Review: AGPTEK Docking Station for Mac mini
One of the best features of the 2018 / 2020 Mac mini is the number of available ports. With four Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C ports, an HDMI port, an audio jack and two USB-3 ports – there’s plenty of flexibility for the average user. But, despite this, the Mac mini lacks SD and TF card readers, which I need for shuttling files back and forth between the Mac mini and my Mac SE/30. Enter the AGPTEK USB-Hub. Not only does this unit offer both types of card readers, it also comes with 4 front mounted USB ports (Type-A). The big selling point of this unit for me was the AGPTEk’s footprint. The AGPTEK hub fits perfectly underneath my Mac mini and matches the Space Gray color the 2018 Mac mini. The AGPTEK draws its power from one of the Mac mini’s USB-C ports, meaning outside of the included USB-C cable, no additional wires are needed.
The front of the unit contains three USB ports on the left, two SD Card readers, and another USB port on the right. There are two indicator lights, one for power and one as a drive activity light. Yes, Virginia, you can also tuck a small 2.5″ SSD inside this little hub. More on that in a bit.
The AGPTek box comes with the hub, a small screwdriver, one USB-C cable and a Quick Start guide. Everything is neatly packed.
The back of the AGPTek includes one USB-C port, which will connect to one of the USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports on the back of your Mac mini.
The bottom of the unit includes a removable cover which can house a 2.5″ drive. The cover is held securely by two screws.
Aesthetically, the AGPTEK is a perfect match for the Mac mini, so much so that on first glance, it looks like a product that Apple itself would have built. The white LED even lines up perfectly underneath the Mac mini’s power LED.
The TF and SD card slots rate at 5Gbps. I ran BlackMagic’s Disk Speed test on the TF card reader. The read scores were roughly 14 MB/s and the write scores were about 22.6 MB/s.
I’m not copying large volumes of photos or files, so it’s not a big issue for me, but it might be a bigger issue if you do a lot of heavy data transfer.
I ran another speed test on the Samsung 2.5″ SSD that was inside the AGPTEK unit. Read and Write scores were both around 150 MB/s. Again, it’s not fast, but for my use case (nightly data back-ups), it’s not that big of a deal.
Ultimately, the AGPTEK isn’t going to set the world on fire with its data transfer speeds, but it’s more than adequate for every day use. It’s a perfect compliment to the Mac mini, and price-wise, it’s not breaking the bank. There are probably better solutions out there, especially if you rely on having blazing fast data transfer speeds, but in terms of looks and flexibility (ports, hidden drive, SD and TF card reader front mounted ports), it can’t be beat.
-Krishna
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