Anker Nano 13-in-1 USB-C dock overview: Small, helpful, gradual to cost

Finest Costs Right now: Anker Nano (13-in-1) Docking Station with Removable Hub

Gadgets with smaller pop-out options are inherently cool. Take Batman’s Batpod cycle, as an illustration. So Anker’s Nano Docking Station (13-in-1, with its Detachable Hub) immediately provides a little bit of cachet with its pull-out USB-C hub, making it handy to tackle the highway.

This flexibility doesn’t come low-cost. Anker expenses about $150 for what continues to be a USB-C docking station, although with the power to connect with three shows. This Nano dock (the A83C3) additionally doesn’t embrace among the charging capabilities that you just may in any other case affiliate with different Anker merchandise. There’s probably not sufficient energy to quick-charge a smartphone, for instance.

(Is it ok to be added to PCWorld’s finest USB-C hubs and docks? Preserve studying to search out out.)

Anker’s 13-in-1 dock does match the “nano” invoice: it’s 1.57 inches broad and 5.5 inches excessive. Its depth is just below 4 inches, so this can be a compact little dock that makes use of its house extraordinarily successfully.

Somewhat blue LED encircles the removable hub on the entrance of the show, an unobtrusive accent which will be turned off if wanted. It solely sits vertically, and Anker even warns that the dock can develop into unstable if it’s positioned in one other place akin to the other way up.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Keep in mind, this can be a 10Gbps USB-C dock, so its capabilities rely upon what laptop computer you’re connecting it to. I related a number of laptops, together with laptops with an Intel Core Extremely 100 and AMD Ryzen AI 300 chips inside them. Connecting to 2 docks ought to solely ship as much as 1440p decision on two shows. However with laptops with USB4 ports or Thunderbolt 4 ports on them, the dock powered two shows at 4K, 60Hz.

Solely after I pulled out a Microsoft Floor Laptop computer Studio (Eleventh-gen Core processor, Thunderbolt 4) did the output drop all the way down to 4K, 30 Hz on one show and 1440p on the opposite. (Technically, your laptop computer might want to help DP Alt Mode for show output and energy supply for charging.)

Anker’s quick-start information affords a tiny HTML glyph hyperlink to a web based guide, which reveals the specs. Two HDMI 2.0 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4 port present show connections on the rear, alongside two legacy USB-A ports with 480Mbps connections for a keyboard and mouse. The rear additionally features a gigabit Ethernet port.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Technically, this can be a three-display dock, with a further DisplayPort connection on the again. However with simply 10Gbps of bandwidth shared between them, issues get much more iffy. With a laptop computer that helps Show Stream Compression (DSC), you might even see 4K60 throughout all three shows. Older {hardware} might produce 1440p throughout all three or simply 1080p.

On the entrance of Anker’s dock are a headphone jack, a 10Gbps USB-C port, and the moveable hub. Plugged in, you’ll get a small subset of ports: a 5Gbps USB-C port, a 5Gbps USB-A port, and SD and microSD (TF) card slots succesful, Anker says, of as much as 104MB/s of knowledge switch.

The dock provides a rated 100W to the laptop computer through a 1 meter cable. (The ability twine is about 60 inches.) In any other case, this dock doesn’t provide an enormous quantity of energy: the entrance USB-A port (contained in the hub is rated at 4.5W of energy output, whereas the USB-C port subsequent to it places out a rated 7.5W. That’s actually not a lot in any respect, and much beneath the 20 to 45W or so smartphones require.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Unplug the hub (and sure, you are able to do this whereas the dock is related and powered up) and a further HDMI port is uncovered, together with a USB-C energy enter that may settle for as much as 15W for the hub and output 85W to the laptop computer. The hub will be ejected utilizing a small launch change on the highest of the dock itself. Be aware that the hub consists of only a 5Gbps USB-C knowledge connection, and there’s no built-in Ethernet jack.

Each the dock and built-in hub seems to be totally product of plastic. Though the entire warmth migrates to the highest of the dock, I didn’t discover any thermal points in my time testing. A small white LED on the again of the dock exhibits when the dock is powered on. Although the massive button on the rear of the dock means that it’s an influence button, it’s not. Urgent that button turns off the blue LED lighting surrounding the hub. An extended press, surprisingly, does nothing.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

That’s one of many solely bizarre issues about this dock. The vertical design and efficient use of house are terrific, and the dock sits vertically slightly comfortably, with none suggestion that it would tip over.

Anker 13-in-1 Nano Docking Station: Efficiency

I sometimes take a look at a dock or hub for a number of days, as per our USB-C hub testing procedures. On this case, I let it sit on my desk as a hub for my work PC, then sit down and take a look at it extra extensively.

Actually, the one factor that persistently irritated me about this dock was its light-weight GaN charger, which I plugged into an influence strip. It makes use of a type of rectangular wall-wart plugs which overhangs the socket, and I used to be continually nudging it out of connection whereas shifting my legs. Reconnecting the shows took about 20 seconds every.

Port spacing appears high-quality, even with such a decent association. USB-A ports, with a wide range of USB keys, want a sure diploma of house.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Sure, the dock will get near the rated 100W output to a laptop computer, which might be much more than the 45W to 65W most productiveness notebooks demand. A 100W charger is extra suited to a high-end laptop computer with no discrete GPU akin to a Microsoft Floor Laptop computer Studio 2. Examine your laptop computer’s guide or charger for specifics. In any other case, although, there’s actually no want to think about this dock to cost particular person gadgets, because the output from every port is simply too low.

I reviewed this hub at about the identical time I reviewed a competing Mokin USB-C docking station, which I’d say affords a greater worth. Anker’s dock solely dropped 8 frames out of 10,000 whereas streaming a 4K video over the dock’s Ethernet connection, which is close to good. I then take a look at the efficiency of an SSD related to the dock, simulating what it might be like to maneuver knowledge backwards and forwards. Right here, the dock delivered barely much less efficiency than the Mokin’s dock: 150MB/s versus 166 MB/s. Whereas streaming the video, I examined the dock once more: 119MB/s. Once more, that’s barely lower than the 135MB/s the Mokin dock delivered.

Anker 13-in-1 Nano Docking Station: Conclusion

I’m torn. On one hand, I really feel like this dock is overpriced for what it affords, particularly the shortage of charging capabilities. On the opposite, you may clearly make the case that you just’re shopping for two merchandise for the worth of 1. Peripheral pricing will be everywhere in the map — Mokin’s for instance, says that its dock’s MSRP is $169, however sells it for $99.99 itself whereas Amazon drops that all the way down to $79. Tariffs clearly nonetheless play a task.

I don’t actually like the truth that charging choices aren’t included with this dock, however a lot of you have already got devoted charging pads or plugs. For me, that knocks Anker’s dock out of our advisable class. However there’s nonetheless quite a bit to love about Anker’s compact, useful little dock as effectively.