The OWC USB-C Travel Dock E is a follow-up to the original USB-C Travel Dock. If you’ve never heard of OWC, OWC makes some of the best docks and hubs for both Mac and PC. We’ve actually used a few of them in the past and have been genuinely impressed with them. Going back to the USB-C Travel Dock E, we actually did look at the original one and found it to work quite well, although this new version is much better in every way and is the one to go for if you’re looking at a travel dock.
So what makes the OWC USB-C Travel Dock E better? Upon first glance, you might not immediately see the difference from the original Travel Dock. It isn’t until you notice that the new Travel Dock E features the inclusion of an Ethernet port, which is what the old one was lacking. By moving a few ports here and there around, OWC was able to fit an Ethernet port into one side while still keeping all the other ports from before.
That means that in addition to the new Gigabit Ethernet port, you still get a USB-C pass-through power port, two USB-A ports (now 3.2 Gen 1), an SD 4.0 Card Reader, and an HDMI 2.0 port (up to 4K@60Hz resolution). And like the previous one, there’s also a built-in USB-C cable that’s used to plug into your device. This cable can be tucked away underneath the dock when not in use.
To use the dock, you basically just plug the USB-C cable into your device, whatever you’re using. It should be enough to power the dock where you’ll be able to use all the available ports. If not, what you can do is power the dock with an auxiliary power source and hook that directly up to the USB-C port on the dock. It’ll pass through up to 100W of power.
Other than that, it’s basically just a simple dock that’s easy to stow away in your equipment bag. It seems to be quite durable, made with some sturdy plastic with an aluminum shell wrapped around it. It also has rubber feet on the bottom that keep it planted when in use. It’s a well-made dock and doesn’t look too bad either. It’s an attractive little piece that will match most hardware you’ll use this on.
The OWC USB-C Travel Dock E works great with Mac and PC, but it can also work for iOS and iPadOS devices, as well as Android and Chrome OS devices. I tested it out with a Samsung Galaxy S21 and it works perfectly with Dex. With that said, this is a great little travel dock for those who need extra ports on the go or for those who need an Ethernet Port if their laptop doesn’t have one, which these days, is almost every new laptop out there.
