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France, Paris
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Review on Belkin Upstream Charging Thunderbolt Transfer - F4U097Tt by Charles Wijaya

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Tried several permutations of the monitor/cable; it is not perfect and video cable quality is important

Update January 2022: I am currently using a late 2019 16" MBP with Big Sur 11.6.2. I've also added a Yeti/Blue USB studio mic and 1080p USB webcam and the performance is decent. .However, I have completely dispensed with using the DisplayPort connection on the docking station. Any connected monitor never wakes up (which Belkin more or less admitted) regardless of the type of cable I use. I recently added a third 27" 2560 x 1440 monitor so I now have one monitor connected to the dock via a Thunderbolt connector and two more monitors directly to the MBP which I am currently using in clamshell mode. So after owning it for almost 2 years the biggest problem I've had is that my cable organization isn't as good as it could be as I have to use 3 of the 4 Thunderbolt ports on the MBP. The other things I use it for - as a USB hub and gigabit ethernet - work great. ------ Original Review ------- ------------ Bought for a 2017 15" Macbook Pro with Mojave (work hasn't been solved by Catalina). The setup was easy, and given our new virtual work life with a Macbook connected, Ethernet helps ensure consistent latency and bandwidth quality for Zoom meetings. The device gets very hot, so it sits in the far corner of my desk with nothing on it and nothing in it close to maximize airflow around it ok I run a windows 10 VM via parallels in coherence mode about 95% of the time (2 cores and 4GB RAM) so the various security and backup apps, that my business needs work effectively twice, once on MacOs and once on Windows.This can spin the fans and draw most of the power, but the dock handles it just fine.Granted, I don't have anything else that draws power, hence the Macbook a full power supply has. pretty much by itself. As with others, the multiple monitor support was quirky and not ideal. Here are my settings: Monitor 1: Dell U2713HM purchased December 2013, 2560x1440@60Hz. /B078HVDMW2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Monitor 2: Dell S2716DG purchased September 2017, 2560x1440 , 60 Hz, .amazon.com/gp/product/B014I8T0YQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_UTF_title 1), connected to a USB Itanda HDMI to USB -c adapter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ B07JH8DM12/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) This monitor can run at 144hz, but I have a separate gaming rig that it runs on. That frequency and 60hz is pretty good for what I use my Macbook for , so I seek nothing higher than that. from this attitude. With this setup, the S2716DG works flawlessly at all times: after restarting the Macbook, connecting the Macbook to a document, waking the Macbook and the monitor up from sleep, all that. U2713HM hit or missed, however. In probably 80% of the cases, a Macbook will not wake up after waking it from sleep mode or docking the Macbook. He discovers something, but then falls asleep. Luckily, when I go into the display settings on the macbook (even if the monitor isn't on), the macbook recognizes this, so the "U2713HM Display Settings" panel appears either on another monitor or on the macbook's screen. This allows me to reset the U2713HM to 1080p which forces it to turn on and if I wait a few seconds by changing it back to 2560x1440 everything works fine. From there it works great. So it hurts a little, but it doesn't bother me. I tried a few different DP to USB-C cables for the U2713HM. One of them can only run at 1600 x 900 and the other at 2560 x 1440. However, as soon as I restart or the Macbook goes to sleep, it doesn't wake up and the U2713HM display settings panel doesn't appear. When using the same monitors plugged directly into my Macbook (one DisplayPort directly to the Macbook's Thunderbolt port, the other using Apple's HDMI/USB/Thunderbolt charging adapter), I didn't have these issues. Of course, the dock itself is a factor, as is the quality of the cable, the age of the monitor (I'm guessing here), what other monitors are connected and what resolution/frequency they're running at, and probably a few other factors I'm overlooking have. For the convenience the document gives me, this little headache is worth it.

img 1 attached to Belkin Upstream Charging Thunderbolt Transfer - F4U097Tt review by Charles Wijaya



Pros
  • practice and usefulness
Cons
  • Overheating: If the monitor is not properly ventilated, it can overheat and cause performance issues.

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