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Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: One minute review

The Huawei Watch GT Runner 2 is full of innovative tweaks, making it ideal for running accuracy, and from a design perspective, it’s the best running watch I’ve tried so far in 2026. Because US customers can’t actually buy them, Huawei devices often go under the radar in many lists, which is a shame, as their hardware is stellar.

The GT Runner 2 is another smash hit. It’s light, at 10.7mm thick and just 34.5g in weight, packing a smallish 1.32-inch screen with a 3,000 nit brightness AMOLED display. That’s as bright as the Apple Watch Ultra 3. It fits nicely on my average-sized male wrist and doesn’t move about during runs. It comes in a selection of pretty cool colors and bands. I was partial to the Dawn Orange colorway, but my review unit arrived in Dusk Blue, which also looks nice.

The GPS credentials are where things get interesting. Huawei claims the GT Runner 2 outperforms the Garmin Forerunner 970 (by name) in GPS accuracy for runners, using a new dual-floating GPS antenna structure to improve accuracy. I didn’t have a Garmin Forerunner 970 to hand, but I did have something even better: the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro, perhaps Garmin’s best-ever smartwatch from a hardware perspective, and one that costs three times as much as the GT Runner 2.

On a 10.5 kilometer out-and-back run, the Fenix 8 Pro recorded 10.51km, with 797 calories burned, an average heart rate of 157 bpm, 5.39km average pace. The Huawei GT Runner 2 recorded 10.48km, a difference of 0.03km (or 30 meters) overall, with 785 calories burned, an average heart rate of 167 bpm, and 5.39km average pace. Those are very close results.

Even advanced running metrics were similar, with stride length being recorded as 1.10 meters by both watches. With very little in the way of statistically significant differences, I’m happy that the GT Runner 2 is as accurate as the very top-tier watches in the category. I’d expect nothing less from a watch used by record-breaking marathoner Eliud Kipchoge. You can see the results on the screens below.

On the left is Garmin Connect. On the right are two screenshots from Huawei Health, showing the differences in recording the same workout. (Image credit: Future)

Other wellness metrics are good, too: I’ve hyped up Huawei’s TruSense and TruSleep algorithms before as being scarily accurate, and it’s good to see the watch making use of both here. The accuracy of its sleep tracking and the watch's reduced weight made it easy to wear overnight. Marathon Mode, a little like Garmin’s Event Planner with an intelligent coach, and training plans abound on-watch, allowing you to follow programs imported from the Huawei Health app. Battery life is impressive, while features like Emotional Wellbeing that rely on self-reporting, I consider less useful.

A resounding success for design, performance, and health and fitness features, but smart stuff is more of a mixed bag, albeit through no fault of the watch’s designers. Huawei’s inability to work with either Google or Android’s ecosystem left my watch as a self-contained wellness tool rather than an integrated smart gadget in the same way the best Android watches, or best Apple Watches, are.

Huawei says the watch “runs seamlessly with iOS and Android,” but that’s not entirely true. I could see WhatsApp notifications as part of Huawei’s Message Tool, but everything has to be side-loaded from Huawei’s online AppGallery, so I couldn’t get a native WhatsApp watch app, only notifications. There’s no first-party app for Spotify either, so I had to download Petal Maps on my phone to use instead of Google or Apple Maps. As an extension of my phone, this experience is still frustrating and far from reflective of its excellent wellness credentials.

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: Specifications

Component

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2

Price

£349.99 (around $470 / AU$650)

Dimensions

10.7mm x 43.5mm x 43.5mm

Weight

34g

Caze/Bezel

Titanium Alloy

Display

AMOLED, 3,000 nits

GPS

Dual-band GPS, QZSS, GLONASS, Galileo

Battery life

Up to 14 days

Connection

Bluetooth

Water resistance

IP69, 5ATM

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: Price and availability

(Image credit: Amanda Westberg)

• £349.99 in the UK / Europe
• Not available in US / AU
• Cheaper than most modern Forerunner watches

Huawei’s availability is a far greater issue than its price. Huawei telecomms devices continue to suffer from the ongoing 5G ban, which is a shame for US runners as they’re missing out on some very good hardware. For UK users, the price is pretty reasonable at £349.99, around the same price as the Apple Watch Series 11.

• Value score: 4/5

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: Scorecard

(Image credit: Amanda Westberg)

Category

Comment

Score

Value

Well-priced, but not available everywhere.

4/5

Design

Comfortable, light and easy to use.

4.5/5

Features

Outstanding health and fitness features, but compatibility issues cause frustrations.

4/5

Performance

As good as it gets, closely matching a watch costing thrice as much.

5/5

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: Should I buy?Buy it if...

You’re a keen runner

The GT Runner 2 is tailor-made for people who care about their fitness.

You care about pinpoint GPS accuracy

The GT Runner 2’s dual-antenna architecture allows it to closely match the best in the game.

Don't buy it if...

You live outside of Europe and Asia

Huawei’s limitations means that the GT Runner 2 isn’t available everywhere.

You like true smartphone integration

If you live in your seamless Google and Apple suite, you’re better off getting an Android or Apple Watch.

Also consider

Coros Pace 4

Another similarly-priced wearable that's a running watch first, smartwatch distant second.

Read our full Coros Pace 4 review

Coros Pace 4

Another similarly-priced wearable that's a running watch first, smartwatch distant second.

