Ugreen Revodok Max 213 Thunderbolt dock review: Solid but overpriced

Best Prices Today: Ugreen Revodok Max 213 Thunderbolt 13-in-1 Docking Station

Ugreen’s Revodok Max 213 13-in-1 Thunderbolt Docking Station stands out as a solidly built, but unfortunately overpriced Thunderbolt 4 dock, in a market where there are many other offerings at competitive prices.

It’s telling that the the Revodok Max 213 13-in-1 is actually very similar to the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4 (TS4) — our pick for the best Thunderbolt dock for Macs. Both are metal monoliths with aggressive port combinations and venting, and premium pricing. That’s ironic, since many of Ugreen’s other docks offer similar quality at far more affordable prices. Put simply, this is an excellent dock, but you can save money elsewhere.

Further reading: Best Thunderbolt docks 2024

With that said, this is a Thunderbolt 4 dock, pure and simple. Many of Ugreen’s other docks use the DisplayLink compression format, which is an excellent, cheaper alternative. But this dock delivers 40Gbps back and forth to your PC, split up between a number of useful ports. Ugreen, which makes GaN chargers, also includes a compact 180W power supply that allows the dock to supply 90W of power to your laptop.

Ugreen’s Revodok Max 213 13-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 dock is one of the sturdiest docks we’ve ever seen. But it doesn’t quite live up to the price Ugreen is charging, and has a little less flexibility and performance than we’d like.

There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which are intended to connect to a display. This gives this dock a Mac-centric feel, since Apple’s Studio Display and Pro Display XDR both use direct Thunderbolt 3 inputs. But there’s a small but growing market of USB-C displays in the Windows world, too, where this output will also work. Otherwise, you can buy a conversion cable to take the Thunderbolt input and convert it to HDMI, for example. There is, however, a dedicated (undisclosed) DisplayPort connection, as well.

According to Ugreen, this dock can connect to a single 8K display at 30Hz or two 4K displays at 60Hz — par for the course for a Thunderbolt dock.

Otherwise, the front of the dock includes a pair of 10Gbps USB-A ports, an SD 4.0 (312MB/s transfer rate) card slot as well as a TF or SD micro slot, a headphone jack, and a 10Gbps USB-C port capable of delivering 20W. Everything is well-labeled, which doesn’t always happen with every dock. On the rear, there are three Thunderbolt port connections: one to your laptop, plus two other upstream ports. There’s the previously-mentioned DisplayPort port, a 2.5Gbps Ethernet jack, and two 5Gbps USB-A legacy ports.

It should be emphasized, however, that the design of the dock helps justify the price. Fashioned entirely of metal, the dock is exceptionally sturdy, dense, and compact (2.0 x 3.75 x 5.75 inches, 1.72 pounds), to the point where you could almost consider it for home defense or a clunky laptop riser. (We’re joking.) Aggressive passive venting lines each side. There’s no base to steady it, but it stands vertically just fine, even with cables dragging it down. And overheating? You should have no worries in that regard.

Because this is a Ugreen dock, expect some naming quirks. On the box, this dock is labeled as the Revodok Max Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station, not the Max 213. The manual also identifies it as the Model U710, which you won’t find listed anywhere else. And while Ugreen’s Revodok index page identified the dock as 20 percent off — or $320 — that price did not ring up in Ugreen’s shopping cart.

How is the Ugreen Revodok Max 213’s performance?

In general, the Ugreen Revodok Max 213 performed mostly adequately.

From a stability standpoint, I didn’t notice any flickering or instability, evidence of a poor connection. Any connected displays will still take a few seconds to “light up” as the dock and the monitor connect and negotiate, and that was normal behavior here, too. I connected a 4K display via a Thunderbolt-rated USB-C to HDMI cable, and another using a direct DisplayPort connection. Both 4K displays operated at 60Hz, reliably, save for one time where I had to reinsert the Thunderbolt cable to power on one display.

The front USB-C port delivered about 15.5W of charging power at peak, enough to fast-charge a smartphone. The USB-A ports provided about 2.5W of power, not enough to power a smartphone — which they’re not intended to do, and that’s certainly enough for most legacy peripherals. The dock itself supplied a maximum of about 82W of power to my laptop — not quite what was promised, but not too shabby.

Playing back a 4K60 test video worked flawlessly. But when I played two simultaneously, one on each monitor, the videos dropped more frames than I’d like: 104 out of 10,000 frames on one, and 244/10,000 on the other. You might not normally play two videos simultaneously, but it’s a good test for how the dock behaves under load.

I use PCMark’s storage benchmark to determine how fast a test SSD is to determine if the dock is affecting it, and also copy a folder from the SSD to the host. In general, Thunderbolt docks tend to be a little slower than a DisplayLink dock. By comparison, the $129.99 Ugreen Revodok Pro 13-in-1 Triple Display Docking Station recorded 144.67MB/s in my storage tests, while the $399.99 Revodok Max 213 recorded 129.45MB/s. That’s within the general range of most Thunderbolt 4 docks.

Should you buy the Ugreen Revodok Max 213?

In the end, there are better, much less expensive options to choose from. You don’t have to choose a DisplayLink dock like Ugreen’s 13-in-1, but they are far less expensive. And our best picks for Thunderbolt docks may not offer the variety of ports the Ugreen Revodok Max 213 offers. If you want to pay close to $400 for this dock, you can, and you’ll receive a pretty good product in return. But you absolutely don’t need to.

I’m awarding this an Editor’s Choice, as I’d use it. I just wouldn’t buy it.

Best Prices Today: Ugreen Revodok Max 213 Thunderbolt 13-in-1 Docking Station