Modern laptops feature fewer and fewer ports. Whether you think that’s a conspiracy by Big Tech to sell you more peripherals or not, RCT will at least sell you the solution to the whole ‘not enough ports’ problem. Even better, they’ll be as affordable as possible while doing so.
We had three of the company’s products at the Stuff offices — the RCT PA-GAN100W (or the 100W Charging Travel Kit), the SD-11 (a twelve-in-one USB-C hub), and the DS-GN601C (a six-in-one USB-C hub). Much like printers, if you need one (or more) of these, you’ll need them. No amount of marketing, hype, or branding is ever going to make them sexy. But can they be useful?
RCT’s six-in-one USB Type C hub
If you have a small computer with a small port problem, the clumsily-designated DS-GN601C will help with that. It’s a small metal block containing a USB-C tether on one end, an Ethernet port on the opposite side, and three high-speed USB-A inputs along one of the vertical edges. The edge opposing the USB-As has a USB-C and full-sized HDMI along its length.
It’s the sort of thing that plays nicely with Apple’s MacBook Air range, being considerate enough to ensure that you don’t even lose the USB-C port you plug this one into. There is some plastic in the build — note the black section around the Ethernet port — and there’s a decidedly hollow feeling to the unit. We get the feeling RCT could have made this even smaller if they wanted to. That, perversely, would have driven the price up.
Let’s double that
Need more than six extra ports? The SD-11 will throw twelve of them your way. Almost none are superfluous, as long as you’re in the habit of using two external monitors and spend a lot of time around SD cards. Maybe you edit videos for a living, we don’t know.
Here you’ll find two full HDMIs, an SD and microSD slot, and a USB-C on one edge, with the opposite face containing four USB-A ports and one 3.5mm input. The bottom edge has an Ethernet port and a very retro VGA connection available, for those folks who can’t seem to let go of the past.
You shouldn’t need anything more complicated than this for any computer setup, unless you run four monitors and multiple connected devices at once (perhaps you edit a lot of videos). The plastic-and-metal build is constant across the range, as is that oddly hollow sensation when you pick RCT’s hub up. Most of the bits work as they should, but we’re a little concerned about the stability of the VGA port. Ours was a touch more wobbly than we’d like — if anything was going to break off and slip inside the casing, the fifteen-pin VGA connector would be that component.
How about if we go overseas?
The star of RCT’s show has to be the 100W travel charger. This item immediately found itself co-opted into just about every remote and semi-remote task Stuff did. The ability to swap plugs between the pictured American (type A) pins, which are always connected, and the two-pin Type C, the three-prong Type D, or the UK-centric Type G, with as little effort as sliding the new bit on, means it can replace several chargers for multiple devices — as long as those devices accept USB-C inputs for power. Thankfully, most modern tech does.
An array of USB-C ports and a lone USB-A means that up to four of your mobile devices can sip from that 100W electrical river at the same time. Of the three devices here, the RCT Charging Travel Kit is the most robustly built, though we’re a bit concerned about the longevity of the various clip-on plugs. If the plastic connectors holding them in place start to wear, there’s no retaining clip to stop them from slipping loose. Instead, you’ll be relying on gravity.
That assumes, of course, that your plug points are mounted with the charge block’s weight pressing down into the connection and not, like, sideways or upside down or something. When brand new, RCT’s block won’t have that problem, but a few solid months of constant switching might not be quite so forgiving. Still, if we had to pick one of this lot, the R775 100W charging kit would be our pick — and not just because we head overseas often enough to justify one.
RCT Hubs and Charging Kit verdict
Any time a product arrives at the Stuff offices and slots into how we do our work every day, you can be sure that it’s a useful product. RCT’s collection fits the bill, if a bit generically. Of the trio, the 100W Charging Travel Kit features the best build — something you’d demand from a product with a large amount of electricity running through it — and an excellent price tag. The two USB-C hubs are decent enough, especially since you’ll pay between R510 and R730 for the smaller and larger of the duo, but these could probably be replaced by any brand’s USB-C hub, and you wouldn’t notice the difference. They’re blocks of ports that connect to another port. That’s hard to make stand out and incredibly easy to replicate.
