Expert rating
Benefits
- Compact, discreet design
- Fast usb ports
- Up to two 4k/60 Hz displays
Disadvantages
- More separate connections, please
- Short warranty
Opinion
Asus doesn’t offer a huge amount of extra ports, but the ones you do get are high class. If the box had been a little bigger so that there was room for another usb, double screen outputs and separate power supply at the same time, it would have been top rated. Now it’s still good, but a bit limiting.
Award: SEK 1,579 at Asus
The Asus Dual 4k USB-C Dock is an extra compact small usb c dock for laptops, which at first glance appears to be unnecessarily expensive for what you get. It costs almost SEK 1,600, and for that you get a minimal box with only five ports. But it turns out to have qualities that justify a higher price.
The connection to the computer is of a faster type, usb 3 gen 2 with a data speed of ten gigabits. If you have thunderbolt 3 or 4 in your computer, you will get it, but even many usb c ports without thunderbolt can handle it. That means we also get it on the box’s usb ports. It has three ports in total, two type c and one type a. One of the type c ports doubles as a power adapter input or as an additional display port output, so it’s more fair to say you have two fast usb ports free to use.
Then you also have a gigabit ethernet port and an hdmi port. It supports hdmi 2.0 and thus you can easily get 4k resolution with high frame rate on it, provided you can feed it from your computer’s usb c socket. The display port on the box’s second usb c port also supports 4k at 60 Hz.
So you don’t have the ability to plug in huge amounts of stuff, but everything you plug in can get high speed. For USB sticks and disks we connect, it is the storage medium that sets the ceiling, not the USB port, and the network connection is close to the gigabit speed of our broadband.
High quality, with a little patience
As long as everything works, that is. It does, every little detail. The dock has some problems finding the right frame size and frequency on our connected monitor. If we plug it into the same computer via an HDMI port, we immediately get it as a 60 Hz 4k screen. But we have to specify that manually in the screen settings for it if we connect via the dock’s hdmi port.
Once we’ve done it once, it then finds the right image mode after docking. But even then it can take up to half a minute. Whether it’s a general problem or specific to our screen we don’t know, but the same screen and computer doesn’t exhibit that behavior with other usb c docks we test. It’s a small minus for an otherwise excellent little box.
It is compact, slim and discreetly designed entirely in black aluminium. If you want to have an adapter with you on the go that will take up as little space as possible, it is a good choice. If you only want to have it at home on your desk, there may be more feature-rich alternatives in the same price range. But the high USB speed is in Asus’ favor.
Then of course you can go up in price and find heavy thunderbolt docking stations for a few thousand kroner more, but for the vast majority of people a box in this size and price range is enough. However, the fact that Asus only provides a one-year warranty while several competitors offer at least two years is a small minus.
Specifications
Product name: Asus Dual 4k USB-C Dock
Tested: May 2022
Manufacturer: Asus
Computer connection: Usb 3 type c gen 2
Video output: Hdmi, display port via usb c
Usb ports: 2 pcs usb 3 gen 2 type c, usb 3 gen 2 type a
Network: Gigabit ethernet
Power supply: 100 W usb pd (via usb c)
Miscellaneous: No
Size: 10.4 x 4.5 x 1.4 cm
Weight: 98 grams
System requirements for full functionality: Usb 3 type c with display port alt mode and usb power delivery. Windows 10 or newer.
Guarantee : 1 year
Award: SEK 1,579 at Asus