You Can Add USB Ports And Storage To Your Computer With One Accessory

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

The lack of a sufficient number of USB ports and limited onboard storage are two of the major problems faced by many laptop owners, as manufacturers sacrifice  port selection for a thin and light form factor, and include less storage to keep the price down. While you can solve both of these issues with an affordable feature-packed USB hub and an external storage drive, there is an interesting accessory that combines the features of both of these gadgets into a single device.

We're talking about the Multi-Functional External Hard Drive from Yotuo. As the name suggests, it's an external hard disk drive (HDD), which comes with a built-in USB hub. It's also attractively priced, starting at $50 for the base 500GB model, and going up to $110 for the top-end, 2TB model. While it's not necessarily cheaper than buying an external HDD and a USB hub separately, it offers the convenience of carrying a single device to meet both your storage and USB port needs.

The Yotuo offering gives you access to plenty of USB ports and card slots that likely satisfy all your peripheral and storage requirements. It also has a compact design and features a built-in mechanical hard drive. While the presence of an solid state drive (SSD) would have been better for durability and data transfer speeds, a mechanical drive helps keep the price down. There are two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and a USB Type-C port on the Yotuo device. 

You also get SD and microSD card slots. It connects to your computer using the included USB Type-C cable, which also has a USB Type-A adapter. Although you may not need external power for most devices, an included power cable can be used if needed. The device works across operating systems and device types, including Windows, iOS, and Android.

The Yotuo Multi-Functional External Hard Drive is widely liked on Amazon and has received an average rating of 4.3 out of five from over 240 reviews. Folks are happy with the after-sales experience, its plug-and-play operation, and reasonable pricing. However, not everyone is a fan, as a small selection of buyers point out getting defective units that crash or simply don't work.

If you're not completely sold on the Yotuo device, there are plenty of excellent hubs that add USB ports and external HDD/SSDs on the market that will give you the same or better experience, but you'll have two separate devices. For example, the Anker USB-C 7-in-1 Hub costs only $26 and has two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, one USB-C port, and two card slots. It can also deliver power to your laptop for charging and has an HDMI port (short for High-Definition Multimedia Interface). You can combine it with the Toshiba Canvio Basics 2TB External Hard Drive, which costs $75, to get more features than the Yotuo drive for a total of $101, which is $9 cheaper than the 2TB model of the Yotuo drive.