the next 3 years.
I don’t like its sales pitch: “Fastest 50Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 USB-C Hub for MacBook Pro… Unlike most USB-C dongles which still run on slow USB 3.0 (5Gb/s) speed, HyperDrive is 10X faster (50Gb/s) by using not one but two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C connections.”
In truth, its claim comes from replacing 2 Thunderbolt ports, each of which provide 40 Gbps. So 80 Gbps becomes 50 Gbps.
Other hubs replace just 1 Thunderbolt port, some of which do provide 10 Gbps throughput for total 50 Gbps.
This product’s only real benefit is that using 2 ports provide more stability for the dock, but you are paying premium price for such a small benefit. Frankly, you are better off with cable-based hub. I’ve tried HyperDrive’s USB-C and the connection isn’t secure enough for such a large device.
Between this and the OWC DEC ( https://www.owcdigital.com/DEC/ ), one gets the impression that perhaps Apple should have made the thing 1.5 mm thicker and included a USB port and SD card reader. Just a thought.