Head to head: Multiple port USB-C docks
OWC USB-C Travel Dock (2nd Gen)
£99.99 FROM OWC, owcdigital.com FEATURES 5 ports, up to 100W pass-through power
Design
OWC’s Travel Dock is a little chunkier than its Belkin rival, but its rectangular design is still pretty compact, measuring 32mm on each side, 23mm thick, and weighing 170g. We also like the way that the USB-C cable that connects to your Mac folds into the base when not in use.
USB ports
You get two USB 3.1 ports for older accessories, and one USB-C port. However, the USB-C port is only for passthrough power, so storage devices and Time Machine back-ups only work via its USB 3.1 ports.
Power and charging
It’s a shame that the USB-C port on the Travel Dock doesn’t support data connections for storage devices. However, this second-gen model does provide an impressive 100W power output for charging a laptop.
Extra features
Like Belkin, OWC also includes an SD card slot so that you can quickly transfer photos from a camera when you’re out and about with your laptop. It has the same HDMI connector too, supporting up to 4K displays at 30Hz. There’s no Ethernet, though, which might be a deal-breaker.
Belkin USB-C Multimedia Hub
£89.99 FROM Belkin, belkin.com
FEATURES 6 ports, up to 60W pass-through power
Design
Belkin’s compact USB-C Multimedia Hub is well suited for travelling with a laptop. It’s just 16mm thick, 5.2mm wide and 12.2cm long, and weighs 118g, so it’s easy to carry around. The USB-C cable that connects to your Mac is 16cm long, but doesn’t get in the way too much.
USB ports
This dock also provides two USB 3.1 ports for printers, hard drives and so on. The single USB-C port is primarily designed for charging your laptop, but can be used to connect USB-C storage devices.
Power and charging
The USB-C port only provides 60W of power when charging up your laptop. That’s fine for most MacBook models, but the new 16-inch MacBook Pro uses a 96W power supply, so that model may take longer to charge.
Extra features
Belkin’s Multimedia Hub also comes with an SD card slot for transferring photos from a camera, and an HDMI port for connecting an external monitor (up to 4K displays at 30Hz). But Belkin scores with its Gigabit Ethernet port, which will be really useful if you need to use a wired network at home or in an office.