More and more laptops are equipped with a universal USB-C port, so you can use one cable for peripherals, video and charging. With the ACT USCB-C 4K Multiport Docking Station (AC7046), you can actually use one cable to connect everything to your laptop in one go.
ACT USB-C 4K Multiport Docking Station (AC7046)
price € 199,-
Picture connections HDMI 1.4, 2x DisplayPort 1.4
Other connections 3x usb 3.2 (Gen 1), usb-c (Gen 1), gigabit network connection, SD card reader, microSD card reader, 3.5mm audio output
Laptop connection USB-C, USB-C input for charger
7 Score 70 
- Pros
- 4K support
- Multiple monitors (depending on laptop)
- Lots of connections
- Can be used portrait and landscape
- Solidly built
- Negatives
- No USB Gen2 connections
- No power supply for laptop included
ADCs USB-C 4K Multiport Docking Station MST and Power Delivery AC7046 As this product is called in full, a compact cabinet is made of aluminum that looks solid. You can choose to lay the docking station flat or, thanks to the included foot, you can also place it upright on your desk. The foot is solidly made and the docking station is firmly in place even with the cables plugged in.
In terms of connections, you will find a card reader (microSD and SD), USB port, USB-c port, 3.5mm headset connection and a USB-c port on the front with which you can connect the docking station to your laptop with a supplied cable. On the back you will find a gigabit network connection, two USB, HDMI, two DisplayPort and a USB-C connection to which you connect the charger of your laptop.
Using your own charger
It is striking that ADC provides a separate power supply with the docking station that you connect to a power connection on the back of the docking station. You would expect that with a docking station in this price range, but unfortunately that power supply is not intended to charge the connected laptop. The power supply is purely for the functionality of the docking station itself. For example, this provides enough power to connected external hard drives. Incidentally, the dock does work without a connected power supply, but then part of the functionality does not work. For example, the network connection is not available without a power adapter connected. To also charge your laptop with the docking station, you will have to connect your own USB-C power supply to the intended USB-C connection on the back. You can use a power supply of 100 watts at most. Of course you can use the charger supplied with your laptop for this, although there are laptops that can be charged via USB-C that come with a charger with a different charging connection. In that case, you will have to arrange a relatively expensive USB-C power supply yourself. In any case, it is of course a bit inconvenient that you still have to connect a separate charger with a docking station that is clearly designed to always be on your desk.
Performance
The docking station uses USB controllers from Via Labs with most components connected to the system at USB3.0 speed (Gen 1). This includes the existing USB ports on the dock, the network controller and the card reader. An exception has only been made for the sound card built-in due to the headphone jack. It is connected via USB 2.0. The built-in network controller comes from Realtek while the audio part is from C-Media Electronics Inc. coming. It is nice that all parts of the docking station also work directly through macOS without additional drivers. All USB ports are USB 3.2 Gen 1, the current name for ports that meet the original USB3.0 speed of 5 Gbit/s. The faster Gen2 standard of 10 Gbit/s is therefore not supported. In practice, you only really suffer from this if you want to connect fast external SSDs via the docking station.
We used an external SSD to test the speed of the USB connections. Connected via the docking station, a speed of 447 MB/s is achieved, while this SSD directly connected to the same laptop achieves a speed of 549 MB/s. The network controller is neatly connected via a gigabit speed, but in practice with a speed of 892 Mbit/s it performs slightly less than expected. You will not achieve the highest speeds with this docking station, but it will be more than enough for many applications. Incidentally, we also see the same with other docking stations.
Multiple screens
The dock is equipped with an HDMI 2.0 port and two DisplayPort 1.4 connections. If your laptop supports this, you can connect a 4K screen with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Depending on your laptop, you can also connect multiple screens at the same time in addition to one screen. It depends on your laptop whether multiple screens are actually supported. That is not possible on a MacBook anyway. If this is supported, then a maximum of 4K with a refresh rate of 60 Hz is supported for two screens simultaneously. However, if you connect three screens, then three times a 4K screen with a refresh rate of 60 Hz is only possible if your laptop supports DSC (display stream compression). Without DSC, up to twice 4K at 30 Hz plus a Full HD display at 60 Hz is possible. Of course you can also connect two or three Full HD screens.
Conclusion
The ACT USCB-C 4K Multiport Docking Station is a handy device that does what it’s supposed to do and looks great in design. However, the docking station with a price of about 200 euros belongs to the more expensive copies that you can buy and then some things stand out. For example, faster USB Gen2 ports with a speed of 10 Gbit/s are not provided. There is also no power supply for a laptop included, something that should have been liked for what this dock costs. In practice, you will have to plug in your own charger before you can connect your laptop, which is a bit inconvenient for a relatively large docking station that is intended for permanent installation.
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