With the decision to accept USB-C on all modern mac apples, the company has created requirements for USB-C dock so that we can continue to use all our USB C perfereal because we wait for the rest of the technology industry.
Kingston’s nucleium USB Type-C Hubby provides a selection of ports useful for owners of MacBook, MacBook Pro, and IMAC, which is still available in USB, HDMI, SD and microSD ports that are no longer available on recent machines.
The nucleium USB-C hub made up of apple devices from the silver aluminum is small enough that it can be broken into the purse or bag, or a pinch, in the pocket. It is narrow and shorter than the iPhone X, but somewhat thicker, a briefly built-in USB-C cord has been provided.
It is a bit larger than palm size, but it still does not take too much space when traveling or using the desk. There is a “nucleium” logo on the top of the device, while the rear of Kingston is branding and the required regulatory label.
The left side of the dock has a port and a USB-C power delivery port so that you can charge a MacBook or MacBook Pro while plugging in the hub, and on the right, a more USB-C port for USB-C accessories, a single USB-A port, an MicroSD card slot and an SD card slot. On one end, there is the aforementioned power cord, the other end has an HDMI port.
In all, the hub has a total of seven ports available, which is not very bad for any device of this size. I often don’t need more than two USB ports at once, so the two-port setup worked for me and it was nice to have access to both microSD and SD card slots for camera accessories.
This port system is the standard for many USB-C hubs that you will find on the site like Amazon but I found that many of these hubs do not provide multiple USB-C ports. An additional USB-C port, especially amazingly effective for my MacBook (which has a single USB-C port) because I was transferred to USB-C to USB-C, I found myself with more USB-C accessories.
If you initially have accessories in the USB, you will see that the Kingston Hub does not supply a enough USB port to the USB. Competitive (and more affordable) centers in Amazon usually provide ports in 3 to 4 USB but again different types of ports of Kingston are available. Most dual USB-C hubs seem to have higher prices tags.
If you are preferred you can use all the ports of the hub at once and I have a problem while checking multiple accessories that plugged in once. HDMI port supports a 4K monitor (or a 1080p monitor), while the passthrough charging functionality means that your attached iPhones will take charge while plugging in to the hub. Kingston says that the nucleium supplies to 5 V/1.5 that is most suitable for iPhone and similar accessories. The iPads will charge, but slowly.
When using Power Delivery USB-C Port with your USB-C Cable and power adapter for charging purposes, the hub is able to supply up to 60W. It’s enough to charge a 12 -inch MacBook (29W) or 13 -inch MacBook Pro (61W) but it is somewhat lower than the full capacity of 15 inch MacBook Pro (87 W).
Nevertheless, 60W is enough to put a 15-inch MacBook Pro at the top but you are not doing anything that is as close as playing super battery video rendering video rendering or playing graphics-filled games. During my workd, 60W provided by the hub was enough to keep my 15 -inch MacBook Pro safari, mail, slack, photoshop, pixelmater, chrome, tweet and more.
I noticed that when I unplug my USB-C power adapter from the nucleium or when I plugged it in it, it will close the hub for a second. This means that any hard drive or other accessories I have temporarily disconnected, so you want to be careful not to plug it to a power source or to unplug it while the file is transferred.
As a side note, the nucleium does not need to be plugged in to any power source other than the host computer to work. The Passthru Charging feature is used to al chhik.
I was expecting the transfer speeds to plug on the USB-C hub for the USB device. For example, it takes about 20 seconds to transfer 3GB of data, with a traditional -taped cigaret backup plus hard drive. The speed was a bit slow when I was using all the ports of the hub, but not so. As a note, you can simply attach hard drives to the USB-C and USB to the hub. If you have Thunderbolt 3 drive, as I do, it is not consistent because the nucleium does not support Thunderbolt 3.
The files from an SD card and a microSD card were also relatively fast, it took about 25 seconds to copy 1GB valuable photos from an SD card on my computer and a little below a minute to copy the card back from the MacBook Pro. As with several cameras and a drone, as someone with a drone, having access to both microSD and SD cards is invaluable.
Bottom line
With Apple’s focus on the decision to remove the USB-C and all inheritance ports, the company has created a rich third-party hub market and only is difficult to narrow it from which the medieval is better.
The nucleium of Kingston is in the previous section, it provides ports as you need in your daily life for a thin, portable hub from a trusted manufacturer. Kingston Hub is more expensive than some of the alternatives you will find on Amazon, but reliability is often valuable for extra money.
I appreciated the compact size of the nucleium, which makes it ideal for travel and the ports that provide the various ports are suitable for me. It provides all the ports required on my daily basis (primarily USB-C, USB-A, and an SD card slot), and everything acts as expected without any surprise.
I hope that there was probably another USB port that still needs to be used in several USB accessories, but I have no complaint about additional USB-C port. I don’t need dual USB-C ports in my MacBook Pro, but my 12-inch MacBook is a valuable addition to the dual ports. When I used it with mac, it is about to be compatible with Windows-based machines.
One of the main things to be aware of the nucleium is that it disconnects when connected or disconnected from any power source. This is not a huge deal, but if you have purchased this hub, be sure to not change its power settings while the file is transferred.
How to buy
Nucleium USB Type-C hub can be purchased from the Kingston website or for $ 80 from Amazon.com.
Note: Kingston provided the nucleium USB-C hub to macrumors for this review. No other compensation was found.
