Scale Your Resolution With Your USB-C Hub

Following lat week’s articles about USB-C connections, I thought I would follow up with the USB-C Hubs people often start looking for when getting a new laptop these days. Most new laptops are coming with more and more USB-C ports replacing the older style USB ones we are used to (or only USB-C, looking at you new Macbooks).

One of the appeals of a hub is if you like to use your laptop as a main computer and plug in your external monitor(s), hard drives, USB keys, power and any other devices you typically use and combine it into a single cable you plug in your laptop and… it works! These are more in the area of docks than hubs but you can achieve a smaller scale result with a hub if your requirements aren’t too high.

One of the big issues with hubs is video resolution. With 4K monitors and certain TVs that can be used as such that are becoming viable options and cheaper, the resolution and refresh rate can be heavily impacted.

Here’s an article that really covers it well: https://www.bigmessowires.com/2019/05/19/explaining-4k-60hz-video-through-usb-c-hub/

The article is a bit dated but has had an update to add to it. In essence, you need to check for DisplayPort 1.4 if you’d like 4K60 and USB 3.1.

Check people’s reviews of hubs and their behaviors if you intend to use the hub and the power delivery. From some reading I have done while researching the topic, I noticed some laptops have a bad reaction to powering the laptop through the hub using power delivery.