When it comes to laptops and notebooks, I’ve always been the kind of person who has just dealt with having a limited number of ports, and half of the time, the only ones I ever bothered to use were the USB ports. I also didn’t consider using external monitors with one, but when my nine-to-five employer sent a 13.6-inch device locked down for work purposes, I started to miss the two 27-inch screens I was using while working on my desktop.

Razer has come to the rescue, sending us the new USB 4 Dock, a 14-in-1 multiport adapter that solves all of the problems I didn’t know I had.

Coming with a meter-long high-speed USB-C cable, the simple, no-frills design is available in either black or mercury, with the only real stand-out feature being a simple black Razer logo, and it benefits from a total of 14 ports to cover any connectivity issues you might have.

Five of the available ports are USB Type A; three of these are USB 3.2, two are Gen 1, offering 5Gbps transfer speeds, and one is Gen 2, providing transfer speeds up to 10Gbps. The last two are USB 2.0, both offering 480Mbps transfer speeds, with one set aside as a dedicated slot for the dongle for 2.4GHz wireless devices.

Three USB Type-C ports offer additional connectivity, with the USB 4 Type-C working as the upstreaming USB, or the connection to your preferred device, also providing up to 100W of power to a connected device, such as my work computer. The other two are USB 3.2 Gen 2, one of which also offers battery charging 1.2 at 20 Watts, bringing our overall USB count to six, not including the connection to the device.

For the creatives out there, two slots offer easy access for a standard-sized SD Card and a Micro SD Card, both supporting 3/0 UHS-II, as well as a headset combo port that can support 7.1 surround sound, and if you find yourself without an ethernet connection on your device, a 1Gb RJ45 ethernet port will let you physically plug into a router or modem, but there was something I was more excited for.

The last two full-sized ports allow you to connect additional monitors to your device, and this is something I found very helpful after going back to a 13.6-inch device. These both support 4K resolutions, with the DisplayPort 1.4 offering up to 240Hz, and the HDMI 2.1 port can run 120Hz, though if both are connected, the second will be reduced to 60Hz, but even this exceeds my needs for work-related use.

I’ll stick to a direct connection to my GPU when it comes to gaming, however.

The setup was remarkably simple, and it was very much a case of plug-and-play, even on my locked-down work device. I didn’t need to download any fancy software – both my gaming PC and my work MacBook Air instantly recognised the device and allowed me to have an additional monitor.

An added bonus is that it will also charge the Mac while I use it, and it offers plenty of additional USB ports – I am limited to two USB-C ports on that device, but now I have every port I could ever need.

The Razer 14-in-1 USB-4 Dock offers the best solution to a problem I didn’t realise I had. It’s quick and easy to set up on both PC and Apple devices, and it has completely changed the way I use my devices. I wasn’t even bothered by the lack of RGB lighting.

I had been contemplating buying the branded Digital AV Multiport adapter for my work computer, but this offers so much more for a very competitive price.

Written by: Mathew Lindner