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The Beelink EX Mate Pro is a USB docking station that you can plug into a laptop to add storage, a few extra USB ports, HDMI output, and a 2.5 GbE LAN port. But there are two things that really make this dock interesting… if not necessarily the best bargain.
One is that it has two USB4 v2 ports with support for Thunderbolt 5-like 80 Gbps data transfer speeds. The other is that it looks almost identical to the Beelink Me Mini PC, suggesting that Beelink repurposed an existing mini PC case to create this dock.
The Beelink EX Mate Pro is available now for $199 (marked down from a list price of $239). It measures 99 x 99 x 98.3mm (3.89″ x 3.89″ x 3.87″) not including its rubber feet, and the dock includes the following features:
That last port is important, because this isn’t a dock that can draw all the power it needs directly from your laptop. Instead, there’s a 140 watt internal power supply and the Beelink EX Mate Pro comes with a power cable that allows you to plug the jack directly into a power source.
Its USB4 v2 upstream port provides up to 96 watts of USB power deliver output though, so you can probably power your laptop by plugging it into the dock with a USB-C cable.
The USB4 v2 downstream port, on the other hand, only supports 15 watt power delivery, so you may need a separate power source if you plan to use a graphics dock or other hardware that requires more than 15 watts.
If you’re wondering why a USB dock needs Bluetooth, it’s because this one can also function as a wireless speaker. There are volume buttons on top of the case, along with a play/pause button, an array of microphones for picking up your voice, and a mic mute button.
Overall, it’s an interesting mix of features that kind of make me wonder who this thing is for.
While it does allow you to connect multiple SSDs to a laptop, they’re each limited to PCIe 4.0 x1 speeds. And it adds only three USB ports to a laptop, and two of them support USB 3.0 or lower speeds, while the third only achieves USB4 v2 speeds if you plug it into a laptop that already has a USB4 v2 or Thunderbolt 5 port.
But at least it’s relatively cheap for a USB4 v2 dock.
via CNX Software
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