7 Port Mini Dock—Plugable’s 7-in-1 mini docking station for Windows and Mac packs in 2x HDMI, USB-A and USB-C, 82W pass-through charging, Gigabit ethernet, and an SD card slot. And it’s small and sturdy enough to take on the road
Dual 4K—This USB C to HDMI Hub uses DisplayLink to deliver 2x 4K 60Hz extended HDMI displays for an incredibly clear picture and without the need for special video capabilities from your laptop. It’s worth noting that a driver download is required (automatic on Windows)
100W Charging—For systems that can charge via USB-C, plug your laptop’s USB-C power adapter directly into the USB-C dock for charging (accepts up to 100W from a power adapter-82W pass-through). Compatible with the same 45W to 100W USB-C power supplies provided with the laptop
Compatibility—For Windows 10+, macOS 11+ computers w/USB-C, Thunderbolt 3 / 4, USB4. Ideal for web and productivity apps like Google Docs, Office. Not for gaming, graphics-intensive or design work. No support of HDCP-protected content like Netflix
2-Year Coverage, Lifetime Support—Every Plugable product, including this 7-in-1 USB C docking station, is covered against defects for 2 years and comes with lifetime support. If you ever have questions, contact our North American-based team - even before purchase
At first glance, you might think our USB-C Dual HDMI Docking Station (USBC-6950PDZ) is just a simple USB-C hub for adding more ports. It’s certainly small enough. And, if you had the need, you’d no doubt appreciate that it’s every bit as travel-ready as a hub.
But this dock is more than a slim profile, it’s a complete desktop experience. Consider the Dual 4K HDMI ports. Because they don’t require any special video features or capabilities from your computer to work, they can support two displays even on a USB-C port that might otherwise not have supported any. And users can keep expanding by connecting to the Gigabit Ethernet, high-speed USB ports with charging, and SD slot.
Dual 4K
There’s a lot of big talk about the USBC-6950PDZ’s slim size, but the first feature to focus on should be its HDMI ports. With this HDMI hub, extend your display across two monitors with resolutions up to 4K60Hz.
For this docking station, we used DisplayLink Technology. That means you can connect two monitors to your fully-featured modern USB-C enabled laptop computer with Windows or macOS - including Apple Silicon M1 / M2 / M3 MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.
Just a heads up, you will need to download the DisplayLink Manager application to get full functionality for macOS devices. On Windows machines, the required driver will download automatically through Windows Update (or get the latest version available through our website). DisplayLink installation requires administrative permissions, for computers provided by your employer or school we recommend contacting your technical support team to ensure DisplayLink software may be installed.
The Power to Power Through
A somewhat unique approach to powering a docking station, the USBC-6950PDZ doesn’t have its own power supply. Instead, it uses the USB-C power cord that came with your laptop.
The docking station takes advantage of USB-C pass-through charging, here's how it works: find your laptop’s power cord, plug it into the marked port on the USBC-6950PDZ, and now plug the docking station into your laptop.
The dock will support up to a 100W power adapter, reserving up to 18W for itself. So if you have a 100W adapter, your computer will receive 82W of power—more than enough to keep you going all day. However, the computer may charge slower through the docking station than when directly connected to the power supply.
Travel-Ready
This particular unit is a dual monitor docking station that happens to be slim, and incredibly portable.
Not everyone will need to take their dock with them on the road, or to their hybrid office. And for those folks, the USBC-6950PDZ is remarkable for packing a full feature set into such a small footprint.
But, for those who do need to take it with them, this sturdy little dock is ready. And, because it uses the laptop power adapter you’re already carrying, it saves the weight and space of a second power brick.
Portable DisplayLink based docking stations, like this, are designed to expand a computer beyond its built-in limitations, allowing more displays to be connected and utilized by the computer. The DisplayLink software achieves this by emulating graphics hardware, this is great for office and light web-browsing applications, however 2D or 3D graphics applications, full screen video playback, video editing software, and games may not work as expected and are not recommended for use with this docking station.
Due to potential performance and software compatibility limitations we recommend fully updating the host computer's operating system, software, and drivers; this helps to reduce the potential for unexpected disconnections and poor performance. Driver updates may be found on the computer manufacturer's website, or directly from the component manufacturer (for example Intel Graphics Drivers can be downloaded from the computer manufacturer or from Intel).
Modes of Operation
The USBC-6950PDZ USB-C Portable Docking Station has two modes of operating: PD Passthrough Mode and Bus Mode. The docking station automatically enters PD Passthrough Mode when a USB-C power supply is connected, in this mode some of the USB-C power supply's potential output is reserved by the docking station, the remainder is passed to the computer. The docking station enters Bus Mode when connected to the host computer without a USB-C power supply connected to the docking station. In Bus Mode the computer powers the docking station and connected devices.
