Posted by Eric Slivka
Popular accessories company Satechi offers a wide selection of docking stations and hubs compatible with the Apple Mac line, and I recently spent some time testing out a $150 USB-C Dual Dock Stand that greatly expands connectivity options. to your Mac, while remaining out of sight and even giving your laptop a little extra breathing room.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Dual USB-C Dock's design is right there in the name, namely the fact that it serves as a stand that allows you to lift your Mac laptop onto a desk, providing additional airflow to help hold the laptop up. it's cool and should raise the height of the display a couple of inches to make it a little closer to eye level and perhaps make the typing position more comfortable if you're using a MacBook keyboard.
The dock is about 12 inches (30 cm) wide, and its wedge-shaped form factor fits snugly under the back of your Mac laptop. Rubber feet on the dock provide stability, and the top of the dock has a raised rubber lip that you can sit on your Mac without scratching your Mac or the dock. Openings on the front and rear bottom edges of the dock provide some ventilation for the dock itself, but I didn't notice anything getting too hot.
The dock is primarily made of space gray aluminum. with a black top, and there's clean white Satechi branding on top, although all of this will be virtually unnoticeable if your Mac is sitting on it. A 7.5-inch integrated dual cable extends from one end of the dock and terminates in USB-C connectors to connect the dock to your computer. There's a space gray collar around the two connectors that positions them perfectly for connecting to adjacent USB-C ports on the latest Macs in one motion. If you have a compatible machine with a different port spacing, the collar can be moved back to give you more wiggle room with individual connectors.
Most of the dock's other functions are located on the back, allowing cables to be routed out of sight behind the back of the desk. In addition to a color-coded sliding power switch and a white LED that confirms the dock has power, the Dual USB-C Dock has nine ports on the back. There are two USB-C ports (one supports speeds up to 10 Gbps, the other up to 5 Gbps), two USB-A ports (similarly, one supports speeds up to 10 Gbps and one supports speeds up to 5 Gbps) and a Gigabit Ethernet port. if you need a wired data connection. For display compatibility, there are two HDMI 2.0 ports, each supporting up to 4K resolution at 60 Hz, and a DisplayPort 1.4 port, also supporting up to 4K resolution at 60 Hz.
Depending on your Mac, the Dual USB-C Dock can support up to two external displays, both connected via HDMI, or one via HDMI and the other via DisplayPort. The USB-C ports on the dock don't support video, so you can't connect external displays using this method. If you're using an Apple Silicon Mac, you'll need one of the higher-end Pro or Max chips to support two external displays in addition to the built-in display on your laptop. If your machine is equipped with a base M3 chip, you can use two external displays when the laptop lid is closed, while machines with a base M1 or M2 chip are limited to one external display.
In addition to Apple Silicon Macs, Macs are also supported some Intel-based MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, as well as several Windows computers such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop Studio, Lenovo Yoga 6 and 7i, Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra and Dell XPS 15.
There's another port on the back of the dock, a USB-C port to accept incoming power. The dock can receive bus power from a connected Mac, but performance will be reduced under heavy load. Using an external power adapter, which is not included but should be easily accessible to most users, the dock can draw around 15W while delivering up to 75W of pass-through power to the connected Mac, ensuring you only need one connection to your Mac for everything. I used the Apple 140W power adapter that came with my MacBook Pro and it provided all the power I needed for the dock, and I also saw 69W of power being supplied to my Mac, which was enough to quickly recharge it and keep it charged. during use.
Outside all rear ports. The Dual USB-C Dock has another trick up its sleeve: a built-in SSD bay, allowing you to add external storage (sold separately) to your Mac for backup or additional storage space without taking up additional physical space. . The chassis supports M.2 SATA and NVMe SSDs with speeds up to 6 Gbps for SATA drives and 10 Gbps for NVMe drives. SSD sizes 2242, 2260 and 2280 are supported, and for testing I used a fast 2TB WD_BLACK NVMe drive in size 2280.
Installation was fairly straightforward, requiring easy removal of the cover on the bottom of the dock to access drive bay and installing an adhesive thermal pad in preparation for installing the SSD. After that, it was simply a matter of inserting the SSD into the slot in the bay, pressing it down, and securing it using the included screw and screwdriver. Getting the tiny screw into the correct position in the drive bay was quite a task, but putting everything together only took a couple of minutes.
With an SSD installed in the dock, the drive mounts while the dock is connected to the Mac, giving you easy access to any additional storage you've added. My testing showed write speeds of 975MB/s and read speeds of 880MB/s, and while there are certainly external enclosures that can support faster speeds with this drive, performance was fairly consistent.
The USB ports were a bit of a mixed bag. This dock's ports are designed primarily for data use, so they don't offer much charging capability. They offer enough power to support most undemanding accessories like a flash drive or even my Stream Deck, but they have more trouble with more powerful devices like external bus-powered SSDs. One of my test cases worked fine when connected to a 5Gbps USB-C port on the dock, but my Mac gave an error about consuming too much power when I plugged the case into a 10Gbps USB-C port. So keep in mind that while this dock offers some USB connectivity flexibility, you won't be able to connect powerful peripherals like the Apple SuperDrive or fast charge your iPhone.
Display connectivity works as you'd expect, and I had no problems using a pair of external 4K displays in a dual HDMI or HDMI/DisplayPort configuration. Displays connected via the dock looked good and I had no connection issues. It's worth emphasizing that without support for USB-C/Thunderbolt displays and support for a maximum of 4K via HDMI and Thunderbolt, you won't be able to use higher resolution displays like the Apple Studio Display with this dock. But the popularity of 4K options means that many users will already be using working displays.
I've noticed that physically connecting and unplugging some of the more powerful connectors like HDMI and DisplayPort from the dock can be a little tricky. as the dock tucked under my MacBook Pro tended to slide around a bit, but I learned how to stabilize the dock at its two ends by manipulating the connectors. Luckily, one of the main purposes of the dock is to allow all your peripherals to stay connected, so you don't have to plug and unplug both devices too often.
Overall, Satechi's USB-C Dual Dock offers a good set of features for those looking to enhance their desktop MacBook. It offers enough ports to provide additional connectivity options, plus the built-in SSD bay is a nice touch. The dock's form factor means it can be neatly tucked away and also provides some minor ergonomic benefits. And while it's about a foot long, the fact that it can include a built-in SSD and run off a power rail or from a USB-C power adapter you probably already have in your bag makes it quite portable.
The dock is missing some features, such as support for USB-C display connectivity and an SD card reader, but if its feature set suits your needs, it's worth a look. While you can find some USB-C hubs that support dual 4K displays for less money, $150 is actually a good price considering the additional features this dock offers. Just remember that you'll have to spend a little more on the SSD to fit inside if you want to take advantage of this feature.
The USB-C Dual Dock Stand can be purchased directly from Satechi for 149.99 US dollars. but as of this writing, B&H Photo has it on sale for $129.99.
Note: Satechi provided MacRumors with a dual USB-C docking station for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner of Satechi and B&H Photo. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment to help us keep the site running.
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