Pengo USB-C Dock Review

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Pengo is a relatively unknown vendor, but in my research, for this article, I found an entire lineup of products, mostly adapters, and cables.

That being said, one of their most recent solutions is an 8 in 1 USB-C Dock offered in two colorways; silver and titanium gray. Features of this solution include 60W power delivery over USB-C, SD card reader supporting SDHC and SDXC up to 104MB/s and dual USB 3.1 ports. As mentioned, USB-C is the host port offering 10Gb/s data speed with DP and HDMI video outputs supporting 4K30 and 1080p60. Ethernet and Audio in/out round out the list of inputs.

Compatibility includes Windows 10 along with macOS 10.12.4 and later. MSRP of the Pengo USB-C Dock comes in at $149.99 with a one-year warranty.

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Packaging for the Pengo offers an image of the dock with features listed below.

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The back goes into more detail with a full specification list and use cases on the left and a diagram of the unit to the right.

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Included in the package we have the power adapter, USB-C cable, and dock.

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The front offers up SD and USB-A connectivity. Both USB ports support charging, one at 900ma and the other at 1.2a. In between we have the two-way audio port for headsets.

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On the back, we have the host port to the left, followed by the DP 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a port; both support dual 1080p monitors and a single 4K30 monitor. We round out connectivity with gigabit ethernet.

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Starting off testing, I ran a SanDisk Extreme SDXC card through and was able to reach peak speeds of 95 MB/s read, and 82 MB/s write.

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Using our SanDisk Extreme portable SSD, I was able to verify USB 3.0 performance at 438 MB/s read, and 442 MB/s write.

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As expected, the gigabit ethernet performance was on par; hovering between 949 and 950mbps.

Pengo seems to have done everything right with their new dock solution, the materials used appear to be of decent quality, and the unit does feel quite good in the hand. Aesthetics are equally pleasing, and with two colorway options, it allows a small level of customization for consumers.

Port count for a dock of this size is average, standard appears to be around 10-ports with the high-end coming around 15 ports; Pengo has 7 on this unit. The performance was as advertised, the SD card slot performed beautifully, and the USB-A ports were flawless. The HDMI had no issues pushing 4K30 on my Toshiba TV and the gigabit ethernet, as seen above, was on tap.

Issues for this unit, however, come with pricing as the current MSRP of $149.99 puts this solution in a hard place. A competing solution such as the OWC USB-C Dock offers a lot of value with 10-ports, a two-year warranty and is $40 USD cheaper.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z370 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i3 8350K (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB 4x8GB DDR4 3200 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H115i (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Air 540 (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 250GB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)
• Wi-Fi NIC: ASUS PCE-AC88 (buy from Amazon)
• 10Gbe NIC: ASUS XG-C100C (buy from Amazon)
• Thunderbolt 3: ASUS Thunderbolt EX3 (buy from Amazon)