Satechi Multiport Adapter 8K with Ethernet V3 review: The world isn’t ready for it yet

I’ve reviewed many a docking station in my days, but while Satechi is a fairly well-known brand, the Satechi Multiport Adapter 8K with Ethernet V3 (yes, that’s the actual name) is the first one I get to go hands-on with. This isn’t a docking station, strictly speaking, but it’s a USB hub that serves a lot of the same purposes.

While I love the look and feel of this hardware, this product doesn’t seem to suit the reality of the market we’re in. All of its USB ports are Type-C, and while that sounds like a good thing, it ends up making this docking station a lot less useful for most people.

About this review: Satechi sent us the Multiport Adapter 8K with Ethernet V3 for this review. The company didn’t have any input in its contents.

Price and availability

Satechi launched the Multiport Adapter V3 (as I’ll refer to it going forward) on March 7, with it becoming available the day it was announced. At writing time, it seems like you can only find it at Satechi’s own website or Amazon, but the company has a big presence at Best Buy and other retailers, so you should see it there soon.

The Satechi Multiport Adapter V3 costs $99.99, a small increase over its predecessor, and it comes in three color options to match most of the MacBook Air models, minus the Starlight option.

What I like

A premium design

As soon as I took the Satechi Multiport Adapter V3 out of the box, I was surprised at how great it feels in the hand. Not that you’ll be holding it frequently, of course, but for something this small, this USB hub has a surprising amount of heft, and the metal chassis makes it feel decidedly premium. The sleeved built-in cable is also nice. It does cost $100, so this should be expected, but it’s nice to see all the same.

The model I got comes in the more boring Silver colorway, though you can get it an Space Grey or Midnight. I wish Satechi had made a Starlight option since that’s the best color available on the MacBook Air, but you have three nice subdued options here.

A good supply of ports

Of course, a USB hub is as good as its ports, and Satechi did a good job for something so small. The company went for a very future-minded port selection, going all-in on USB-C (minus a major drawback I’ll mention later), with a total of five USB-C ports, on top of the connection to the host computer. One of these ports is used for charging, but the other four are used for data, with three 10Gbps ports and one 5Gbps one.

The display output is also fairly future-proof, with the HDMI 2.1 port supporting up to an 8K 30Hz display, or 4K at up to 144Hz. You also get gigabit Ethernet and a full-size SD card reader supporting speeds up to 312Mbps. It’s all pretty good on paper, and it works as advertised, so it’s good in that sense.

I’ll also mention that it supports 85W of passthrough charging for a 100W power input, which you’ll have to provide yourself. That’s a bit of power being lost, but it should ensure that any peripherals connected to the hub also have enough power to function properly.

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Overall, everything works totally fine. I was able to use my keyboard and mouse, webcam, and a wireless headset that uses a USB-C dongle, plus my monitor (with the caveat I’ll mention later).

What I don’t like

The world isn’t ready to go all-in on USB-C

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t necessarily the fault of the Satechi Multiport Adapter V3. In an ideal world, all the peripherals we have today would be using USB-C already, especially with it being 10 years or so since USB-C started to appear on premium laptops. But unfortunately, when I plugged it in, I realized that all USB-C ports won’t work for me, and it likely won’t for you, either.

It’s a case of “it’s not you, it’s me”, but instead of me, I’d say the problem is the market at large. My setup includes the Cherry Xtrfy K5V2 keyboard that launched earlier in March 2024 and the Logitech MX Master 3S, launched in 2023. Yet, both of these modern premium peripherals still connect to my laptop via USB Type-A, so I couldn’t use them with this hub. Instead, I had to use my monitor’s USB hub as a fallback, though I did connect the monitor to one of the USB-C ports on the Satechi hub, and the peripherals worked just fine through this chained connection. But there’s another caveat.

No DisplayPort Alt Mode

For a USB hub so focused on going all in on USB-C, I’m almost shocked that the Satechi Multiport Adapter doesn’t have a port that’s capable of display output. One of the big benefits of USB-C is that it can do everything, so I’m confused as to why you can only use a display through the HDMI port. This becomes a problem because HDMI ports on monitors, including my own, are often more limited than the DisplayPort inputs.

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That meant I couldn’t get the most out of my screen, and it also means that you’ll always be limited to just one extra display from this hub. This makes some sense if you consider that the MacBook Air only supports one external display, but for other laptops, it might be a problem.

Ultrawide monitors may be a problem

My complaint here may be very particular since most people probably won’t be in the same situation, but I also found that connecting to my monitor (an LG UltraWide 49WQ95C) didn’t work very well. I knew I wouldn’t be able to use the full capabilities of the monitor through HDMI, but usually, it should support the full resolution (5120×1440) at half the framerate (72Hz).

However, it didn’t work, and I suspect it’s because of the unusual 32:9 aspect ratio. Instead, I could use Full HD resolution (3840×1080) at 120Hz, which feels very limiting on a 49-inch screen. Oddly enough, Windows also gives me the option for 4K resolution in 16:9 while using this hub, despite the monitor itself not supporting this resolution.

I’ve seen this issue before with another adapter, so I know it’s not exclusive to Satechi, but most docking stations I’ve used do work fine with this screen, at least through DisplayPort. It’s something to consider if you have a monitor like this, though I suspect that won’t affect most people. I also experienced some brief disconnects, particularly in the first couple of minutes after plugging the hub to use my external display.

Should you buy the Satechi Multiport Adapter V3?

As much as I like the build quality of the Satechi Multiport Adapter V3, and I really do wish we lived in a world where going all-in on USB-C is a good idea, it’s hard to recommend this hub to most people unless you’re lucky enough to have fully transitioned to USB-C by now. Still, the ports are fast and work well, you get support for 8K displays, and gigabit Ethernet, so the hardware is good. It’s just hard to find a use case for it.

You should buy the Satechi Multiport Adapter V3 if:

• You’re already all-in on USB-C
• You only need one external display
• You’re looking for great build quality

You shouldn’t buy the Satechi Multiport Adapter V3 if:

• You still have USB Type-A peripherals and don’t want more adapters
• You use multiple external displays
• Your external monitor uses USB-C or DisplayPort

Satechi Multiport Adapter 8K with Ethernet V3

Modern to a fault

Great build quality and a modern selection of ports make the Satechi Multiport Adapter V3 a compelling offer, but it has enough drawbacks to be hard to recommend to most people unless you’ve fully transitioned to USB-C peripherals.