2 minutes, 52 seconds
After buying USB-C power adapter that didn’t work out, I’d been on the hunt for a replacement. After getting a Chromebook for video chats and music (and curiosity :) which has USB-C charging, I had an extra need for cheap, portable chargers and other simple USB-C accessories.
All these devices were tested on either my ASUS Chromebook Flip C101PA-DB02 or my Dell XPS 13 9350 or both.
What I really wanted was to plug a single cord into my laptop and have it work with my external webcam, external speakers, external 4k monitor @60Hz, external wireless headset and USB3 gigabit NIC. In the end, for stability, I ended up going with two cables: one for power and DisplayPort and one USB3.0 for my USB3.0 hub with everything else. My laptop not crashing makes me be totally OK with the two cables ;)
First up is a good, small travel charger with USB-C and USBA ports. It delivers the full 45W so it’ll work nicely with your MacBook and Dell XPS 13. It’ll work with your MacBook Pro, but not at the full rate as the stock charger. It’s the Yojock YKJ USB-C PD Charger with 45W:
After that, if you want a charger that’ll work at home (read: no folding plug), then this charger with attached cable is quite small and cheap. It’s the Nekteck 45W USB-C charger. It only has USB-C and, beware, my XPS 13 9350 says it’s only delivering 40W, but I’ve had no problems with it keeping my laptop charged even when it’s powering an external 4k monitor, running 4 containers, a full IDE and twenty odd tabs in FireFox.
Then, in the non-power-adapter accessories:
- This Plugable USB-C -> HDMI cable has worked well for a 4k monitor, but limited to 30Hz (source isn’t HDMI 2.0)
- Not a USB-C device per se., I’ve liked being able to easily switch USB inputs to my fancy speakers with RIJER 2 Input USB Switcher.
- If you want to power your laptop (of any wattage) AND have 4k output at 60Hz, then I highly recommend this StarTech USB-C -> DisplayPort adapter with USB-C PD (Power Delivery).
- If you want 4k output at 60Hz, but don’t need to charge your laptop, then this VicTsing USB-C -> DisplayPort adapter is great.
- If you do a lot of domestic flying where they don’t always have outlets, or simply want to power you laptop on the go, I’ve been really happy with the performance, price and weight of the ZeroLemon JuiceBox 20100mAh 45W Battery. It’s the cheapest battery I found that can charge at 45W (and not blow up ;).
- While I tested the HDMI and it worked at 4k @30hz from my ChromeBook, I use this RayCue USB-C Hub with 2xUSB3, 1xHDMI and 1xUSB-C PD with out the HDMI. Cheap and works well!
- Also not a USB-C device, but great to have upstream, is this super solid USB3.0 Hub by Anker. It’s the Anker 10 Port 60W Data Hub with 7 USB 3.0 Ports and 3 PowerIQ Charging Ports.
- Last on the list, also ALSO not USB-C ;) is this awesome USB3 Gigabite ethernet connector. Works on a mac (with driver download) and works on ubuntu (without driver download!!) and I get 100MB+/sec copy speed on my LAN.
These items I don’t recommend as they didn’t work as advertised with my ubuntu laptop;
To be clear, I am gathering the referral kickbacks from Amazon on these links, but I do use these products and wasn’t paid for the positive review.
If you have questions, feel free to contact me or ask in the comments!
As part of putting some good hardware to use, I taught a class on how to use SSH Keys the other week. As this was the first time I taught this class, it took a good long while to do the prep for it. I figured it’d take 6 hours (3 sessions @ 2hr), but I think I ended up putting in closer to 15 hours. There’s still room for improvement! 
