9

UGREEN Revodok Pro 209 USB-C Docking Station Review

A rock solid USB-C docking station.

They’re not exactly the most exciting or glamorous pieces of tech, but a reliable and port packed USB-C hub is near enough an essential piece of kit in modern working setups. As manufacturers continue to offer fewer and fewer ports on laptops it’s been left to accessory brands like Ugreen to pick up the slack when it comes to connectivity. 

The Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 should have all bases covered. Offering a range of ports covering everything from external displays to gigabit ethernet, this £199 option promises to do it all. It’s not a small investment, but is it a worthy one?

simply put

As a reliable, no frills USB-C docking station the UGREEN Revodok Pro 209 is excellent. It might lack a port or two but the ones that are here do an excellent job.

the good bits

Superb build quality
Sleek, understated design
Dual external display support
Gigabit ethernet speeds

the not so good bits

No SD card reader
Just two USB-A ports

check latest prices

UGREEN Revodok Pro 209 9-in-1 Universal USB-C Docking Station

design

The Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 cuts a pretty slim profile and it’s impressive just how compact this USB-C dock is given the feature set on offer. At only 16.6cm long and 8cm wide the desk space required is barely larger than an iPhone 15 Pro and a relatively flat 2.3cm thickness means it’ll easily fit under most laptop stands or even taped under a desk.

Build quality is superb, which is typical of Ugreen accessories I’ve tested in the past, and certainly befitting of a USB dock that costs the best part of £200. The gunmetal grey aluminium shell both looks and feels luxurious with a matte effect that stops the Revodok Pro 209 becoming a fingerprint magnet. It’s the same outfit you’ll find across the Ugreen range including the excellent Nexode Pro chargers.

What stands out with the Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 is how solid the dock feels. Nothing flexes or creaks, even under deliberate load, it almost feels like a single laminated block rather than a hollow shell. The Revodok Pro 209 is reassuringly weighty too, no matter how rigid the cable I attached the dock remained flat on my desk. A couple of rubber feet at either end keep it slightly elevated to help with cooling and also stopped it sliding around my desk, though you will need to hold on when plugging in most cables.

check latest prices

Turning attention to the selection of ports raises a technical definition vs realistic scenario debate. The Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 is marketed as a nine-port USB-C dock, the ports are asymmetrically divided and you’ll find three on the front and six on the back. However the two HDMI and two DisplayPort outputs are a ‘this or that’ choice, so you could argue they count as one each; which would in theory make this a seven-port USB-C dock. It’s not underhanded to say it’s a nine-port dock, there are objectively nine on there; you just can’t use all nine together.

performance

It’s a hard life being a USB-C docking station, there isn’t really an opportunity to truly impress but plenty of ways to get it wrong. Nobody is going to stand and applaud when things work as expected but they’ll be quick to boo if something isn’t quite right. Let’s change that, I’m willing to stand and applaud the Revodok Pro 209 because in a few weeks of testing it never put a foot wrong.

Every time I turned on my laptop I knew what I was getting from the Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 and at the end of the day that’s all you can ask for really. The same couldn’t be said of the more expensive Anker 675 Docking Station and it only serves to highlight how a USC-C dock like this should behave. Paired with a Dell XPS 13 throughout my testing there were times I actually forgot the Revodok Pro 209 was tucked away behind my monitor, it just worked day in, day out.

check latest prices

The gigabit ethernet port delivered the promised speeds, the dual display outputs were quick to be recognised by windows and never skipped a beat and the USB ports felt like onboard options in terms of responsiveness. I really don’t have a bad word to say about the ports that are on offer and how they work. Impressively, all of them also worked without an external power source which caught me by surprise. You can also choose to route your laptop charging through the Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 though I found Windows would often complain about a low charging state when doing this. I’m not sure the rate of charging was actually lower, but Windows would sulk every time I plugged it in. 

The Ugreen Revodok Pro 209’s aluminium shell isn’t just useful in the looks department, it does a solid job as a heat sink too. It’s a passively cooled unit but the large surface area on the top and bottom, combined with venting grilles on either end meant the Revodok Pro 209 never felt more than warm to touch. In fact there was more than one occasion where it felt cool even after more than an hour of use.

My only disappointment with the Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 is not with the ports that are here, it’s with the ports that aren’t. A lack of SD card reader feels like a glaring omission on a nine-port USB-C hub and there’s plenty of space on the front of the Revodok Pro 209 to fit one. There’s also just two USB-A ports and that’s a bit mean in my opinion. Yes, you have two USB-C ports to work with as well but most peripheral devices are still shipping with USB-A cables so an extra old-school port would have been nice to see.

summed up

Ugreen has a strong reputation for making quality accessories and the Revodok Pro 209 is a great example why. This is a compact, reliable USB-C hub that’ll do a great job for a majority of home office laptop setups. If you can handle the £199 price tag it’s a worthy investment that won’t let you down.

It’s also worth noting the Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 is often heavily discounted, so it’s worth keeping an eye out for sales and promotions if you can afford to hold on. At the time of writing it’s down to below £120 on both Amazon and the Official Ugreen Store which make it an even more enticing purchase if the selection of ports fit your needs.

check latest prices