Inateck 3-Port USB 3.0 hub + Ethernet review
If you’ve got a newer incredibly thin laptop or tablet, chances are you don’t have a lot of USB 3.0 ports taking up valuable space. Some of the newer devices you’re lucky if you have even one USB port without going through a manufacturer-specific adapter.
And what good is your WiFi-only device when you enter a secure hardwired-only environment, or where the WiFi is so weak as to be useless?
Inateck has a solution for your fevered data transmission needs, but it’s not more cowbell. It’s a three port 5Gbps aluminum unibody hub with a 1000mbit Ethernet adapter on the end.
It’s a fairly interesting setup. You plug the device in, any modern OS detects the USB hub with no issue, but then a drive pops up on your computer asking if you want to install the drivers for the network card. Install those and you’re golden.
Unfortunately I don’t have anything to test out the 5Gbs speed as I have no USB-3 SSD devices, but from copying data off of two USB sticks it appears it’s going as fast as the USB sticks can push data without hiccuping on network traffic. You’d probably start noticing some Ethernet slowdown once you neared that 5Gbs threshold, but considering your plug into the computer is maxed out at 5Gbs, there’s really no way around that.
Is that a problem for anyone? I don’t think so. Not yet anyway. We’ve probably got a few years worth of data hog applications to be built before you look at 5Gbs and think “hrmm, too slow.”
The Inateck USB 3.0 hub + Ethernet port is available from Amazon for $25.99.
