Baseus Nomos Mac Air NU1 Spacemate 12-in-1 Docking Station review: Portable DisplayLink dock

Price When Reviewed

$199.99

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The Baseus Nomos Mac Air NU1 Spacemate 12-in-1 Docking Station has a long name but a decent set of ports at affordable price. It’s a DisplayLink dock, meaning that it offers a simple(ish) solution to Apple’s frustrating multiple-display limitations for its lesser-powered Macs such as the M1 and M2 MacBooks.

These excellent but non-Pro laptops are restricted to just one external monitor without help from third-party software such as DisplayLink. Using the Baseus Spacemate dock after installing the free software enables these MacBooks to run two external displays, albeit here at a 2.5K QHD rather than 4K resolution.

The Spacemate seems to offer a lot but on closer inspection it lacks some functions that we’d expect of a dock. Although it seems quite limited as a full ‘dock’, it can be quite a versatile DisplayLink ‘hub’, especially when connected to a wall charger. Even without one, it’s an attractive portable dock but first study its limitations before being hooked by the price.

Specs and features

• USB-C upstream connector to laptop (90W PD 3.0)
• 2x USB-C (10Gbps)
• 2x USB-A (5Gbps)
• 2x USB-A (480Mbps, 4.5W)
• 2x DisplayPort 1.4 ports
• 2x HDMI 2.0 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 100W power via USB-C port (no supply)

In some ways this dock is more of a high-powered hub. Although its specs let it down in places, it comes into its own as a portable hub with docking station aspirations.

It connects to the laptop via its built-in braided USB-C 2.6ft cable that can carry data at 10Gbps and power at 90W to the MacBook when connected to a wall charger. You need to supply the wall charger yourself, although the MacBook’s own should suffice.

The Spacemate is not the dock for you if you require data transfer at the highest bandwidth. A Mac with Thunderbolt 3 or 4 ports support 40Gbps and the most recent Thunderbolt 5 Macs can handle 80Gbps, so 10Gbps USB-C is not for the professional data warrior. For most of us Mac mortals, however, 10Gbps should be fine.

Power can be supplied to the dock itself using a USB-C charger and cable (note that neither is included so use your MacBooks or one of the other best USB-C chargers we recommend). Most desk-bound docks are weighed down by an external power brick, but the Baseus Spacemate is nimbler and can even draw enough power from the laptop to operate with power coming in, but with caveats.

Simon Jary

There are a further six USB ports: two 5Gbps USB-A and two 480Mbps USB-A ports for legacy devices, but just two 10Gbps USB-C ports. None can output any real power to the connected devices, which might put you off but it is unlikely to bother people who choose this dock for its portability rather than wanting it to sit permanently on their desk as the center of their computing setup.

Four USB-A ports seem too many these days when most devices should be using USB-C, and two of the Type A ports are very limited in data transfer (USB 2.0’s 480Mbps) so good only for input devices such as a keyboard and mouse if you haven’t yet converted to wireless versions or basic memory sticks.

When hooked up to a wall charger, the Baseus Spacemate can carry enough power (90W) for all but the 16-inch MacBook Pro (which prefers 140W to fast charge), but some of the things you might want to connect to the dock require power too and this dock doesn’t deliver in that way.

Wired network access is standard Gigabit Ethernet, which will be fine for most people but underpowered for those users on faster 2.5GbE or faster networks, which we are seeing catered for on many modern docks. Again, the lack of the very latest and fastest ports shouldn’t put you off if Gigabit Ethernet is all you need.

There is no SD card reader, which again feels like something missing compared to most docks but might not bother most users. Strangely/frustratingly the Windows version has both SD and MicroSD card readers and is cheaper! That feels like a bit of a slap in the face for Mac users who believed that the days of paying a Mac premium for accessories were over.

Simon Jary

Monitor options

You buy a DisplayLink dock for its ability to connect to multiple external displays, and the Baseus Spacemate Air NU1 has a generous choice of dedicated HDMI or DisplayLink video ports.

Connecting two displays to a non-Pro or -Max M1 or M2 MacBook is highly beneficial, but when connecting two monitors via the Spacemate the resolution is limited to QHD (2560×1440 pixels) that is also called 2.5K to distinguish it from 4K (3840×2160) which most dual-screen DisplayLink docks offer.

Again, if HD or QHD is all you require of screen resolution—and it’s fine for basic productivity tasks rather than graphics or video—then this dock will give you what you need.

The choice of HDMI or DisplayLink gives you options but the ability to connect monitors via USB-C isn’t possible using this dock, so you must use either video format.

Simon Jary

Design

The Baseus Spacemate Air NU1 is a good-looking and very compact, super lightweight dock that is about the size of some vertical desktop chargers. It really can fit in one hand, and lacking an external power brick means it is way more portable than most docking stations. You can slip it in your bag and not notice it’s there on your travels.

It measures 4.7 x 2.6 x 2.5 inches (6.5 x 6.5 x 12cm) and weighs just 14.2oz (402g).

Most of the ports are neatly hidden away at the back, but there are a USB-C and USB-A port at the front for easy access. It’s a shame that neither can output enough power to charge a connected phone but that’s the compromise from this dock’s portability and lack of power supply.

At the top of the dock is an energy-saving button that can also lock the screen. Click this button to immediately put your laptop into standby.

Price

The MSRP of the Baseus Nomos Mac Air NU1 Spacemate 12-in-1 Docking Station is $199.99. At the time of writing it was selling on Amazon for $139, which is an affordable price for a dual-monitor DisplayLink dock with so many ports.

That said, Mac users can feel put out that the more able Windows version costs just $99.99, has two SD card readers and supports two 4K monitors, although there are two HDMI and no DIsplayPort options. At that price and with those features it’s a bargain for Windows users but in comparison the Mac version looks significantly overpriced and underpowered.

Take a look at other higher-spec best DisplayLink docks but for portability focus on the hubs rather than more deskbound docks. Somewhere in that list you should find whether the Baseus Spacemate or another hub has exactly what you are after.

If you just need the dual screens look at the Plugable USB-C Dual 4K HDMI Adapter (USBC-6950M), although it lacks the Spacemate’s multiple USB ports and Ethernet. The Hyperdrive Dual 4K HDMI 10-in-1 USB-C Hub has dual-4K and USB ports but has a lower 5Gbps bandwidth than the 10Gbps Spacemate.

The closest match we can find that beats the Spacemate by boasting dual-4K and card readers is the 10Gbps Alogic CH2 dock. Its weakness, however, is that the USB ports don’t work when there’s no power connected.

Should you buy the Baseus Nomos Mac Air NU1 Spacemate 12-in-1 Docking Station?

As a portable dock, the lightweight Baseus Mac Air NU1 Spacemate has a lot going for it, but its port line-up is a little lacking for Mac users and is more a hub in dock’s clothing. There are too many USB-A ports (four) and just two USB-C data ports, and none but the integrated cable can deliver any real power to devices except your laptop.

There is no card reader or audio jack, both staples on your average docking station, and crucially the maximum display resolution for two screens is 2.5K rather than 4K.

If you don’t require truly high-resolution (4K) screens or any power to connected devices but do need a super tidy and compact DisplayLink hub to enable your M1 or M2 MacBook to support more than one monitor and some low-powered USB devices then the Spacemate may fulfil your requirements better than other portable DisplayLink hubs on the market.