GTrusted

Urban Factory Hubee USB-C Mobile Station (TCM10UF) Supports Active USB Power Delivery But Has Power Management Issues

The Hubee USB-C Mobile Station (TCM10UF) by French based Urban Factory lets you charge your USB Type-C notebook PC or tablet while accessing an external display, storage, headphones, and faster network. By supporting active USB Power Delivery 2.0 negotiation for charging over USB Type-C, the Hubee dock is similar to the Plugable USB-C Triple Display Docking Station, CalDigit Type-C Dock and OWC Type-C Dock to name a few. The Hubee USB-C Mobile Station (TCM10UF) connects to the computer using its affixed USB Type-C cable to offer up to 60W charging for the computer as well as two USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s) Type-A ports, one HDMI 1.4 port, one VGA port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, one 60W Type-C charging in port, one microSD card slot and one 3.5mm audio port.    

The Hubee USB-C Mobile Station (TCM10UF) should be compatible with most computers that support USB, DisplayPort Alternate Mode, and USB Power Delivery technologies over a single USB Type-C connector but it's best to check with the manufacturer's specs or GTrusted's product pages for that information.

Note there were some problems after we connected the Hubee dock between a external USB Power Delivery based charger and a MacBook Pro 2018. We observed that whatever PDO's the USB PD charger advertised into the dock, the dock would advertise the same PDO's without any adjustments to the Mac. For example if a PDO of 60 watts (20 volts @ 3 amps) was advertised by the charger into the dock, the dock will advertise this 60 watts (20 volts @ 3 amps) PDO to the Mac. If the Mac loads full 60 watts for charging which leaves no power to support the other connectivity functions of the dock. For this case the dock got damaged when the Mac was pulling full power while other ports/functions of the dock were also being used (perhaps due to lack of power budget to support all operations). Also since the dock lacks any much over current or voltage protection, it was also found to be damaged only after a few weeks of use so be careful when using it.

Here's a quick close up of the Hubee USB-C Mobile Station (TCM10UF) after we recently purchased from Fry's Electronic USB-C Products.

Inside the packaging there's the Hubee USB-C Mobile Station (TCM10UF) and a quick guide as its only accessory.  

The Hubee USB-C Mobile Station (TCM10UF) is able to support connection to a HDMI display through a DisplayPort Alternate Mode to HDMI conversion and a legacy VGA display. The HDMI port allows a max resolution of 1080p coming from DisplayPort Alternate Mode.

The two USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s) USB Type-A ports can be used to attach your USB peripherals and one USB Type-C downstream port to connect to a external AC adapter for the dock's own power supply up to 60W. There is also a Gigabit Ethernet port to provide LAN connectivity.

The dock doesn't have a good design by having the USB Type-A ports, Type-C charging in port and Ethernet port too close to each other which can be difficult to access or connect multiple devices when connected to the PC.

If you don't need a more expensive active USB Power Delivery based hub, you can consider the Urban Factory Type-C Hub TCH02UF that can also be used with your USB Type-C based tablets and notebook PC's but is priced much lower since it doesn't support active USB Power Delivery negotiation and has more limited connectivity options (click here for review).