USB Type-C multifunction adapters are pretty common. Many people connect all their peripherals through one of them. Not surprising then, that there are some, like this good-looking Baseus 17-in-1 USB-C Hub, which are designed to work as a docking station for your notebook.
The idea behind notebook docking stations is simple. It’s a device you leave at your work desk, somewhat permanently connected to all the peripherals you’ll need, such as monitors, external storage, and network. You come in with your notebook, connect to the docking station, and you’re all setup to start work. No need to fiddle around with all the cable connections.
Long ago, however, docking stations were very proprietary, and each was designed to work with only a specific type of notebook from that one particular brand. Notebooks dock into them. Interface connection aside, the physical characteristics of the docking station makes it impossible to use for any other notebook.
USB Type-C, or USB-C, has changed all that. You connect with a, by now, fairly ubiquitous cable connection. Some manufacturers still call their devices hubs, because that’s what they really are, but they are equivalent to universal versions of docking stations from time past.
Baseus’ 17-in-1 USB-C hub is quite different from other USB-C multifunction adapters. It’s not just that it has more ports than most. It is designed to be left on your desk, connected to all the peripherals you need. You don’t have to, since it is still reasonably portable, though larger than most USB-C multifunction adapters.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a USB-C hub with more ports than this Baseus 17-in-1 USB-C Hub. On the front, starting from top to bottom, you have a SD card slot, microSD card slot, 3x USB 3.0 Type-A port, 3x USB 3.0 Type-C port, and a 3.5 mm audio combo jack.
You can only use either of the card slots (SD or microSD) at any one time, but it’s good that both sizes are supported.
On the back, there is one USB-C PD port for connecting a USB-C PD charger, a USB-C PD port for connecting to a computer, 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports, 3x HDMI ports, a DC jack for powering the hub, and a Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port. This hub supports up to 100 Watt of USB-C PD.
This hub can ordinarily be powered by the upstream computer. However, you may need to plug in a power supply to the DC jack if you plan to use all the ports, in case the computer can’t supply enough power. This is only for powering the hub, and the power adapter is an optional order.
It’s quite awesome to see so many HDMI ports on this Baseus 17-in-1 USB-C Hub. You can connect three external monitors in extended mode, though this only works in Windows. Unfortunately, with macOS, all the three ports will mirror each other, and together, they can either mirror or extend the built-in Mac display; you cannot have each external monitor display different contents from each other.
The highest resolution supported on the HDMI port is quite complicated to understand. At the minimum, 1080p is not a problem. You can get one 4K@60Hz output with macOS in SST mode, but only from one of two HDMI ports. In most other configurations, and with Windows, the best you can get is 4K@30Hz.
The restrictions in maximum display resolution isn’t got to do with this hub per se, but due to USB-C design limitations. I begun to learn all the complications surrounding USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 hubs recently, and the topic is complex enough to need a post (or more) of its own.
For my testing, I connected this hub to a QHD@60Hz monitor and a FHD@60Hz monitor. They work great.
The Baseus 17-in-1 USB-C Hub is particularly good-looking. In fact, I think I’ve yet to see any other hub that looks as pretty as this one. The build quality and finishing is excellent. It comes with a stand, which is a very exacting fit to the hub. The stand allows you to hold the hub vertically, reducing the space needed on your table.
You can also lay the hub flat down on the table if that’s what you prefer.
The box packaging containing the Baseus 17-in-1 USB-C Hub is pretty nicely designed. A USB-C to USB-C for connecting between the hub and notebook is included.
If you order the bundle with the power brick, you get three plug adapters for UK, EU, and US socket types.
Apart from the limitations surrounding 4K support, which isn’t a problem with the hub per se, the Baseus 17-in-1 USB-C Hub makes an excellent docking station even if you have rather demanding peripheral connection needs.
The Baseus 17-in-1 USB-C Hub retails on Lazada for around S$120 (without power brick) to S$130 (with power brick).
Summary
This is probably the best looking USB-C docking station out there, and a very capable one at that.
Pros:
- Excellent design and build quality
- Plenty of connections
- 3 HDMI outputs
Cons:
- Limitations in USB-C imposes restrictions on 4K output
Greeting Zit Seng
Thank you for the recommendations and write out on the Baseus Hub,
I purchased one recently and like it.
However, there seems to be an issue the screen of my Dell S2340L “black out” for a few seconds. This happens when the battery is fully charged in my Lenovo note book.
Do you encountered such problem?
Thank you.
I have not encountered that. Do you mean a temporarily blackout when the notebook becomes fully charged? I do observe that whenever there is some “event” at my upstream multiport USB charger (e.g. plugging in or out some other device at the charger), this hub will disconnect and reconnect all the peripherals. This does cause connected displays to blackout temporarily since they are temporarily disconnected. However, this issue seems to happen with my other USB-C hubs too. So I surmise that whenever something “changes” at the multiport USB-C charger, the charger probably re-negotiates the amount of power to supply to all devices, and this process does cause USB-C hubs to trigger a disconnect/reconnect action.
Thank you for your reply, Zit Seng
Yes, the screen black out for about 2 seconds whenever the battery is 100% charged and it repeat every few minutes making it very frustrating when you are reading or typing an email or so forth.
All connections or peripherals remains as per start-up no additional peripheral was added, when this black out happen!
.
I changed my laptop battery setting to 80% full charge and it seem to resolve the black out issue. Will have to monitor further to confirm, if this is the resolution.
I have written to the manufacturer not sure if they will respond.
Thank you.
Hello, same issue with my Dell XPS 13 7390, also workaround with 80% full charged battery. But I have another issue, sometimes is very difficult to recognize external monitor when for one reason I disconnect and reconnect USB-C. So to resolve, I need to unplug everything and re-plug everything again, very frustrating.
