Slim 4-in-1 Type C to USB3.0 Hub (NB1451)

Product Highlights

Distributed by  D.LAB Dezign Laboratories

The best USB-C hubs should have all the ports you desire while still being portable enough to lug around. And of course, it should work well and you should be satisfied with its performance.

Laptops with USB-C ports are now almost ubiquitous, as the world moves away from slower, inflexible USB-A ports to this faster, more versatile connection standard. Some laptops only have USB-C connections—that means a USB-C hub is essential if you want to connect a wired USB-A mouse or keyboard, or an older wired printer. Of course, it’s also a handy way to add an HDMI connection, an SD card slot, or simply more USB ports for storage.

This is the best hub for most people who need to connect a lot of devices at once. It has a great, usable design that most competitors lack: It sports 1 x USB 3.0 + 3 x USB 2.0 data ports, and it’s one of the few multiport USB-A hubs we trust that are still available as USB-C becomes the new standard.

We connected four of our favorite flash drives to the hub and transferred data to them while also charging an iPad on one of the hub’s charging ports. It was just as speedy as the best of the other large hubs we tested—but they all had worse designs in one way or another.

All four of the hub’s ports face sideways to reduce desk clutter, so you won’t have a bunch of USB plugs sticking out in every direction. This hub also kept all our devices connected and charging—we didn’t experience any unexplained disconnections during any of our tests. And the charging ports work even if the hub is connected only to its AC adapter and not to a computer.

This aluminum hub is at the slimmer and lighter end of comparable hubs, as it measures almost 4 inches long, 1½ inches wide, and only about a quarter of an inch at its thickest point. Its 23cm USB-C cable is long enough that you should be able to position the hub as needed, and the cable itself feels sturdy but not so stiff that it’ll be hard to keep it where you want it. At less than 2.2 ounces, the hub is easy to pack and doesn’t weigh you down.