Incredible Hub that does it all!
I wanted to give this hub a thorough review since no one else has. Here’s what I found: For just $54, you get a hub that does it all! It checked every box I needed for my setup. Here are the pros: - HDMI 4K 100Hz locked with an UGREEN 8K HMDI: This is a great feature for those who want to enjoy high-quality video. - USB-C Display Port through Thunderbolt: I have an AMOLED 3K 120Hz Portable Monitor that projects those numbers at different refresh rates. It works great! - Pass-Thru Charging: As long as you have PD Power installed, this hub can charge your 2025 Apple MacBook Air M4 and iPhone 16 Pro Max while all screen mirror from the phone or used as an Extended Display from the MacBook. - Connectivity: I plugged in two SSD’s, one standard HDD, and a 1TB Micro SD card all at once to see how much load it can take. It all worked great! You can check out my attached photos for read/write speeds, which matched my expected speeds. It does get pretty hot, though. If you want to permanently install it somewhere, you’ll need a cooler environment. The ambient temperature was 28 degrees Celsius or 82 degrees Fahrenheit during all the testing. I wanted to see how well it would function in warmer conditions. The surface of the hub, at max port allocations, is super hot. Not to a point where it would burn you, but it is definitely uncomfortable if you held it in your hand for a short duration. Every port except one USB-A was occupied during the entire run. It even printed some labels from my 4x6 Laser printer for shipping while everything was running. I had another USB Hub that couldn’t even print through USB-A and I had to use a dongle. I returned that and tried this Hub instead. Here’s how I’ve been using the Hub: I’ve charged my MacBook Air M4 and powered all my connected devices. I’ve attached photos showing the power consumption statistics at full load. Right now, I’m using the Hub to project to my 16-inch portable monitor through HDMI with the PD power connected. The monitor is powered remotely through my power station. For some reason, the Hub is having trouble connecting to the portable monitor. In the past five minutes, the monitor turns off for a quick second and then keeps playing the movie. Everything is connected smoothly. My internet speed at home is 2,000 MBPs on WiFi 6, so streaming is no problem. My phone is at 90% capacity, so it’s in the trickle charge stage, so it’s not using a lot of power. I switched the cables from HDMI to USB-C from the Hub to the iPhone. It’s still charging the iPhone and powering the monitor. It takes less than two seconds to connect on either the MacBook or the iPhone. I put on another movie from the Hub using USB-C to USB-C, and the video from the Apple TV app is much better. The video hasn’t flickered or lagged, and the quality is still amazing while playing a movie from the HDR library, Avengers Infinity War. I switched the display to an IPS LG 27-inch 2K 240Hz video game monitor, and as of now, there are no issues. The video looks great with the same movie running. This suggests that there’s a small compatibility issue with the Hub interfacing with monitors that can use Thunderbolt and HDMI. To make my 3K portable monitor work with HDMI, I need it to be powered through USB-C. I think it’s having conflicting issues with each other. So, I checked the portable monitor’s user manual to see if there were dedicated ports for it. It doesn’t describe it in words or pictures. I tried switching the power input ports on the monitor from Port 2 and Port 1 and so on, but nothing changed. The intermittent flickering still persisted. So, it seems like the portable display is conflicting with the hub and the iPhone. I switched to a 2025 iPad A16 to see if the issue would repeat itself. As of now, I haven’t seen any problems. It seems the issue is only specific to the iPhone, which is strange. One last thing I tried was removing the PD Power supplying the hub and charging the iPhone. Well, that actually worked! The flickering is gone completely. I knew the issue was somewhere very specific. So, the portable monitor and the hub have problems communicating if the HDMI, PD Power, and the hub is connected to the iPhone, but no issues with the iPad. It’s the phone. I’d like to try the same setup with an Android device, but I don’t have one. Pros: - Gets really hot at max load capacity with all ports allocated. - Negotiating issues between iPhone-Hub-HDMI with the video flickering, intermittently with certain displays that have the ability to do Thunderbolt Display and HDMI. The issue is resolved if PD Power is removed from the hub. Only an issue with the iPhone, but not with the iPad. - The USB-C input/output cable built into the hub is short and not braided. Over time, those cheap cables degrade, especially with the heat and are outdated to today’s standard. Overall, I give this device a 4.5 out of 5-Star Rating. The cons I had for the device could be potential points of failure or even severe points of rapid degradation due to the lack of heatsink/heat dissipation, and the overall perpetual use of the built-in cable, and the negotiating factor, BUT it’s not a deal breaker. During normal use, the hub is warmish and not hot at all. The flicking could be an extremely annoying issue, but it’s a very very specific issue that is easily fixable. I am extremely happy with this Hub! The best part about the Micro SD card input options was the Ethernet capability. If I needed that, I could just buy an RJ-45 to USB-C dongle. But that would be super rare. As a background, I work in IT, specifically in Telecommunications Structural Cabling Installation and Fiber Optics. Read more
