I’m in the process of changing my desk setup. For years I’ve been running my 16″ MacBook Pro using the built in keyboard and monitor along with a 1080p external display. If you want to see what that looks like, you can have a look here. But I wanted to change things up by using a full sized keyboard for a better typing experience. Also I wanted to have a bit more desk space. Thus I decided to run my Mac in clamshell mode, meaning that it is closed rather than opened. So the first step in making that happen is to get a new USB-C hub on my desk. I chose was the Baseus Metal Gleam Series II, which for the record is a very unwieldily name for this product, for this purpose.
Now the dock is made of metal and has a high quality braided cable on it. Thus if I had to rate the build quality, I would give it a 10/10. It also has a slot to tuck away the USB-C cable if you travel and take this hub with you. While not important for my use case, that’s a nice touch.
On one side of the hub, you get (from left and right):
A USB-C port with 100W power delivery,
A HDMI port capable of doing 4K 120Hz
A HDMI port capable of doing 4K 60Hz
Two USB-A 2.0 Ports capable of doing 480 Mbps each
On the other side you get:
A USB-C 3.2 port capable of doing 10Gbps
A USB-A 3.2 port capable of doing 10Gbps
Micro and Mini SD card slot capable of doing 104 MB/s
There’s also gigabit ethernet on the side. I didn’t use that, but seeing as not many notebooks come with ethernet anymore, that’s handy.
Here’s the USB-C hub on my desk connected to my MacBook Pro. In short, I can connect one cable and have my monitor, keyboard and mouse connected along with charging my MacBook Pro. You might notice the circle on the right that’s lit up. That’s a lock computer button. On the Mac if you click it twice, it will lock the screen. If you have a Windows computer, it will do the same thing if you click it once. I can see the use case for this as a quick way to lock your computer should you need to. Having said that, I was able to reproduce an issue where by using this button, it keep my MacBook Pro awake. As in no screen saver, no power saving mode, and the display stays on. A reboot will fix that. But clearly whatever Baseus did to include this functionality doesn’t work perfectly on macOS.
So I used this hub for a few days and I have the following observations:
A key feature of this hub in my mind is the fact that the USB-C and USB-A ports on the front do 10 Gbps which is unusual for a USB-C hub. That means that I can transfer large files quickly. For example, I used an external SSD with a bunch of video files on it and I was able to do the transfer in 25 seconds from either of these ports. The previous hub I was using topped out at 5 Gbps a second so it took just over double the time to transfer the same files.
You can run two monitors from this hub. But at 4K 60Hz. Your other option is to run a single monitor at 4K 120 Hz. That again is unique as I haven’t seen a hub do that before. That’s handy for a dual monitor setup, or a single monitor gaming setup.
It was warm to the touch, but not hot. I am guessing that’s due to the metal construction and hopefully that means that it will have a long and useful life as a result.
The hub supports 100W of power delivery via USB-C. But it “only” delivers 85W to my MacBook Pro which is fine as it will still charge to full. It will just take slightly longer. And it may have a positive impact on battery health as a result because it’s not pushing a large amount of current into the battery.
To sum it up, this USB-C hub delivers the goods. And I don’t really have any gripes about it that come to mind. I paid $120 CAD on Amazon for it. And I recognize that this is likely more than you want to pay for a USB-C hub. But based on my usage, I think it’s worth the price. You should have a look at it if you’re in the market for a USB-C hub that you can depend on.
This entry was posted on April 12, 2024 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Baseus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Review: Baseus Metal Gleam Series II USB-C Hub
I’m in the process of changing my desk setup. For years I’ve been running my 16″ MacBook Pro using the built in keyboard and monitor along with a 1080p external display. If you want to see what that looks like, you can have a look here. But I wanted to change things up by using a full sized keyboard for a better typing experience. Also I wanted to have a bit more desk space. Thus I decided to run my Mac in clamshell mode, meaning that it is closed rather than opened. So the first step in making that happen is to get a new USB-C hub on my desk. I chose was the Baseus Metal Gleam Series II, which for the record is a very unwieldily name for this product, for this purpose.
Now the dock is made of metal and has a high quality braided cable on it. Thus if I had to rate the build quality, I would give it a 10/10. It also has a slot to tuck away the USB-C cable if you travel and take this hub with you. While not important for my use case, that’s a nice touch.
On one side of the hub, you get (from left and right):
On the other side you get:
There’s also gigabit ethernet on the side. I didn’t use that, but seeing as not many notebooks come with ethernet anymore, that’s handy.
Here’s the USB-C hub on my desk connected to my MacBook Pro. In short, I can connect one cable and have my monitor, keyboard and mouse connected along with charging my MacBook Pro. You might notice the circle on the right that’s lit up. That’s a lock computer button. On the Mac if you click it twice, it will lock the screen. If you have a Windows computer, it will do the same thing if you click it once. I can see the use case for this as a quick way to lock your computer should you need to. Having said that, I was able to reproduce an issue where by using this button, it keep my MacBook Pro awake. As in no screen saver, no power saving mode, and the display stays on. A reboot will fix that. But clearly whatever Baseus did to include this functionality doesn’t work perfectly on macOS.
So I used this hub for a few days and I have the following observations:
To sum it up, this USB-C hub delivers the goods. And I don’t really have any gripes about it that come to mind. I paid $120 CAD on Amazon for it. And I recognize that this is likely more than you want to pay for a USB-C hub. But based on my usage, I think it’s worth the price. You should have a look at it if you’re in the market for a USB-C hub that you can depend on.
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This entry was posted on April 12, 2024 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Baseus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.