Hyper Thunderbolt 4 Power Hub review: Fast connectivity for demanding users

AppleInsider could earn an affiliate fee on purchases made by means of hyperlinks on our web site.

This isn’t for you in case your downside is that that you must join a number of gadgets to your Mac, every with totally different connectors. As a substitute, it is for you in case you are involved particularly with Thunderbolt 4 gadgets, as a result of that is all you may hook up with this hub.

It is a four-power hub that’s mild and handy sufficient to journey with, however is meant to used with desktops and which requires mains energy. Unusually, although, it doesn’t require a big energy brick.

Hyper claims that it’s because the Hyperdrive Thunderbolt 4 Energy Hub is the “world’s first… an built-in GaN energy supply.” Utilizing Gallium Nitride (GaN) means the hub might be fairly small.

This hub is slightly bigger than the identical firm’s cell Thunderbolt 3 dock, and it feels a lot heavier. Nevertheless it’s small and it doesn’t have an influence brick trailing it.

The hub is a 4.9-inch sq. machine, which stands 1.2 inches tall. It is much like the ability adapter on a 14-inch MacBook Professional.

It weighs extra, although, at 1.27lbs and it is a concentrated weight so it feels heavier than that. However then this additionally offers it a strong, hard-wearing really feel.

This chassis isn’t going to get quite a lot of put on and tear from being carried round, though it’s a mud magnet. However the 4 ports may see an excessive amount of motion, with a number of SSD drives being related or disconnected.

There may be the ability cable working into the again of the little machine. That is surprisingly arduous to push in, it feels as in the event you’ve oriented it the flawed approach. After which it would not sit flush with the machine.

That is presumably a limitation due to how a lot is contained in the machine, leaving little room for the ability connection. But when it wants a superb shove to get it in, it equally wants a powerful tug to get it out once more.

So as soon as the drive is powered, that energy cable goes to remain in.

The entire hub’s 4 ports are organized on the entrance aspect, and divided into two varieties.

The primary three are all Thunderbolt 4 downstream ports, providing:

• 40Gb knowledge downstream
• 15W energy downstream

a

So the hub can energy peripherals you hook up with it. Which means gadgets akin to SSD drives might be rapidly plugged in or eliminated, which accelerates the entire strategy of shifting terabytes of knowledge round.

These ports are additionally in a position for use for connecting Thunderbolt shows. Particularly, the hub can drive a single monitor at 5K, 6K, or 8K, that that most decision getting a 30Hz refresh fee.

In concept, the identical hub can as an alternative drive two 4K displays, and in that case the show will get as much as a 60Hz fee.

In follow, the hub can drive two displays, however provided that the Mac can. Hyper notes that this Twin Prolonged Show characteristic, as they name it, is barely obtainable on the M1 Professional, M1 Max, or Intel-based MacBook Professional.

Three ports are 40Gb downstream ones for peripherals, whereas the fourth is the place you join your Mac

You replenish the primary three Thunderbolt ports with a show, with transportable storage, or so on, and the fourth connects to the MacBook. Port quantity 4 is a single upstream one that may present as much as 96W energy supply.

In order you employ the hub, you may fast-charge gadgets as much as the 14-inch MacBook Professional, or M2 MacBook Air.

It may be handier if this fourth port had been on the aspect of the hub, in order that it was away from the ports you retain swapping peripherals out of. However with the Mac mini, as an example, the design means you may carry the Thunderbolt ports to the entrance of the machine for ease of entry.

The hub fits desktop customers, or ones who mainly use their MacBook Professional in the identical place. It’s simply transportable, but it surely works greatest as at the least a semi-permanent fixture in your desk.

That approach you may return from a shoot, as an example, and really rapidly be transferring your footage to the Mac. On the similar time, you would be backing up that Mac, too.

So it is actually for individuals who have to retailer and transfer very massive recordsdata, and to typically work with them. It isn’t for individuals who would simply often like yet another Thunderbolt port than their Mac supplies.

This does imply that the Hyper Thunderbolt 4 Energy Hub lacks the sort of extras like USB-A, HDMI, or SD card slots that will make it universally helpful. However for its meant viewers, particularly with the shortage of the conventional energy brick, the hub is nice worth.

It is also bigger, although, which implies for some customers the Hyper Thunderbolt 4 Energy Hub stands out as the proper mixture of dimension, weight, value, and ports.

• Supplies three 40Gb Thunderbolt 4 ports for peripherals
• Has one Thunderbolt 4 port for hook up with the host Mac
• Doesn’t want a separate, massive energy brick
• Can energy peripherals and cost a MacBook Professional
• Light-weight

• Solely contains Thunderbolt 4 ports, nothing else
• Requires AC energy so it is transportable, not transportable