Plugable 13-in-1 USB-C Triple Monitor Dock

I’ve found Plugable products to be reliable, well-engineered devices that deliver what they promise.

I bought this particular unit to expand the ports on my 14″ MacBook Pro. Now, instead of being limited by just two Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C connectors, I have a wealth of useful ports to connect backup drives, external monitors, Ethernet, charging cables for devices, and other USB devices.

If I have one caveat, it’s that, like other devices in its category like the CalDigit TS3 / TS4 Thunderbolt docks, it has a relatively large external power brick which takes a 3-prong IEC power cord – which is good because it’s not another adapter clogging your power bar, but you should plan how and where you want to place it, particularly if you use a sit-stand desk. (Finding an under-desk mounting solution is what I recommend.)

This worked out perfectly for two older HP monitors, my dongles for my keyboard and mouse and the plug to the printer. It also has a port in the front for my thumb drive. Highly recommend for other work from home professionals.

Was a 2-star and changed to a 4-star – purely for commendable customer service. I was offered a replaced device just passed the return period. However, I mentioned that I did replace the device with another one that is working quite well. Plugable honoured a refund when asked, which is something they probably didn’t have to do. What made me come back and add to this review and change the stars is that Plugable accepted an offer I made to them to take the device back to have a look at it. To me, that shows a company is not only interested in addressing reviews, but they went above their obligation to make me more than whole on the transaction and are paying the cost to receive the defective product to look at it – and at their cost. To me that shows an integrity in a company that truly went quite literally above and beyond to make a customer happy, but shows a genuine interest in improving their products.

I don’t have a use right now for a product because I have already replaced it. but when the need arrives from something that they do offer, I will be selecting something that Plugable offers. I miss companies that used to behave this way. I’ve left the rest of review as is, so that people can see.

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So, like the title. This docking station burnt in about 5, 4-hour sessions and about a month after I purchased it.

I had most of the available ports in use and three monitors on the go. Everything has been basically idle for about an hour while I was reading documents and the docking station zapped let out a tiny little, foul smelling, smoke signal. That tripped my monitors and computer, but thankfully everything I had connected, survived without any noticeable damage.

The docking station itself is toast.

This product had a lot of good features that I was looking for, usb3, 100w charging, 3xHDMI (the most important feature I was looking for) and a mid-tier price – which I thought was going to afford me some protection in power supply department. Well it didn’t. And nearly cost me a SIGNIFICANT amount of money in devices.

I replaced it with about the cheapest one available (recommended to me by a friend that uses it) and it works great. I don’t get charging with it, and I have to buy a Display Port to HDMI to get all the monitors back. Funny bonus, that cheap one plays nicer with both win11 and debian, and I can squeeze a lot more configuration out of it. Go figure.

I don’t want to completely slag this product, I’m sure there are many out there it works just fine for. But one short is one too many, and I thought buyers should know. I didn’t even hammer it like a power user either. So, be warned.

I’m really liking this USB-C dock. It works great with 1 x 4K monitor but the maximum resolution is 1080p 60 Hz (refresh rate). This is mentioned on the product page so I can’t take off any stars for it but I think this is a huge oversight in 2023. The max resolution should be 4K.

The dock itself is pretty light since the case is all plastic.

I found that on the first time using this dock you have to wait about 30 seconds before the other monitor(s) will get detected. I guess some drivers had to get downloaded and installed.

I tested this on my work laptop, a Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (I believe it’s a 3), and everything was working just fine. My laptop charged quickly since the PD port is the usual 100W.

My personal Dell laptop worked fine with this dock as well. My Dell laptop needs a 100W charger and this charges my Dell laptop just fine.

I wish there were at least 2 x USB 2.0 ports though. I found out that USB 3.0 ports emit a wireless signal on the 2.4 GHz band that will interfere with wireless mice, keyboards, and headsets. So, if you plug in a USB dongle for a wireless mouse into a USB 3.0 port you will find that your mouse will stop working every few mins for maybe 3 seconds. This is not the fault of the mouse but of the USB 3.0 port.

I wish there was a micro SD card reader as well. It’s not completely necessary but just something extra that’s nice to have.

The dock will not work unless you plug in the power supply. I have a lot of USB-C docks and this dock is the only one that needs power to it. I’m guessing it has something to do with how this dock has all the bells and whistles (e.g., high speed USB ports). I didn’t take off any stars for this. I’m just mentioning this just in case anybody is wondering.

There is a power button on the left side of this dock which allows you to turn off the dock when not in use. You just have to press the button (and not hold it down for 1 or 2 seconds).

The thunderbolt 4 port to connect to your laptop is on the back. It would have been better if the port is on the front.

I can definitely recommend this dock.

This docking station is perfect for my 3 dell monitor setup. Plenty of ports. Good value and easy setup.

Didn’t work when plugged into host; host computer made a beep to acknowledge a USB insertion, then nothing. A keyboard and mouse inserted into the dock didn’t work. Downloaded every driver I could find on the Plugable website (although it said such drivers are not necessary to get USB hub operation). Overall, wasted hours with purchase, installation, driver download, troubleshooting, then pack up, return, and dropoff. Awful.

I have deployed docking stations throughout our company for mobile employees and given the non GPU-intensive nature of our work and the wide variety of makes and models of laptops used (some company owned, some personal), I lean towards DisplayLink-based docks over brand-specific docks that rely on native hardware to operate. It allows us to buy a single dock without having to gamble what laptop hardware is needed to drive it. The only caveat is the DisplayLink driver on the client is required, but that’s a small price to pay given the capabilities of some of these universal docks. From what I have found Windows will detect and auto-install this, but it likely won’t be the latest version direct from Synaptics. MacOS will require a manual install from the Synaptics website.

We typically use Dell Latitudes in our environment but I have personally used Lenovo IdeaPads, Yogas, M1 MacBooks, and a number of other USB-C enabled devices with Plugable docks and they work as intended. This offers 100W PD which should be more than sufficient for almost any laptop that you’d find in a home or office environment. The 4 USB ports is a huge selling point for us as it allows us to connect all of the permanent peripherals to the back of the dock and not have any reach around to the front or use a USB hub. Front USB-C/PD port fast charges an iPhone 12 Pro Max just fine, I would imagine it would work with other PD-enabled phones and tablets as well. Perfect for charging your phone at your workstation throughout the day. The dock does get mildly warm but nothing alarming. The blue LED indicator on the front is nice and bright and seems to be just a power indicator so is on regardless of laptop status (connected/awake/sleep etc)

Would like to see a 3.5mm audio jack on both the back for speakers and front for headphones, but I have yet to come across any dock from any manufacturer with this arrangement. Also, a USB-C cable with a built in C to A adapter for non USB-C/PD laptops would be a nice touch even if it doesn’t charge those kinds of laptops. Not a dealbreaker though.

The only flaw I can see with any of these docks is going to be the durability of the USB-C ports or the cable itself. We had one of these develop a weakened USB-C port on the dock which caused loss of 2 displays and/or shaky video. However, Plugable support was friendly and quick to resolve the issue via email and advance replaced the unit, issuing an RMA the failed unit. I’ve had this happen with other brand docks as well – unfortunately it’s just the nature of a USB-C port that isn’t encased in metal reinforcement like Apple devices are.

I’ve used other docks prior to this one being released (including other Plugable models) and this is by far my favorite. Plenty of ports, plenty of power and a clean form factor make for a perfect fit in just about any environment.