After years of waiting, there’s finally a travel hub that can handle a USB-C external display. And the EZQuest USB-C Slim Gen 2 Hub Adapter 6-in-1 can charge a computer while connecting it to up to four other accessories. Plus it’s small enough to go anywhere.
I tested the hub and am really quite pleased, though it does get a bit warmer than I like.
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EZQuest USB-C Slim Gen 2 Hub Adapter 6-in-1 review
I’m not someone who wants a minimal setup when I work remotely. I connect an external screen and want to have easy access to other accessories, too. I run short on USB-C ports regularly.
Plus, the external display I travel with connects via USB-C. It also supports HDMI, but to use that I have to carry around a special cable. It’s a hassle.
I want a portable hub that can handle a USB-C monitor and add extra USB-C ports to my computer. A new one from EZQuest is just what I’m looking for.
Table of contents:
Very portable USB-C hub
EZQuest USB-C Slim Gen 2 Hub Adapter 6-in-1 measures 4.6 inches by 1.3 inches by 0.4 inches (118 x 33.5 x 10mm), so it fits easily into any laptop bag or backpack. It packs a lot of ports into a small package.
To make it even more portable, the 19.5-inch cable used to connect it to a computer is removable. And it’s a heavy-duty cable that seems ready for years of use.
No bulky external power supply is needed. The hub can run off your Mac or iPad if you prefer.
The aluminum exterior of the device makes it look professional and helps it shed heat — but more on that later.
6 useful ports
Six USB-C ports line up along one edge of the EZQuest hub. One of these offers the standout feature of the product: it can handle a 4K 60Hz external display — a trick no similar hub I’ve tested can match. None of them have a USB-C port that supports video.
Four USB-C ports handle other accessories, like SSDs, keyboards, cameras, etc. These use USB-C Gen 2 so there’s a maximum speed of 10 Gbps. But the ports have to share that, so simultaneous data transfers are slower. And each of these puts out up to 7.5W, but the total shared power is 15W.
The final USB-C port focuses on charging your computer. It supports PowerDelivery for up to 80W of pass-through power.
EZQuest’s hub doesn’t include any legacy ports but I’m fine with that. Apple moved on to USB-C and so have I. But if you need to plug in USB-A accessories, you’ll need adapters. For an HDMI monitor, you should look at another hub.
The slim size of this accessory shows one of the advantages of USB-C — legacy ports are comparatively bulky.
Real-world performance of the EZQuest USB-C hub
Support for USB-C monitors is the highlight of the EZQuest USB-C Slim Gen 2 Hub Adapter 6-in-1, so of course I tested that first.
I connected it with several different 4K monitors and they all worked quite well. That includes one from Espresso Displays and the KYY model that I frequently travel with. During testing, I can see no difference between connecting through the hub and connecting directly to my computer.
Next, I tested the speed of the four USB-C ports. I used one to transfer a 10GB file from an SSD to my computer in 23 seconds or about 3.5 Gbps — a good rate in real-world use.
I then connected a second SSD to the EZQuest hub to test two simultaneous file transfers. This time, the data transfer rate was 2.4 Gbps. Slower, but still a very usable rate.
The hub always provided enough juice to run the SSDs and other accessories I used with it, including multiple drives.
When I tested charging up my iPhone 15 Plus, I saw a maximum of 7W, even with only one accessory connected to the hub. And only 1W or 2W goes to other accessories plugged in at the same time. While usable, that is not quick recharging — it’ll take much of the night to give an iPhone a full charge.
Hub gets more than warm
Computer accessories get warm as part of everyday use. Transferring gigabytes of data to an SSD inevitably makes its temperature go up. And hubs get warm too — my favorite travel hub runs at 105 degrees. It’s one of the reasons these devices often have aluminum exteriors: metal sheds heat better than plastic. But the EZQuest USB-C Slim Gen 2 Hub Adapter 6-in-1 gets a bit warmer than I’m used to.
With an external monitor and a power source connected, my temperature probe shows the casing getting up to about 120 degrees (49C). That’s not dangerously hot, but it’s more than warm.
I’d make a joke about the hub acting as a coffee warmer except it would actually be terrible at that. My coffee warmer heats to over 200 degrees, more than 80 degrees hotter than this hub. And it sits on my desk every day.
To be certain, I tested this setup for many hours without any problems. Don’t take the exterior heating up as a sign of a serious flaw — the aluminum casing is designed to shed excess heat without ever becoming brittle. It’s just that EZQuest crammed a lot of functionality into a small device, and this is the result.
EZQuest video
Watch a video of this hub prepared by EZQuest to see it in action:
EZQuest USB-C Slim Gen 2 Hub Adapter 6-in-1 final thoughts
Most of the travel hubs I’ve used over the years have an HDMI port. While a functional solution, it’s one that requires me to bring a special cable. EZQuest’s hub connects to external displays over any USB-C cable that can handle fast data transfers — something I already travel with. Less clutter in my laptop bag is always a good thing.
And it’s not a one-trick pony. It adds four more USB-C ports and a charging port to my computer, while staying very portable.
★★★★☆
I’d rank the hub higher except it has that small issue with heat.
Pricing
EZQuest USB-C Slim Gen 2 Hub Adapter 6-in-1 costs $79.99. That seems a deal for a product with a feature no other all USB-C hub I’ve tested can match.
Buy it from: Amazon or EZQuest
EZQuest provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out more in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.
EZQuest USB-C Slim Gen 2 Hub Adapter 6-in-1 review
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