Our Favorite USB C Dock

My Surface Book 2 is my favorite laptop of all time (so far). It does everything I need and want except when it comes to connectivity. It only has two USB ports and a and single USB C connection.

As a technology consultant I often need to connect to customer’s random equipment. If I am going to be on location for an extended period; multiple monitors, a keyboard with a number pad, and a mouse are must haves. There’s no way to hook up all this gear to my Surface. I need a dock to extend the ports.

Microsoft makes a dock specifically for the Surface line, but I’m not a fan. It has mini-display ports for monitors and a few USB ports for everything else. I’m sure it works, but I would like more options. I was looking for every type of monitor connection, multiple USB ports, storage, power, and network connectivity in a single device.

It took a lot of research, but eventually I found a solution. The TOTU USB C 12 – N – 1 Hub is available on Amazon for less than $80.00. It will connect to any kind of monitor: HDMI, VGA, and Display-Port are all available. There are both a full size and mini SD card reader. Plug your headphones into the 3.5 mm audio connector. Two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 connections will handle your keyboards, mice, and other accessories. A USB-C PD Power port will charge your supported device. Getting on-line with the Gigabit Ethernet connection is a breeze.

I assumed that the video ports would be Display-link but that is not the case. The video signal is passing through from my laptop’s GPU. This is a big advantage; Display-link works but often at slow frame rates which makes video choppy.

I’ve had the little dock for a few weeks and have used it almost every day since it arrived at my door. It works really well, doesn’t take up much space in my bag, and has a nice little carrying case. I didn’t expect it to also function as a Dex dock for my Galaxy Note, but it even does that. A few of my friends and family have ordered them after seeing mine and we all agree this thing is fantastic.