A Technical Demonstration of Our Plugable Thunderbolt 4 Hub (TBT4-HUB3C)

Plugable is happy to announce the Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Hub with 60W Charging (TBT4-HUB3C), a no-compromise solution that delivers three additional downstream Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports to both simplify and streamline the connectivity of any of your USB-C, Thunderbolt 3, USB4, or Thunderbolt 4 devices.

What It Delivers: Thunderbolt 4 builds on the innovation of USB4 and Thunderbolt 3 for a genuinely universal cable connectivity experience. Thunderbolt 4 delivers 40 Gbps speeds and data, video, and power over a single connection.

Where It’s Used?: Apple has recently released the new Apple Silicon Mac M1 model, which features Thunderbolt / USB 4, so we decided to put the M1 MacBook Pro to the test with our new TBT4-HUB3C Hub.

The TBT4-HUB3C has the capability to charge laptops and tablets with up to 60W of power.

Before I started connecting all our USB Devices, I decided to put the Hub's Power Delivery to the test using Plugable's USB-C Voltage and Amperage Meter (USBC-VAMETER).

Using this Voltage meter I was able confirm that the Hub is able to reach between 55w-60w of power, having no issues keeping the M1 MacBook Charged.

In our next test, we connected a Corprit USB-C powered monitor with a Corsair M65 USB Mouse and Keytron Mechanical Keyboard.

These devices all worked without issues.

To push this HUB a bit more, I wanted to see the behavior of the HUB from a cold boot. I was particularly interested in this test because, in the past, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 3 hubs would not be consistently recognized at startup and at times needs to be reconnected to the system.

This wasn't the case with our TBT4-HUB3C. Our hub allowed all the devices–the Corprit USB-C monitor, mouse and keyboard–to work as expected during a cold boot.

Our TBT4-HUB3C Hub had no problems waking the USB-C powered monitor and USB Devices from sleep with a simple mouse click.

Unlimited Expansion

Thunderbolt 3 wouldn’t allow multiple USB expansion hubs to connect to more than one thunderbolt dock in the past. Thunderbolt 4 gets past those limitations.

I wanted to test the capabilities of Thunderbolt 4, so I decided to connect our UD-ULTC4K docking station to our TBT4-HUB3C hub to really maximize Thunderbolt 4.

This test shows our TBT4-HUB3C connected to the M1 MacBook, a UD-ULTC4K triple display dock, our USBC-HUB7BC, a mouse, keyboard, and flash drive. Yes, all of that is from one port on the TBT4-HUB3C– without ever losing connection to our USB-C monitors.

While connected to the UD-ULTC4K Triple Display Docking Station via our TBT4-HUB3C hub, I was able to connect 2x DP monitors, 1x HDMI monitor using DisplayLink USB graphics, a USB mouse, Keyboard, and a USB-C UR22 MKII Steinberg audio interface.

True 40gbps! In the past, docks or hubs that offered downstream Thunderbolt 3 ports for multiple Thunderbolt 3 connections were non-existent.

We wanted to see the comparison between the 2x Plugable TBT3-NVME1TB SDD’s when connected directly to the M1 MacBook vs when connected to the Plugable TBT4-HUB3C Hub.

When the Plugable TBT3-NVME 1TB SSDs were connected directly to the MacBook, we were able to transfer 410Gb of data between the two drives in about 7 minutes.

Our Black Magic Speed test proved that not only do you get full transfer speeds, but connecting additional devices won't hurt the performance of other connected devices.

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Thunderbolt™ 3, Thunderbolt™ 4, USB Hub, USB Power Delivery, USB-C, USB4

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