The Mac Mini, you’d think, has an army of ports in comparison to Apple’s laptops. We tend to think of hubs for laptops, such as Apple’s MacBooks, which lack more than one or two USB-C ports and so require a dock to add further devices. This is the only docking station with Qi wireless charging for your iPhone. There’s also no USB-C port, so if your laptop only has the one port then you won’t be able to use this dock along with any other USB-C accessories.
The big downside is that this is very much a desk dock – it won’t function at all unless plugged into the mains, so you can’t use it on the go, meaning it’s more for beefing up your MacBook at your desk. The whole things feels solid but slick, a perfect match for your Apple gear. The main body is aluminium, with a soft fabric and rubber top to keep any charging devices from slipping around. Best of all, the top of the dock is also a 15W wireless Qi charger – above the max charging capacity of the latest iPhones. There are dual USB-A 3.1 ports, along with Gigabit Ethernet and HDMI on the other, and it supports USB-C PD passthrough charging (60W), so it will double as the charger for your MacBook.
If you don’t mind spending a little more, the Symbus Q dock from Moshi offers a lot of functionality in a seriously slick package – it just doesn’t come cheap. Most of the products tested here work with non-Apple USB-C laptops too, but you can read Tech Advisor’s more general roundup of the best USB-C hubs. You can also buy USB-C adapters for the many display standards out there, such as VGA and DVI.
You can certainly use a charger at lower power, but remember that it will power up slower than when using a higher-wattage charger, and if too low your laptop might run out of juice altogether when maxed out on power-hungry apps and devices.
#What is a thunderbolt add in card pro
12in MacBook and MacBook Air charge at 30W the 13in MacBook Pro at 61W, the 15in MacBook Pro at 87W and the 16in MacBook Pro at 96W. Look for hubs that offer passthrough charging, so you can charge your laptop even though you are using up one of the laptop’s USB-C ports.
#What is a thunderbolt add in card portable
Other ports to look for include Gigabit Ethernet for faster wired Internet access (without the flakiness of Wi-Fi), and an SD or microSD card reader for adding inexpensive portable storage to your system.