When HN users recommended it
1 HN user recommended this in 2022, in 3 comments.
20072026
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
1 HN user recommended this in 2022, in 3 comments.
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
Something that's worked well for me is using "docks" with my laptops.
I'm typing this over a cheap-ish (80€) Chinese thing from Amazon [0], which gives me power, a bunch of USB 3 A ports, one C, gigabit network, HDMI and DisplayPort, and audio in/out (didn't try it). The video is pass-through, as opposed to a DisplayLink chip.
One thing to be aware of, is it requires two USB-C connectors. I've never tried only using one, since the provided cable has a dual-connector. It also looks quite nice, doesn't feel cheap at all.
MS, Dell, HP, Lenovo all sell similar contraptions, but they're much more expensive. At work I have a HP G5, which works well, and uses a single USB-C port.
You can also find cheaper alternatives that only do HDMI.
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[0] https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B09MTTZ36K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_...
> I would be surprised to hear that indeed all the current offerings require wall power, that none can operate off laptop/uplink- I think you are wrong. But perhaps.
Indeed, there are products that don't require wall power. I got a Chinese model [0] off Amazon that does Ethernet + 4K@60 over DP/HDMI (alt-mode, not DisplayLink) and can even drive an external spinning drive, all from the USB connection from the PC. The catch is that it comes with a dual-port cable, meaning it requires two (adjacent!) ports to work. I haven't tried it with a regular cable, so I don't know whether that's a hard requirement. It's also able to do PD pass-through if you connect it to a wall.
One downside is that I've sometimes had the screen go dark for a second, and other people have complained about this on the Amazon page. So it's not clear how reliable this will be in the long run.
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[0] https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B09MTTZ36K
> Edit: USB-C only hubs. Everything I've seen is USB-C to USB-A/HDMI/Ethernet/Audio (though that resolves the above problem if the DAC is decent enough) There _are_ Thunderbolt docks (which this XPS 13 supports) which provide USB-C ports but they're pricey.
Although they're not USB-C only, I have two hubs that expose a USB-C connector (for data, not just PD). One HP USB-C Dock G5 and some random Chinese thing off Amazon [0]. They're both USB, not thunderbolt.
The HP is absurdly expensive, the second one is ok-ish (cost me €80). But they're both quite big, and the HP is heavy, so wouldn't be great to use at, say, a coffee shop.
They both have sound cards and a 3.5 mm jack. The DAC on the Chinese one isn't as good as the one on my HP laptop, but it's decent, no background noise or anything. Haven't tested the HP.
They're both able to power the computer through the USB-C port.
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[0] https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B09MTTZ36K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_...