Razer USB 4 Dock review: "solid, reliable, and surprisingly well-priced"

Sure, a Thunderbolt 4 dock is going to give you the best speeds, display connectivity, and compatibility, but what if a cheaper USB 4 dock could also throw you 100W power delivery, dual 4K displays, and a 40Gbps connection? That’s the question Razer is posing with its USB 4 Dock, a cheaper alternative to the brand’s $329.99 Thunderbolt option. At $229.99 / £229.99 it’s still more expensive than most non-powered hubs, but compared to the Ugreen, Dell, and CalDigit, it’s actually impressive value. You can easily spend far more than this and pick up a Thunderbolt or similar hub with fewer ports, more dropouts, and a greedier footprint.

As the best gaming laptops get slimmer, their ports are running dry. Unless you opt for an 18-inch behemoth, you’ll likely be sacrificing DisplayPort, extra USB-A connections, and even Ethernet support. If you’re running an AMD machine, or you simply don’t need to pay for the extra performance security of Thunderbolt, Razer’s oblong could well solve a lot of your problems.

Design

I’ve had my fair share of chunky docks on my desk. From towering Ugreen bricks to Dell slabs, all the way through to the bright lights of the JSAUX RGB Docking Station. None have looked as sleek and simple as the Razer USB 4 dock. Available in either black or silver (I received the latter), the small oblong keeps a low profile on top of a desk, and - should you have wires properly trained down the back of your setup - doesn’t sprawl out too much.

The entire chassis is built with the same premium finish as the best Razer laptops, with a soft finish, sturdy casing, and slimline design. It’s much smaller than any other dock I’ve tested in the past, though its low and flat design means it takes up more space than my Ugreen Revodok Pro. My desk is by no means small, but with a set of speakers, a couple of light bars, and a 32-inch monitor (as well as Razer’s laptop cooling pad) vying for space things can get pretty tight. The longer shape of the Razer USB 4 dock just didn’t quite fit in a way that would keep wires free from sprawling out over the corner of the table. That meant I called in some mounted reinforcements.

The truth is, I’ve always wanted to mount my docking station to the underside of my gaming desk. I hate fighting a nest of wires and spending all day staring at the setup I’ve been building for years being blighted by cables breaks the heart. The flat top and relatively lightweight form factor of the Razer USB 4 dock means that, with the help of a properly ventilated mount system, the entire docking station can sit perched just under the front lip of my desk. I have easy access to the SD card readers, 3.5mm audio, two USB-C ports, and one USB-A port located on the front with all my more permanent connections running underneath the main table top from the back.

I can do this because no matter how much I ran through the Razer USB 4 dock, temperatures always stayed manageable. If you’re running both HDMI and DisplayPort at full 4K, things can get a little warmer. It’s nothing to be worried about, but I’d recommend a ventilated mount instead of good old tape if you’re going to be pushing this dock to its limits. Outside of this dock’s specific testing, I only ever use a single QHD monitor over HDMI and the area is well ventilated. It goes without saying, but I have to say it, always make sure you’re taking thermals and ventilation into account when mounting accessories and, if in doubt, use a separate mounting tray.

If you’re keeping things topside, the Razer USB 4 dock comes outfitted with a grippy rubber bumper underneath to keep the device placed firmly on the desk. It’s still knockable and does shift around when replacing cables or plugging in new accessories.

Port access is nice and easy, if a little cramped on the rear and between the two USB-C ports on the front. Everything is still easily accessible, but if you use a larger USB-C receiver for a headset, for example, you’ll likely lose access to a connection. My SteelSeries Arctis Game Buds seem to be permanently plugged in these days, but the dongle takes up both connections on the front of the device.

There are also no labels on the device itself, and with a variety of different speeds up for grabs, I often found myself referring back to the product page’s manual for guidance on where everything would be best placed.

Features

Razer marketing exclaims the USB 4 dock has ‘countless ports’. The truth is there are 14, not including the main power connection. That’s on the higher end of average, with a good spread between USB-A and USB-C. I would have preferred one more USB-C connection to the rear of the device (there’s only space for the master upstream connection to your laptop) for more permanent peripherals, though. The Logitech StreamCam I use runs off USB-C, so I needed an adapter to keep it plugged in if I don’t want to keep it connected to my laptop itself.

