Twelve South StayGo USB-C Hub REVIEW Function Stays Stylish with a Matte White Option

USB-C hub makes a great travel companion for your laptop. 

In 2019, we had the opportunity to feature the original StayGo on MacSources. Robyn used it as a temporary workstation dock, but I see the StayGo as the ideal travel companion. I despise cable clutter and truly hate hubs that make you search for a cable for its basic operation. This is why StayGo caught my eye early on and I’ve been wanting one ever since we did that first review. 

Thankfully, Twelve South just released a Matte White version of the StayGo. I have a white standing desk and a brand new 2021 MacBook Pro (M1 Max). So, the white StayGo was an ideal addition to my laptop bag. Twelve South selected white as a new color because it’s the secondary color of iMacs and blends in well with white desks. The idea is to provide connectivity without it sticking out like a sore thumb. The Matte White StayGo fits a more modern aesthetic than the black version of the StayGo. 

DETAILS

The StayGo is a USB-C hub that makes it easy to connect to external devices without creating a ‘rat’s nest’ of cables in the middle of your workspace. The hub provides a connection option (a 3-foot long USB-C cable) that makes it possible for you to tuck the hub and all its connected cables away so that you don’t have that mess on your desk. In addition to being ‘desktop-friendly’, the StayGo is also an excellent traveling companion. It comes with a hidden USB-C cable that snaps into the body of the hub so you are never without the option to connect to your peripherals. 

SPECS & FEATURES

• USB-C (to MacBook) | pass-thru 85W USB-C PD charging
• 4k HDMI | Crystal clear 4K x 2k @ 30Hz HDMI / Full 1080p
• USB-A 3.0 / BC 1.2 Charging Port | SuperSpeed up to 5 Gbps with BC 1.2 7.5W Fast Charge
• USB-A 3.0 | SuperSpeed up to 5 Gbps with 900mA power
• Gigabit Ethernet Port | Support 10/100/1000Mbps via RJ45 connection
• USB-C (from External power) | 100W Max USB-C power input
• SD Card | Secure Digital v3.0 UHS-I
• Micro SD Card | Secure Digital v3.0 UHS-I
• Plug & Play | no drivers required
• Dual SD Slots support simultaneous data connection
• Aluminum exterior shell dissipates heat

USER EXPERIENCE

The StayGo USB-C Hub comes in a clean retail-style package. The front of the package features an image of the product and the back showcases a diagram of the different ports available on the hub. Twelve South always has really nice packaging for its products and the StayGo is no exception. The StayGo comes with its short cable housed inside the hub and a second longer USB-C cable.  

One of the things I noticed right away was the fact that the Matte White StayGo is exactly the same as the Matte Black StayGo. Fortunately, I was able to compare the two devices side-by-side. Spec-wise, both devices are exactly the same. The Matte White version seemed to be slightly lighter, but when I weighed them, both units were the same weight. 

One of the first tests I ran on the StayGo was similar to what Robyn did. I just connected several devices to the USB-C hub – including a monitor via HDMI, a wireless mouse’s Bluetooth dongle, an Ethernet cable, and my external microphone – and then monitored how well they functioned with my MacBook Pro. I didn’t have any issues with connectivity and didn’t experience any type of lag with any of the peripherals. 

In addition to the basic operation of the hub, I also completed a series of real-world tests. I connected the StayGo to my laptop and then connected a USB flash drive to the USB-C hub. I did this to be able to test how quickly data could transfer to the flash drive with a drag-and-drop test. I also wanted to see how the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test app would rate the speed connection. 

The drag-and-drop test consisted of me dragging a file folder with various media stored in it onto the root of the flash drive and timing how long it took to transfer by using the stopwatch feature on my iPhone. These same tests were conducted on the original StayGo we reviewed. The folder I chose had a total size of 1.24 GB (or 1,240 MB). The transfer took 1 minute 18 seconds (or 78 seconds). To determine the data transfer rate, I simply divided the file size by the time it took to transfer (1,240/78). The transfer rate ended up being 15.9 MB/s. 

The Blackmagic Disk Speed Test showed a reading of 65.5 MB/s WRITE and 154.5 MB/s READ speeds. While these results were a bit slower than I expected, they were consistent with the previous testing we did on the StayGo. And even though the data transfer rates may be a little lagging, the performance of the rest of the USB-C hub is excellent. 

CONCLUSION

I have been looking forward to having my own StayGo for a while now. I think it’s a great option for a traveling USB-C hub and since it comes in Matte White now, it’s a much more stylish option in my opinion. I do have to confess that I was a bit surprised to find that the specs for the device were exactly the same as the original StayGo we reviewed three years ago, but that’s not a dealbreaker for me because the device is just awesome.

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