Plugable 4K USB C Docking Station Triple Monitor with 100W Power Delivery | USB C Dock for Windows and Mac, Thunderbolt 3/4 | Driver Required | 3X HDMI and 3X DisplayPort (UD-ULTC4K)

As a guy who works in IT I never would have believed that any laptop in 2023 would ever go back to only working with one monitor after almost any laptop made in the past 5 years would easily work with 2-3 monitors. As I started to support people using M1 and M2 Apple laptops I was baffled to find that they only work with one monitor. My first assumption was that my co-workers didn't know jack diddly squat since obviously I'm the expert here. Imagine my humiliation when I found out they were right. This has kept me up at night, so here I am venting about it to my fellow Amazon explorers.Apple just keeps making my life harder by convincing people that their bantha poodoo computers with 8GB RAM in 2023 are better than my professional recommendations.What is DisplayLink? - All you need to know is that it enables laptops that only support one monitor to work with two monitors. It basically works by compressing display data so that there is enough bandwidth to send data to a second monitor on a poopy data pipeline. Magically, it makes a useless Apple laptop a little more tolerable.There is one downside I've noticed while using this. A lot of my co-workers use this with the laptop display on as well as 2 external 4K monitors. The first external monitor works fine, but the second extra monitor has a noticeably lower frame/refresh rate. It's fine if you aren't watching videos or doing anything graphical. (Not like their laptop could handle that stuff in the first place) Most people just make that their email or spreadsheet monitor. I would assume that this probably only happens with 2 4K displays. I don't have other displays to test unfortunately. People obviously still prefer to have a slower second monitor than no second monitor at all. However, regardless of how annoying that downside might be, I don't blame Plugable. I blame Apple. Plugable is performing miracles by creating something out of nothing. Apple is just creating a demand for miracles.The last helpful thing you should know is the difference between Plugable's DisplayLink docks vs their Thunderbolt 3 Docks... If your laptop has a Thunderbolt port AND (the important word is 'AND') has a CPU/GPU/APU that supports 2+ external monitors then you definitely want the Thunderbolt dock. You will have plenty of bandwidth to use multiple 4K monitors at the same time at full speed. If you are moneybanks enough to have a high-end Apple laptop with a slightly less poopy CPU that supports 2+ monitors you will also want the Thunderbolt 3 dock instead. It works fine.DisplayLink Dock - Makes a poopy computer better than it was. If your DisplayLink dock could talk they would tell your lappy, "It's okay little guy, I'll try to translate your sign language so the other monitor can understand what you're trying to say."Thunderbolt 3 Dock - Makes your monitors treat your laptop like the champ it is. If your Thunderbolt docky could talk this is what it would look like:Docky: It's okay little gu...Lappy: LITTLE GUY!?? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM??!??!Docky: Uhhh, where did the other guy go?Lappy: OTHER GUY? I KILLED THE OTHER GUY! I'M THE NEW GUY AND THINGS ARE GOING TO WORK A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY AROUND HERE!Docky: My apologies, I just haven't talked to a coherent computer in years. What are your orders sir?Lappy: INTERPRET MY INCREDIBLE DANCE MOVES AND DISPLAY THE INFORMATION ON ALL FOUR 4K MONITORS!Docky: AYE AYE CAP'N!!!!Narrator: And they lived happily ever after until the bearings on Lappy's cooling fans gave out 6 years later.

This works seamlessly with my M3 macbook connected to two 27" monitors with 2560x1440 resolution.

Took me 10 minutes to set up my 3 monitors with my MacBook Air M3, all three monitors working great. I can easily drag my applications across the three monitors. I tried rebooting, disconnecting and reconnecting, etc. Everything works great. It's really a plug and play device, it's exactly what I wanted, and I'm loving it. My MacBook can remain closed at all times, but it always works when the MacBook cover is opened. USB ports are working great. Headphone input is also working fine.

This is such a great product when you need multiple monitors. Three 4K monitors, 4 USB 3.0 ports on a small MacBook Pro! I also love that it has 100W power for a great single-connection dock to my desktop setup. I also use a magnetic quick-connect high-speed adapter that makes this docking so easy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097CTLNDK (I've bought several to use on all my laptops).Color is a problem if you care about that. I have color calibrated monitors from ASUS (all same model). These are connected to my MacBook Pro M1 13-inch laptop. The Plugable device has Display 1 (pass-through of Mac video) and Display 2, Display 3 outputs activated by DisplayLink software. The MacBook Pro screen and the Display 1 are equally warm (no Night Shift) and pleasant. Display 2 and Display 2 are a bit brighter and more blue. The photo attached to the review hints at the difference but it is much more pronounced when seen in person with the eye.Plugable and DisplayLink don't work with blue light reduction (Apple Night Shift). Although DisplayLink has a beta feature claiming to support Flux (a third party blue light reduction), it didn't work on my setup.Another minor point is that when I plug HDMI into the Display 3, it adds some extra hum to my professional audio studio monitors (speakers not screens)...the screens are all identical models and cables.Contacting Tech support through the Plugable web site worked well for some blocker problems that we worked through, including the first device I received that had a defective Display 2 circuit. They shipped a replacement and that solved the problem. Using the support email provided in the documentation didn't work so well (went to a different team, didn't understand the problems).FYI, if you want to watch streaming entertainment services, they have screen recording detection that blacks out the screen when recording is present. DisplayLink uses this "screen recording" for the extra displays and so you have to deactivate the extra displays in the DisplayLink control panel to watch streaming services. Not the worst thing, but good to know.Other than all that, this Plugable device is a great way to get 2 extra 4K monitors (total of 3) connected to my MacBook Pro, and for that, I can be more productive in the things I want to work on and enjoy.