Hyper’s new Thunderbolt 4 hub has laptop charging power but no bricks

Hyper, the company behind these GaN stackable chargers And the Powerful battery bankshe is Run Kickstarter The Thunderbolt 4 hub is really compact thanks to the fact that it doesn’t need a bulky power brick like the ones that burden other hubs. Instead, it plugs directly into the wall with a relatively standard octagonal power cable, allowing you to quickly add ports to your computer without taking up a bunch of backpack or desk space.

Despite the simplicity, Hyper says it’ll still be able to deliver up to 96 watts of power to your laptop, enough to power most laptops (if you have a gaming PC or a 16-inch MacBook Pro, though… So, he may still lose some battery while in full tilt). However, as with most Hyper products, the hub isn’t cheap; Hyper says it’s expected to retail for around $299 when released.

As a Thunderbolt 4 hub, it gives you quite a few ports to work with. The front has four Thunderbolt ports. You plug your computer into one and then any discs, displays, or other accessories you want into the other three. Hyper says that PCIe 32Gbps speeds (which is 4x for PCIe 3.0 or 2x for PCIe 4.0) are fast enough for external GPUs and that the ports can provide 15W of power for devices like the iPad Pro. It should also be compatible with most fancy monitor setups; Hyper says the hub supports technology like display streaming compression and multi-stream transmission technology required to power two 6K displays at 60Hz.

Photo: Hyper

You obviously pay a lot for the convenience of not having an external power brick (which helps make the hub more portable). For the price of the hub, you can get a file Full Thunderbolt 4 port Which adds many other ports. Hyper is offering Kickstarter backers a much lower price tag (anywhere from $179 to $239, depending on which tiers you have in stock), but there are some risks involved. Yes, at this point Hyper is a reputable brand that has had a lot of successful crowdfunding campaigns, but there is still a difference between pre-ordering on Kickstarter and buying something directly from the website. The company says it expects the hubs to start making their way to backers in November.

If your pockets aren’t too deep or you don’t mind putting up with a bit of a nuisance, OWC . Thunderbolt Center It might be worth taking a look. It also lets you add three Thunderbolt 4 ports to your computer, as well as a USB-A port (works even at 10Gbps). At $169, it’s a bit cheaper than the Hyper version – but it should be hooked up to a massive power tile, and it can only manage 60W of charge.