The second, and the bigger item is that there are a few references to Thunderbolt 3. It was the cheapest adapter on Amazon when we looked earlier. First, we see the price is discounted from $33.99 to $25.99 and there is another 10% off coupon making this a ~$23.40 adapter. One item we wanted to point out was specifically the Amazon listing we purchased for this.
If you have several adapters and 6 months down the road are just trying to find a 2.5GbE adapter this will be confusing. If you have one adapter it is unlikely an issue. Something that may seem misleading is that the port is labeled “gigabit” but the adapter is actually a 2.5GbE adapter. Ugreen USB 3 Type C To 2.5GbE Adapter Top We will quickly note here that if you want a Type-A solution, something either with an adapter or the CableCreation USB 3 Type-A 2.5GbE Adapter we reviewed may be better. It emits less light which is something some of our readers may appreciate. The impact is that if you plug this NIC in, you will not know if it is linked up properly or not unless you look at the switch or OS. We did not see activity lights when testing this, and we had two different units we purchased off of Amazon. There was one aspect to this that will make people excited or turned off. Ugreen USB 3 Type C To 2.5GbE Adapter Port The Sabrent unit is built noticeably better though. On the two faces, it feels like we have a hard plastic chassis, but the main chassis segment seems to be metal which is an upgrade over the CableCreation unit we tested. You can plug a standard wired Ethernet cable in and this will work. The networking side is a 2.5GbE capable RJ45 port. Ugreen USB 3 Type C To 2.5GbE Adapter USB Type C Still, if you just want the lowest cost without the adapter, then that is what UGREEN provides. There are some units like the Sabrent 2.5GbE USB Network Adapter Review NT-S25G that come with an adapter to allow either Type-A or Type-C connectivity. On a desktop, systems likely have more Type-A ports. If you have a notebook, Type-C these days is going to be common. Many systems have more Type-A ports than Type-C. On one side, there is a USB 3.0 Type-C port.
UGREEN USB-C 2.5GbE Network Adapter Hardware Overview That is where this story begins and will be important in the hardware overview.
The 2.5GbE ecosystem is certainly picking up, so we decided to look at the lowest cost 2.5GbE adapter we could find on Amazon. We have reviewed a number of 2.5GbE USB network adapters, and the UGREEN unit is perhaps not the fanciest, and the marketing for it is quite misleading, but it fills a role at a low cost which is always useful.Īt this point, we have reviewed a number of PCIe and USB 2.5GbE adapters as well as 2.5GbE switches, NAS units, developer boards, and even motherboards. The UGREEN USB-C (USB 3) to 2.5GbE network adapter is one of those products. Ugreen USB 3 Type C To 2.5GbE Adapter CoverĮvery so often there are products which are good not because of features but simply due to price.