Plugable UD-6950PDH USB-C Dual 4K dock evaluation: Reasonably priced power

Price When Reviewed

$19900

Best Prices Today: Plugable USB-C Dual 4K Display Horizontal Docking Station (UD-6950 PDH)

Plugable’s USB-C Dual 4K HDMI and DisplayPort Display Horizontal Docking Station with 100 W Charging (or the UD-6950 PDH for brief) falls under the classification of a USB-C docking station, a DisplayLink dock that can be utilized with either a Thunderbolt or generic USB-C port. It’s an exceptional worth, with a large range of functions for a sensible rate that’s in line with a lot of spending plan Thunderbolt docks.

Plugable’s UD-6950 PDH does not enable the bandwidth for the current HDMI or DisplayPort user interfaces. The dock protects what we like about Plugable’s docks: 2 sets of optional DisplayPort and HDMI connections to pick from, as well as 100 W of charging power to your laptop computer. One omission, nevertheless, is a devoted charging port for powering a mobile phone, or any USB-C port at all.

Note: To learn more about completing items, what to search for in a Thunderbolt or DisplayLink dock, and get purchasing suggestions, see our roundup of the finest Thunderbolt docks

A DisplayLink USB-C docking station utilizes information compression to press information throughout the USB-C user interface, estimating the experience of a lot more pricey Thunderbolt dock. It’s not plug-and-play, however needs a software application chauffeur that can be quickly downloaded from Plugable, after which your computer system will require to be rebooted. The chauffeur isn’t particular to Plugable, so it will deal with other USB-C docks, too.

You most likely will not require to check out a lot more alternatives. The DisplayLink docks we’ve evaluated typically offer strong connections for workplace work, though the enormous quantities of information PC video gaming needs can affect the dock’s efficiency. Particularly, the UD-6950 PDH consists of 2 groups of a DisplayPort 1.2 and an HDMI 1.4 port, one group per display screen. Plugable likewise consists of 5 5Gbps USB-A ports (3 on the front, 2 on the back) and both a microSD (supporting approximately MicroSDXC) and an SD slot (supporting approximately SDXC, RSMMC, or MMCPlus). There’s gigabit ethernet, a mic and an earphone jack, along with a little blue LED power sign.

Plugable’s UD-6950 PDH is an attractive option to a Thunderbolt dock for older hardware and uses excellent worth.

Note that Plugable does not define a speed score for the SD cards, perhaps since the transfer speed in between your PC will be impacted by just how much information is being moved over the 5Gbps, 3-foot USB-C cable television at any one time. Utilizing AJA System Test’s storage criteria on an SDXC UHS-II VP90 card, we discovered that the efficiency on the card installed inside the dock (259 MB/s check out, 240 MB/s compose) was equivalent or a little much better than placing the card into a devoted slot on our laptop computer.

A lack of power

The issue here is the external power that the Plugable UD-6950 PDH supplies– or rather, does not offer– to specific gadgets. The dock powered linked USB mice, keyboards, USB secrets, and a set of 4K display screens definitely acceptably for everyday workplace work, however Windows declined to acknowledge a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 external SSD when linked to Plugable’s dock due to the fact that it didn’t provide sufficient power. It worked simply great when powered by its own, devoted laptop computer port. Offered what we saw in SD transfer rates, we conclude that you’ll be best served moving and modifying pictures and video straight on the SD card, or moving them initially to your PC’s SSD or hard disk for modifying.

Put another method, the USB-A ports provide simply 2.5 W, fine for powering some peripherals and some standard (not quickly-) charging of smart devices, however that’s all.

You might likewise see some decreased frame rates in video games, as the dock has a hard time to press enough information throughout the bus. (Plugable does not advise this dock for video gaming, either.) Plugable likewise keeps in mind that the HDMI 1.4 user interface must just can powering a 4K30 display screen, however ours reported a 60 Hz connection.

In our video tests, however, the UD-6950 PDH dock carried out well. We stream a 4K60 YouTube video and examine to see if it drops frames while repeating. The dock didn’t, either by itself or when pressing a gigabyte of information throughout the bus. The exact same been true for playing the video over Wi-Fi or the dock’s ethernet. (Technically, it dropped 52 frames out of 10,000 over Wi-Fi, which we think about appropriate, and didn’t produce any visible video stuttering.) Netflix played without problem.

The $199(MSRP) cost, however, makes this Plugable dock particularly appealing. Numerous USB-C docking stations that utilize DisplayLink have actually been priced in the variety of Thunderbolt docks, and the UD-6950 PDH fits within the specific niche we had actually anticipate it to be: about the rate of a budget plan Thunderbolt dock.

The bottom line: if you’re purchasing Plugable’s USB-C Dual 4K HDMI and DisplayPort Display Horizontal Docking Station with 100 W Charging (UD-6950 PDH) for workplace usage, we believe you’ll be pleased. Simply do not forget your mobile phone battery charger.