While the docking station is in PD Passthrough Mode all USB ports and connected devices will receive full power, however when in Bus Mode connected USB devices may receive limited power from the host computer, this may cause some USB devices to function correctly in PD Passthrough Mode, but not in Bus Mode, for example USB hard drives, or USB NVMe storage. We do not recommend connecting devices to this docking station for charging such as phones, or tablets. Additionally while the docking station is in Bus Mode most computers will continue to power the docking station even while powered off, this can cause the battery to discharge over extended periods and we recommend disconnecting the docking station from the host computer while not active and in Bus Mode.
MacOS users, please click here for additional compatibility notes with DisplayLink and macOS.
CPU/APU:
Intel Core i5 6th Generation or newer at 2.4+GHz
AMD Ryzen 5 series or newer at 2.4+GHz
Apple Silicon M1 / M2 / M3 (M1 Pro/Max, M2 Pro/Max, M3 Pro/Max) from 2020 onward
Apple Silicon systems may not detect a connected docking station on startup or after restart, we recommend unplugging the docking station from the computer before powering on or restarting the computer and reconnecting the docking station after the logon screen is displayed on the built-in display, we have a KB article here with some addition details.
1366x768 resolution is not supported on either DisplayLink controlled HDMI port
Charging Support:
We recommend this docking station for use with computers that include a USB-C power supply rated from 45W to 100W
Computers with power supplies rated below 45W may not be able to charge from the docking station, a seaprate USB-C power supply rated at 60W can be used to replace the manufacturer's original USB-C power supply, for example our USB-C 60W power supply
Currently unsupported configurations and features
All operating systems:
Computer Gaming: most 2D and 3D games require hardware graphics acceleration which is not supported by the DisplayLink Graphics software, games may not launch correctly with the docking station connected to the computer
2D or 3D Graphics Applications: These applications often rely on hardware graphics acceleration not supported by the DisplayLink Graphics software, these applications may have reduced performance, capabilities, or compatibility when the docking station is connected
Night shift, Night light, and other blue light reduction applications are not compatible with the DisplayLink controlled displays
HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is not supported on DisplayLink controlled displays
Apple macOS:
Apple Silicon host computers may fail to detect this docking station after a system restart or when powering on the computer with the docking station detected, we speak to this issue more here.
Display Rotation on DisplayLink controlled port-pairs 2 and 3 requires DisplayLink Manager 1.6 or newer and macOS 12.2 or newer, display rotation is not supported on macOS 10.15.6-7
Night Shift on DisplayLink controlled port-pairs 2 and 3 is not supported at this time.
Display color calibration on DisplayLink controlled port-pairs 2 and 3 is not supported at this time.
HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is not supported, while this docking station is connected to the computer HDCP content will not play on any displays (including the built-in display or displays connected directly to the computer)
HiDPI resolutions (Retina) is not supported with DisplayLink controlled displays. 4K UHD (3840x2160) displays will be limited to either 4K native resolution or 1080P (1920x1080) resolution without Retina scaling.
Windows 11, Windows 10:
Night light on DisplayLink controlled port-pairs 2 and 3 is not supported at this time.
Display color calibration on DisplayLink controlled port-pairs 2 and 3 is not supported at this time.
Linux:
While we try to support Linux with as many of our products as possible, we do not recommend our DisplayLink based docking stations with Linux at this time.
ChromeOS/ChromeBooks:
While we try to support ChromeOS with as many of our products as possible, USB display support and performance in ChromeOS is not yet in a place where we can recommend using this docking station with ChromeOS based systems.
Incompatible devices - we recommend against using these devices with this docking station
BlackMagicDesign Atem HDMI switchers
These have been reported to cause the docking station to fail to detect correctly with Apple Silicon host computers
This docking station is recommended for office and web browsing uses, it is not recommended for video production workflows
Corsair elgato Stream Deck devices
These have been reported to not function correctly when connected to the docking station, or to cause USB connectivity problems for other devices when connected to the docking station
Some users have reported normal behavior by connecting the Stream Deck directly to the host computer, however this has not resolved issues for all users
1 Not all computers with USB-C ports support both USB Power Delivery, most desktop computers will provide less power than is required for this docking station to be fully functional. Many notebooks (laptops) do not support USB PD, or may not support either. Please feel free to contact our support team and we will be happy to help determine if your laptop is compatible with this docking station.
Using the USB cable provided with the graphics adapter, connect the graphics adapter to the computer through the graphics adapter's host USB port labelled with a Laptop icon .
Using the USB cable provided with the graphics adapter, connect the graphics adapter to the computer through the graphics adapter's host USB port labelled with a Laptop icon .
macOS users, please click the 'INFO' button in the table below for important installation instructions.
Platform
Important Notes
Date
Version and Download
Windows 11 and 10
Drivers will typically install automatically through Windows Update.
See the following article for more information about installing the DisplayLink driver.