Hi everyone, I have been using this unit over the last 2 months. It intermittently looses power and all connection drops. My connections include 100w Power into the PD, output to Microsoft surfacebook 2, two external 19” screen and USB-c headset. I wonder if anyone else are facing the same intermittent issue ?this is without plugging any new device.
Thank you.
I wish I knew about multiple displays not extending in Mac 🙁
Did you tried to connect 2 monitors to a Mac?
Hi, is it possible to connect 2 separate monitors to a MacBook pro via 2 out of the 3 hdmi ports, and for them to be separated?
From what I read, Mac supports 2 external devices and you wrote 1..
The two monitors will be mirror of each other; they can extend the main MBP display.
Any advice on how to make this work? I have a 2020 MBP, an LG monitor (also brand new) and a Late 2012 iMac. Previously, I had the LG as an extension of the iMac. Now, I want to use this hub to make the iMac and the LG extender monitors for the MBP. I can successfully connect directly from the MBP to the LG monitor, so I know my cable is good, but my MBP won’t acknowledge any external monitors when I run it through the hub. Everything else on the hub works fine with my MBP, so I’m confident there’s nothing wrong with the hub. I’ve clearly missed something…
i see that there is USB port at the back. can i use usb to usb for my laptop?
There is one USB Type-C port on the back for connecting to a laptop. The other USB Type-C port is for connecting to a PD charger. Are you referring to using some other USB port o the back? The Type-A ports are meant to connect to peripherals.
HELP!!! i bought this 17 in 1 usb c hub too. but my monitor screen cant turn on
Hi, any idea what type of cable they are using from PC to the Hub?
I am finding a longer one. Tried USB C to C 100W cable from UGreen.
You just need a good USB Type-C cable. No need for Thunderbolt cable, since this is a USB-C hub.
Hi, can I use it to power up 2 USB Type C external SSD drives? Currently I only have one USB Type C port available to my desktop so the other one uses the USB 3.0 connection.
Let me know if there is need to clarify.
trying to hook up two monitors to my laptop but it says does not detect monitors. do the hdmi cables need to be plugged into certain ports for it to work?
Hi, I just bought this. But 2 out of the 3 Usb 3.0 ports don’t work. Do I have to on something? Nothing is stated in the manual
All the ports ought to work out of the box. Yours sounds faulty to me.
Hi Zit Seng, thanks for this review as this was the only written review I could find on the internet. I just purchased mine and am connecting 2 external 1080p 75hz monitors to the hub (powered by my Huawei Matebook X Pro), but am only able to achieve 1080p 60hz on both monitors. Is that a limitation or is my unit just faulty? Can you try to recreate it on your end and let me know the results? Many thanks
I don’t have anything faster than 60 Hz 🙂 Sorry.
Is your stand shaky at the base? Mine is, and it’s pretty annoying.
Mine’s stable.
mine is stable too
I tried connecting my 2015 MBP to the hub using a HDMI to USB C cable because my MBP doesnt have usb c and my monitor could not detect my MBP…. sigh seems that this hub only recognises usb c to usb c connections because it works for my MS surface Go and the monitor.
It’s a USB-C hub, so the connection to the host _must_ be USB-C. 🙂
I’ve naively thought that they would design such a way whereby the supplied power adapter could charge my laptop. Unfortunately not that case, and end up needing to spend additional cost to purchase a PD-100w brick just to power the laptop.
Did anyone managed to hack macos to run 3-4 monitors in non mirror mode?
I started bootcamp with windows 10 and it worked well. Macos didnt, so it’s a soft issue.
Hi Zit Seng,
Can i find out from you if the hub is plugged in to a dc adapter, will the blue light be on or will it be flashing?
I have this issue of the hub flashing blue light when is being plugged to the dc adapter.
Thanks and hear from you soon.
I’ll have to check to confirm but I don’t recall flashing lights. Usually flashing means something not good. 🙂
I just got one Baseus Dock Station 17 in 1 to use with my DELL XPS 13 and a second monitor DELL with HDMI connection, but the Windows 10 can not recognise the external monitor, because it is not plug and play. How can I solve this problem, can you help me? Thank you in advance. Andre
I just got a Baseus Dock Station 17 in 1 to use with my notebook. I prefer to use 4 monitor. I plugged in 3 monitor with HDMI cables, and the other one plugged in to notebook’s HDMI socket. I tried almost all options, but I could not achieve to use all monitors at the same time. I can only use 3 monitors. Any recommendations?
Hi would like to ask help, I purchased this and all was working great.
but since a week ago, the hdmi cannot be read by my computer anymore and it shows a USB not recognized error. I tried using other Type C to hdmi adapter and it works with no issue. Hope you can help me… My computer is Windows 10 Home and PC is HP Spectre X360 2019 model
Hi, I just bought this product. I don’t know what is wrong, but every time I plugged in a monitor and run it through usb-c to my laptop, the monitor keep losing signal randomly (black screen for few seconds then normal again). Has this ever happened to you?
I’ve not experienced this. Maybe try switching the monitor cable?
Hi thanks for replying.
I think my problem is the same as Ronnie ANG stated above. It is some kind of problem with 100% battery charge. My laptop BIOS doesn’t allow me to limit my charge to 80% only. I use HP Spectre x360 14′, and HP has confirmed that there’s no way to limit the charge in this model. Now I’m doing trial to plug and unplug the laptop, whether the problem occurs or not.
Hi,
Do you experience “Slow Charging” on laptop even when you have a 100 W PD Adapter connected to PD port?
I wondef whether it is because the provided cable to connect to laptop is not a 100W one?
I’m not sure about 100W. My own laptop is 65W, and actually even a 45W brick charges it fine without “complain”.