4-6 Port Hubs

Four to six ports is the common desk hub — enough for a keyboard, mouse, headset and a drive or two without becoming a docking station.

Three things to check.

Speed. USB 2.0 hubs run at 480Mbps, which is perfectly adequate for keyboards, mice, headsets and printers, and is why they cost so little. USB 3.0 (also labelled 3.2 Gen 1) runs at 5Gbps and is what you want if a flash drive or external SSD will be plugged in.

Power. Most hubs this size are bus-powered, sharing the host port’s power between everything connected. Fine for low-draw peripherals; unreliable for portable hard drives or charging. A self-powered hub avoids that.

Host connector. Hubs come with a USB-A plug for older desktops and a USB-C plug for modern laptops — check which your machine has.

The range covers Cables Direct, Hama, StarTech, Belkin, Lindy, UGREEN, Kensington, TP-Link, Targus and Genius.

For more ports, see 7-9 port hubs.