Archive Archive
It turns out most USB-C hubs are rebrands and repackaing of the same cheap crap from Ali-Express which does not even work with many machines. This is a sad but "understandable" enclosure and dishonest marketing with huge up-sells on what is basically the same bargain bin devices being white-labeled in Shenzen.
If you are in the market for a new USB-C hub, then… well, I’m sorry. I can’t tell you what to buy. It’s probably not the worst idea just to buy a couple of cheap hubs on eBay and Aliexpress, see which one works the best, and keep the others around as backups. Chances are high you’ll get the same hardware as the one in the “expensive” hubs anyway. If you buy the “branded” version of those off-the-shelf products, you might get devices that have passed additional quality control measurements. You might have an easier time returning them or getting in touch with the support folks if something goes wrong, but in my humble opinion, it’s hard to say if that’s worth the massive markup. I’d also say “avoid the RTL8153 at all costs”, but given that chip appears to be everywhere… good luck with that!
I've been using a Dell U38118DW monitor since early 2020 now and quite content with it. It has an internal USB hub that can be switched between two USB-3a and USB-C depending on which display input is active. I have my desktop attached to one of the 3a and HDMI, and can plug my frame.work laptop in to the USB-C to get 60hz Display Port alt-mode, charging, and all the usb peripherals swapping over. I expect it won't last.
though of course my laptop's intel GPU + mesa drivers tears drawing to the screen, but i generally don't care and don't watch video or play games on the laptop