Brydge Stone Pro Thunderbolt 3 Hub
A rock–solid way to connect and power high–end devices
$239.99 From Brydge, brydge.com
Features SD card, USB–C (out), Ethernet, 3x USB–A, Thunderbolt 3
Stone Pro is the most fully featured of Brydge’s multiport Thunderbolt hubs for compatible Macs. There’s a Thunderbolt 3 cable in the box for connection to your Mac, and a corresponding port marked on the hub. This is because it’s able to directly power your laptop, supplying over 87 watts to charge up to four extra USB devices at the same time. This comes via the meaty wall power supply, which is significantly heavier than the hub itself though it means you don’t need to connect your laptop’s own PSU.
Most ports are on the rear, barring an SD card slot on the side. The wall power port is small despite the power brick being large, which helps to keep the overall size of the device down. There are three USB–A ports which meet the 3.1 specification, with speeds of up to 5GB/second. You also get a single USB–C out which can handle up to 10GB/ second and also carries power, and a Thunderbolt 3 out to go along with the bi– directional Thunderbolt 3 to Mac port for a total of 11 ports.
The fact that USB–C and Thunderbolt 3 use the same connector can be confusing but essentially the difference is that Thunderbolt 3 is capable of faster speeds and higher video output resolutions. This is reflected here: using the Thunderbolt port you can drive a single 5K external monitor at 60Hz, or dual 4K monitors at 60Hz. Using the DisplayPort output allows for single or dual 4K monitors at 60Hz. Finally, there’s a dual–purpose audio and mic mini jack port for connecting headphones, speakers, or a microphone.
THE BOTTOM LINE. A powerful and elegant hub for your portable Mac with much for video and design professionals to like.