The Twelve South StayGo USB Hub is one of those peripherals I always wanted but never knew how much I needed until I’d used it for just a day. See, I spend most of my day on a laptop for work while reviewing laptops and desktops on the side. However, I have only one monitor, keyboard and mouse that I prefer to use for all the said devices. So having a dock like the StayGo to pass through all my peripherals and then only deal with swapping a single cable is such a time saver and convenience.
The $199.95 StayGo USB-C hub from Twelve South offers users three USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI video output, Gigabit Ethernet and a USB-C which also supports 85W Power Delivery. On to the side is also a full-size SD and MicroSD card reader which is great for quickly transferring photos and videos from a digital camera. These are unfortunately the slower UHS I variant but still very nice to have.
The StayGo uses a meter long USB-C cable to connect to your laptop but there’s also a much shorter cable which docks into the, er, dock for safe keeping. You can use that one for on the go use or if you’ve forgotten the main cable. The Dock allows for 85W Power Delivery which is enough to charge MacBook and most Windows laptops except for the more high-powered gaming ones.
In saying that, it still geeks me out that you can drive an entire laptop desk setup via a single cable. Not only is this extremely convenient but it also makes for a very clean setup. The downside though, is that you lose the only USB-C port on the dock. That means you’ll be stuck if you have only one USB-C port on your device and need to connect more USB-C peripherals to the dock.
In terms of the physical design, the StayGo is a wonderfully petite, black slab that easily blends into the background or your pocket. It’s about the size of an iPhone 12 and comes in black with an interesting dot matrix pattern printed on the face as well as handy icons above each port. The Aluminium body gets a little warm especially when you are charging through the dock but nothing concerning. The base has four feet which don’t really give the dock much stickiness, so if you use this on a fixed desk setup, it would be wise to get some 3M stickers to hold it on the desk’s surface.
The StayGo can output video at 4K 30Hz or 1080p 60Hz. It’s not the greatest for gamers but for productivity purposes, it’s more than enough. I would have liked to see at least 4K60 for gaming setups as once you have your laptop sitting on a good stand and connected to a monitor in an ergonomic setup, you’ll never go back.
I really like the StayGo USB dock. It just works out of the box and does everything I need it to do. But the sticker price is unsettling for me and I suspect many of you too. At $200, I am honestly conflicted. There are certainly cheaper options out there that offer similar features. I would have liked to see at least two Type-C ports with at least one of them as ThunderBolt 3 or 4. 4K 60Hz would also be nice however, I really can’t complain much about the StayGo. It’s an excellent little hub that’s great for both mobile and fixed setups.
Twelve South Australia provided the StayGo USB-C Hub for the purpose of this review.
