Anker 553 8-in-1 USB-C Hub

My wife and I both work remote half the week and in office half the week. She is provided one dock for laptop and she keeps that one at work. When she is at home, she needed a way to connect her laptop to the dual monitors in her home office without having to lug around the dock back and forth from work… since the concept of a dock is to leave it on the desk and take the laptop. I got her this one because she needed a cheap dock alternative. This connects to the laptop via USBC connection, and has 2 HDMI outputs for monitors and 2 USB ports for mouse and keyboard. What is especially nice about this one is that it allows her to use both attached monitors as individual extensions of her desktop (windows based laptop). Many other monitor splitters will only duplicate the additional displays, this one (because it connects via USBC) can handle the monitors all individually. It works great, and needs no additional power, it gets power from the USBC plug. If your laptop only has 1 USBC port and needs that one to charge the laptop, you will have an issue, but if you have 2 USBC ports and one is for charging and the other for this adapter, you are good to go. If you have a proprietary charging port and a single USBC plug, then you are good to go because the laptop is not charging from the USBC port.
This was worth the purchase, and I have used a lot of Anker products both at home and at work. It worked instantly and didn’t require any extra setup.

If you have never used multiple displays, you may have to right click on your desktop, choose Display Settings, and arrange the displays to be in the correct alignment so when you drag from one to the other you are going to the right monitor. If you click “Identify”, the monitors will display what Number the computer has labeled them, and you can tell the laptop what order that you have them on your physical desk by dragging the labeled display on screen to the right spot. You can rearrange them how you like, you can even offset the laptop if it sets lower on the desk than your monitors so that the drag to the other monitors actually flows realistically.

This is a fantastic adapter. I have used a competitors adapter for my MacBook pro for years, and have burned through about an adapter a year for some reason or another. I have had this one almost a year now and its going strong, and is loaded with features compared to my old adapters. Sd card slots, both standard and mini, work fantastic and read quickly, HDMI out works on multiple monitor/tv set ups and the charging port seems to charge just as fast as my MacBooks onboard port, despite me having all of the other accessories running. Will be continuing to look at Anker accessories after this one, couldn’t be happier with this adapters performance!

* UPDATE *
Anker contacted me with resolution options to replace or refund. I have to say, I’d definitely recommend Anker products even though this particular one didn’t work out for me when I purchased it. We have many Anker products in our household and will continue choose Anker over other brands. I’m boosting my rating from 3 to 5 stars based on the outstanding customer service to ensure I was satisfied.

I bought this because my work issued Dell has no ethernet jack and only one USB. Not very helpful when I have a wireless usb mouse, usb keyboard, and usb headset to use. Unfortunately the USBC does not power my 10 key. The USB headset doesn’t not perform well with this either. The only one that worked well was the mouse. The ethernet has been hit or miss. The most concerning is how hot it runs. Since I need it intermittently I’ve missed the return window.

This dock has 2 HDMI ports, 2 USB 3 ports, and an Ethernet port. It has a USB C power input and a USB C connection to a PC. Only a single USB C connection to the PC is needed for power and all the signals which makes it ideal for connecting and disconnecting a laptop where it uses all the ports (I.e. Dual Displays, Ethernet, Wireless Mouse and Keyboard). The dock has a power feed through functionality but my laptop complains it needs more power to charge rapidly as the dock must take some out. It still charges but maybe the CPU does not operate at full speed. One aspect of docks I have come across is the USB ports don’t always work until Windows has started up so the dock has to be unplugged and plugged back in. This appears to be the case. The USB C cable to the PC can be extended by means of an extension cable if required.

Works like a charm. Compact and allows for easy hookup