Review on XSOUL Enclosure Aluminium Portable Compatible by Matt Dyen

I travel a bit and carry a few USB hubs and a USB-C SSD. I picked up the XSOUL USB C Hub hoping I could get rid of the docking station and SSD. The XSOUL USB-C hub comes in a small retail box that includes a manual, a USB-C to USB-A adapter, a small Phillips screwdriver, and a hub. myself. It comes with a couple of inch cable attached for connection to a computer that folds down into a unit for safe storage/travel. The hub has 1 HDMI port, 3 USB-A USB3.0 ports and a powered USB-C port. Inside the device itself is an M.2 SATA SSD port. The M.2 port supports "B" or "B+M" key drives. This basically means that new NVMe drives will work in the device. Because this hub/dock only communicates at USB3 speeds, M.2 SATA SSDs are already making the most of what the port can transfer. It also supports 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 drives (first 2 digits are width and last 2 are length in mm). The device is working properly. I had no problems with the 250GB drive inserted and performance was decent; much better than carrying a flash drive with you. All the devices I connected to the ports also worked perfectly. I've tried a game controller, a flash drive, my SSD drive, an Android phone, and a few other things. Also, I checked the power supply on my ASUS laptop, Macbook Air and Google Pixelbook and they all charged quickly. There are a few things I don't like about this device. First you need a screwdriver to open the block and insert the disc. After so many years of working in IT, it's getting harder and harder to navigate through different websites and copy data from old, dead devices to new ones. Also, many USB-C hubs and docks have built-in SD card readers and/or Ethernet ports, so that doesn't prevent me from carrying an SD card reader or USB Ethernet adapter. Finally, I'd like it to come with at least a foot of cord instead of a few inches of cord, since use with desktops with front ports will require an extension cord (which can affect performance) otherwise the device will become stuck on the ports . All in all, this little hub does exactly what it promises. I don't really want to call it a docking station as it lacks features that many cheaper docking stations have. But if you just need a few ports and a monitor, have an old M.2 SATA drive and need an all-in-one that charges your laptop, this is the device for you.