The Ugreen Revodok Max 213 is (mostly) great — but that $400 price may sting

Another week, another catchy docking station name. Meet the Ugreen Revodok Max 213 Thunderbolt 4 Dock — a hefty $399 investment into drastically upping your total port count when plugging the best laptops into your shiny desk setup.

With 13 sockets across a variety of use cases (2.5 Gbps ethernet and TF/SD 4.0 card readers), this beasty aluminum block takes pride of place on any hard worker’s desk with the sheer versatility needed for a whole host of tasks. 

That metallic shell also comes in double duty for keeping the docking station cool when under the more intense multi-port stress. Paired with other nifty thermal management tricks like a cooling silica gel and pleated aluminum surfaces, this makes for a thoroughly reliable piece of kit.

But there are some key obstacles here that may make the Revodok Max 213 Thunderbolt 4 Dock hard to love for some. First, if you’ve only managed to fit a small desk into your tiny apartment (a problem many of us have), then the rather imposing structure of this docking station will take up a fair amount of space. 

Second, Ugreen’s stuffed this with 13 ports, but none of them are HDMI? I get that DisplayPort is a common standard in computing, but this just feels like an open goal that’s been shafted into the stands.

And finally, that price. At $399, this isn’t going to be for everyone — especially since the $200 Plugable TBT4-UD5 is right there. But if you’re serious about maxing out the gear in your work from home setup, the Revodok Max 213 could be worth the investment. Let me explain why.

Ugreen Revodok Max 213: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? This is a Thunderbolt 4 docking station.
• Who’s it for? This is perfect for laptop users who want to build a powerful home office setup around it.
• What’s the price? The Max 213 comes in at $399.
• What ports do you get? On this chunk of aluminum, you’ll find three 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 ports (one for host and two downstream), DisplayPort 1.4, USB-C, two USB-A, 2.5GBps ethernet, a 3.5mm audio jack, and both standard and microSD card slots.
• Are there any caveats to this docking station? It’s quite the chonk, and a lack of HDMI will mean you’ll have to buy a DP to HDMI cable if your screen doesn’t support the PC-centric standard. That can be a bit of a kick in the teeth given you’ve spent $400 on this thing. And as always, with anything to do with docking station compatibility, make sure you check your laptop specs, and reach out in Tom’s Guide forums if you have any questions!

Ugreen Revodok Max 213: Specs

Ugreen Revodok Max 213: The ups

Let’s make no bones about it. The Revodok Max 213 is a fantastic docking station for any professional out there — even with the obstacles that I’ll go into later. Let me explain why with three key reasons.

So. Many. Ports

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I can barrel on about the sheer quantity of ports here, but you’ve already seen me list them twice. Shout-out in particular to the dual Thunderbolt 4 downstream and the single host all cranking out a full (and tested to be true) 90W power delivery. 

Plus, the numerous USB-A ports gives you plenty of support for current and legacy devices, while the 3.5mm combo audio jack provides an easier-to-access source for your wired cans than having to reach over to your laptop on its stand.

But the beauty here comes in the quality of these ports. In particular, the SD card slots are of a TF/SD 4.0 standard to support a maximum speed of 312MBps (great for transferring those huge 4K RAW videos for editing), and a 2.5 Gigabit ethernet for those uber fast broadband packages.

I do lament the loss of HDMI (more on that later), but if you can work around that, the Revodok Max 213 really does have it all.

A utilitarian beast

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Yes, it’s big and heavy, but oh my it looks like a powerful block of productivity potential. The gunmetal gray aluminum finish of the Revodok Max 213 is curved off at the edges with rubberized feet on the bottom and side for the ability to be laid long ways. If you have the Space Black MacBook Pro like me, they look like a pairing made in heaven.

Add the pleated aluminum flashes to the back end — looking almost like car hood vents and giving it a meanness I adore — this is certainly quite the looker. One that can both easily fade into the background of any setup, while also taking pride of place as a centerpiece.

Keeping its cool

One thing that’s easy to ignore is thermal management. As it’s just placed on your desk, you rarely touch it, but you can really feel it when the SD card slots slow down or the total wattage being pumped out of certain ports gets reduced.

Luckily here, Ugreen’s well ahead of this with some good heat dissipation tricks, such as silica gel layers within the docking station, and that pleated aluminum shell with ventilation. Thanks to this, the surface temperatures of the Revodok Max 213 stay nice and cool, and even when firing on all cylinders for prolonged periods of time, you won’t spot any hitches whatsoever.

Ugreen Revodok Max 213: The downs

For the price of entry, I really wanted the Revodok Max 213 to be fault-free, but that’s not necessarily the case. Not to say that any of these are deal breakers, but there’s just some things that you need to know.

Large and cumbersome

At 1.7 pounds with rather domineering dimensions of 5.85 x 3.79 x 2.05 inches, any small desk users may have difficulty trying to make this size work without making the whole setup feel super cluttered.

On top of that, the beefy 180W power brick is a little awkward to workaround when it comes to cable management. Make sure you’ve got a set of drawers to hide it in, as the length of the wire from the dock to the brick is a little short.

No HDMI?

DisplayPort is the general computing standard — I’m not trying to argue that. Plus with support for up to 8K resolution, and even dual 4K monitors on the standard Apple Silicon machines like the M3 MacBook Air, it's a useful socket too.

But HDMI is the more commonly-used port, not just because of TV, but for the vast majority of monitors too. For example, my at-home monitor is HDMI only.

Of course there’s a workaround. Amazon sells a bunch of DP to HDMI cables, but if you’re dropping $400 on the Revodok Max 213, you’d kind of hope it has the versatility to connect to anything. But it’s not, and that can be quite the frustration to certain users.

Ugreen Revodok Max 213: Verdict

Ugreen is gunning for the pros of all levels with the Revodok Max 213, and the company (mostly) nails it. Super fast SD card slots have been huge for my video editing workflow, while the 2.5 Gigabit ethernet ensured my upload speeds of chunky 4K video edits pass by in a flash.

But when I think about everyone else, there are other options that offer a better price-to-performance ratio (and more connectivity with HDMI) to make this an outright must-buy to all. If you just need plenty of accessible ports at a more affordable price, Plugable’s TBT4-UD5 is the way to go.

But limitations and size aside, if you need a seriously powerful upgrade to your desk-based port array, you can’t go far wrong with the Revodok Max 213.