Published Nov 1, 2026, 9:30 AM EST

João has been covering the tech world for over 7 years, with a heavy focus on laptops and the Windows ecosystem. I also love all things tech and videogames, especially Nintendo, which he's always happy to talk about.

Prior to joining XDA in 2021, he worked at Neowin: https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/jo%C3%A3o-carrasqueira/

It's true that a lot of modern computers don't have enough ports for all the peripherals you might need, and that's especially true of laptops. Many of us turn to solutions like USB-C hubs and Thunderbolt docks to increase the number of accessible ports, and they can be great solutions for a lot of things. If you're just needing to use a mouse, keyboard, or external storage, these things work totally fine.

However, if you've been using USB hubs and assuming you're able to use them just as if they were ports on your computer, it may be time to reconsider that.…