A bus powered USB hub connects to a laptop or desktop and draws on the computers power to work. Self-powered USB hubs provide their own supply of power independent of a computer. In most cases, these hubs are powered via an AC adapter to give power to any connected devices rather than from your computer. It can work with various versions of the Pi, and the size of the board is designed to perfectly fit the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 / Zero W / Zero WH. Connection Notes Ethernet, SFP+, 8x USB, power, fan, user, 2x WWAN (if CORE module is inserted), Wi-Fi (on Wi-Fi models) This beast is almost 9 inches long and weighs 1.8 pounds. Every port has a power switch and a bright blue LED indicator. You can turn ports on and off individually, and the light will tell you what’s powered and in use. It’s plug-and-play compatible with PC, Mac, and Linux systems. It has a built-in surge protector to keep all your devices and the hub safe and secure from electrical failures.

Even though two USB-C hubs may have wildly different brand names, you may sometimes find that they’re otherwise identical or just very similar.A USB splitter refers to a simple device that splits a single USB port into multiple ports, allowing you to connect multiple devices simultaneously. This type of splitter doesn't typically have its own power source and relies on the power provided by the connected computer or laptop. USB splitters are often used for basic connectivity needs and may have limitations in terms of power distribution and data transfer speeds. Essentially, it's a tiny, super-fast connector that many of the best laptops today have a connector for, with the only downside being that USB A or USB B connectors can't be used with a USB Type-C port (that's where a USB Type-C hub comes in handy). Upstream connection (Type-A or Type-C?): USB hubs have multiple downstream ports to connect to your devices but only one upstream connector, which could be a port but is often a built-in wire that connects to your computer. Many laptops, including a lot of the best Ultrabooks, only have USB-C ports, so your hub's upstream connector would have to be Type-C. We conducted standardized tests to transfer a file from the SSD to the laptop; from the hard drive to the SSD; and then from an SD card to the PC, while simultaneously transferring files from the hard drive to the SSD. In some cases we used AJA’s System Tool app to run read and write tests on connected drives. In almost all cases, the performance was identical, with a spread of about 3 percent—good news for you, as that’s one less thing to worry about.

The majority of USB hubs are plug in and play and do not require any software to use them. Once the hub is connected, users can attach a range of accessories, such as: a mouse, keyboard, webcam, external hard drive, printer, and more, depending on how many ports the hub provides. If you're in the market for a simplistic USB C hub that does everything you need, look no further than the Anker 341 USB C 7-in-1. This model has all the ports most people require for daily use without extras that you'll never use. It's small and portable, so you can toss it in your laptop bag. It even comes with its own fabric pouch to protect it in your bag. It has two USB C ports, two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, as well as a Micro SD and SD card reader. We found this was just the right amount of ports for most people — enough to connect an average amount of tech. Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

We also connected an Android phone to the ports and recorded how many volts and amps it received. The phone charging test was probably the most realistic as it showed what kind of volts and amps a real device would negotiate with the hub. We looked at how SD cards were inserted—you’d be surprised how many don’t work unless they’re inserted upside down!

Still, for Windows laptops, MacBook, and Chromebook users who only need a couple of reliable ports, this makes it onto our list of best USB-C hubs. It's capable of outputting to dual 4K displays (or a single 5K display), has 10 GB/s USB 3.1 Gen. 2 capability, and can charge Thunderbolt 3 laptops with 85W power delivery. It's also designed to be used horizontally or vertically to better accommodate different setups. Unlike cheaper hubs, it supports a full 60Hz refresh rate over HDMI, while there’s a Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 port for when you need a physical network connection. The Type-C and Type-A connections could be faster, with our SSD speeds limited to around 458MB/sec, but this is a great, fully featured hub that’s still affordable and – most importantly – it just works. All MacBooks and many of the best Ultrabooks come with only USB-C ports, and just a couple of them. That’s why there are so many portable USB hubs that connect to a computer via a built-in USB-C cable and then provide a few Type-A ports, along with some extra goodies such as an HDMI out or a card reader. Anker’s PowerExpand 4-in-1 USB-C hub has one whiz-bang feature we haven’t seen anywhere else, and that’s a built-in 256GB SSD. Sabrent's HB-U3CR looks like it was built for MacBooks, thanks to a gunmetal gray aluminum chassis and a stylish, slanted design that will prop it up at an insertion-friendly angle on any table. However, it's an equally strong choice for use with a PC laptop that has USB-C ports and needs a few USB Type-A connections.The HAT does not use the GPIO pins, the connector is simply used to pass the pins through for usage.