Still, two usable USB-C ports and a total of five USB-A ports is a fantastic selection of connections. That fifth USB-A is even a dedicated channel for 2.4GHz receivers. Unfortunately, my testing was marred at the beginning. Razer supplies a USB 4 cable to run its dock with straight out of the box and, while my HDMI connection remained stable, I couldn’t get anything from any of the USB (C or A) ports when using this cord. The issue was fixed with a separate high-speed cable running to the same USB 4 port on my Razer Blade 14.

Display support is solid for a USB 4 device. Like most, both the HDMI and Display Port connections can run 4K monitors at 120Hz refresh rates - though, also like most, only one panel can use the full speed of its connection at a time. That’s not uncommon - a lot of dual-4K docks limit one of their connections to 60Hz, but there are others that don’t, and a lot more than add an extra video-out for a third display as well.

With up to 100W power delivery, you’re getting the same sturdy charge as you would from a Thunderbolt 4 device, on paper. That ‘up to’ means your actual power could dip from this rate, whereas a true Thunderbolt dock will carry 100W as a baseline. Still, I never noticed any power issues from my dock (and I’ve tested many alternatives that certainly do present problems with the same setup).

Performance

I swapped out my regular QHD panel for something a little more Ultra to test the Razer USB 4 dock, running an RTX 4070 Razer Blade through the dock and up to a 4K panel using an HDMI 2.1 cable. Everything ran smoothly, offering crisp 120Hz visuals in lighter games (the RTX 4070 is far from a UHD card). Connecting a separate panel via DisplayPort was easy enough and without too much of an additional thermal load on the dock itself.

As expected, running two displays at the same time was slower, but everyday gameplay was still enjoyable. You’d need a monster of a gaming laptop to go full blast on two separate 4K 120Hz gaming monitors at the same time, after all, so I’m happy Razer is catering to the masses with this cheaper alternative.

Transferring larger files to an external hard drive was about as fast as if I were doing it directly on the Blade itself. I moved a 24GB 4K game stream file between an external drive and my laptop back and forth with no noticeable delays when the dock sat in the middle.

Aside from the aforementioned difficulties with the supplied USB 4 cable, all accessory ports functioned as expected on the dock itself. Cheaper docks can stutter or drop power when faced with a full load of peripherals - I’ve played that game of Buckaroo too many times. I never felt like I was juggling with this device, though. My permanent connections are a wireless Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro (polling at 4,000Hz), a wireless Razer Basilisk V3 Pro (polling at 1,000Hz), a set of SteelSeries Arctis Game Buds, a Mountain MacroPad, an EasySMX X10 controller, and a Logitech StreamCam webcam.

That’s a load that makes even similarly priced competitors lose connection (my Ugreen model often fails to recognize new inputs in one of its USB-A ports when everything is hooked up) and overload. Considering that Mountain MacroPad is one of the most power-hungry USB-A accessories in my arsenal, I was incredibly impressed with the stability of the Razer USB 4 Dock.

Should you buy the Razer USB 4 Dock?

The Razer USB 4 Dock is staying firmly in place under my desk, and considering the number of hubs, stations, and bricks I’ve been through over the last few years that’s certainly a relief. With a slick design, excellent temperatures, and a reliable selection of robust, speedy ports, the Razer USB 4 Dock has solved a lot of the setup problems I’ve been facing with alternatives from Ugreen and JSAUX. While it does drop three-display connectivity and you don’t quite get the full benefit of a Thunderbolt system, this is a dock that’s going to see you through dual-monitor setups with the kind of ease I could have only dreamed of just a few years ago.

I’ve been through my fair share of desk setups, balancing cables and power requirements, overloading extensions, and wrangling several monitor arm designs. As I slowly build my dream desk (we’re currently at v.6.3), I may well grow out of the limited USB-C ports and require a more substantial 3-4 port Thunderbolt system. In truth, though, that would be my only concern. If you have a lot of USB-C accessories or storage requirements, a more substantial Thunderbolt alternative may be required. Otherwise, Razer’s actually offering solid value for money in a neat, compact solution here.

How I tested the Razer USB 4 Dock

I’ve had the Razer USB 4 Dock running my entire desk setup for the past two weeks. In everyday use, it was connected to a Samsung Odyssey G5 QHD 144Hz gaming monitor, but I also connected it to two 4K 120Hz monitors separately for testing purposes. In my regular setup, the dock was tested while connected to a Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop via a Belkin USB 4 40Gbps cable. It ran via a Ugreen HDMI 2.1 cable, with Razer, SteelSeries, Logitech, and EasySMX accessories attached.

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