Read our full Coros Pace 4 review

Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro

A rugged, powerful smartwatch with stellar tracking and battery life, that's half the price of the Apple Watch Ultra 3.

Read our full Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro review

How I tested

I wore the Huawei Watch GT Runner 2 for a week, taking it on several runs as well as gym sessions, sleeping with it, and draining the battery down. I tested it on a 10.5 km run against the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro to determine accuracy in its metrics.

First reviewed: April 2026

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Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro: one-minute review

The Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro has one big advantage over most drip coffee makers: a built-in grinder. This means one less appliance on your kitchen counter, but also that you’ll wake to fresher, better-tasting coffee on using the machine’s timer to begin brewing automatically first thing in the morning. At least, that’s the theory.

In practice, however, I found the coffee maker’s ceramic grinder ground coffee unevenly. Drip coffee is much more forgiving than espresso when it comes to the consistency of the grind, but the irregularity surprised me.

The Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro can brew up to eight cups of coffeeFutureFutureFuture

It’s unfortunate, because the AromaFresh Therm Pro is otherwise a very good drip coffee maker. Its thermal carafe keeps even a small quantity of coffee hot for hours. In addition, it has an excellent drip-stop function that prevents leaks after you remove the carafe, and it’s remarkably quiet during both grinding and brewing.

I like the idea of the AromaFresh Therm Pro, and if it had a better grinder it would be easy to recommend. As it is, however, I think you’d be better off using a standalone grinder and a simpler, cheaper machine in which to brew it. Take a look at our roundup of the best drip coffee makers for some great options.

Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro: price and availability

• List price: £289.95 (about $390 / AU$550)
• Available in Europe, but not the US or Australia

The Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro is available direct from Melitta and from a handful of third-party retailers, with a list price of £289.95 (about $390 / AU$550). There are several similar-looking coffee makers in the AromaFresh series, but this is the one with the model number 1030-11, so make sure to check before buying.

At the time of writing (April 2026), the AromaFresh Therm Pro is available in Europe, but not the US or Australia.

That price is about standard for a home drip coffee maker. For comparison, the Sage/Breville Luxe Brewer Thermal (which is a similar drip coffee maker that has a cold brew mode, but no grinder) costs $349.95 / £249.95 / AU$579.

• Value score: 4/5

Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro: design

• Built-in grinder
• Smart-looking design for a modern kitchen
• Too tall to fit underneath wall cabinets

The Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro is a smart-looking drip coffee maker, with a matte black finish and a brushed stainless steel pitcher. It has a small footprint (10.6 x 10 inches / 26.8 x 25.2cm), which makes it handy for kitchens where countertop space is at a premium; however, the grinder on top of the brew basket means the whole machine stands a towering 18.23 inches / 46.3cm tall.

That’s much too high to fit under my standard-height kitchen cabinets, and even if I could just about slide it underneath, I wouldn’t be able to open the bean hopper. This coffee maker will only really work on counters with nothing above them (like a kitchen island).

The hopper is made from tinted plastic, with a large dial for adjusting the grind size (Image credit: Future)

The hopper has a tinted plastic lid, which allows you to see how many beans remain without allowing in too much light (which will degrade the quality of your beans), and a dial on the top allows you to set the grind size.

The hopper matches the water tank, which can hold enough water for up to eight small cups. The tank is removable, which is always a welcome feature because it means you don’t have to pour water with the machine in situ and risk spillages. The AromaFresh Therm Pro’s tank doesn’t have a handle, unlike those of some other machines I’ve tested, but its oval shape is easy to grip, and it has a detachable lid to keep your water fresh.

The water tank is removable and ergonomically shaped to be easy to carry (Image credit: Future)

The AromaFresh Therm Prod doesn’t have a hot plate to keep your coffee warm after brewing; instead, it has a double-walled insulated carafe with a smart brushed stainless steel finish – which I personally prefer, since it doesn’t alter the taste of your drink by allowing water to evaporate, or overheating it.

The machine is controlled using a set of simple buttons on the right-hand side, underneath the water tank, which allow you to set a timer, adjust the aroma (settings 1-5), and program the number of cups (1-8). It’s important to ensure this number matches the amount of water in the tank. The machine will use all the water it has, regardless of which setting you choose, so you need to use the correct amount to get the right ratio of coffee to water.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro: performance

• Grind size is uneven
• Very quiet in operation
• Carafe is well-insulated

The biggest selling point of the AromaFresh Therm Pro is its integrated grinder. Usually, when you’re setting up a drip coffee machine before bed and setting a timer to start brewing in the morning, you have to add scoops of ground coffee to the filter basket and leave it overnight. This means the coffee’s flavor compounds start to degrade, and it won’t taste quite as good when the machine begins brewing the following day.

Instead, the AromaFresh Therm Pro takes whole beans, and grinds them only when it’s ready to brew. This should mean better flavor first thing in the morning; however, in my tests, this didn’t quite work as I’d hoped.

Coffee was unevenly ground (Image credit: Future)

I started out using the middle grind setting, and brew intensity three out of five, but found that my brewed coffee didn’t taste as full-bodied as I'd have liked. Upon examining the brew basket, I found that the coffee grounds were surprisingly irregular, and very dry, suggesting that the water had passed through them very quickly, despite me folding over the seamed edge of the Melitta filter paper as instructed in the manual.

I opened the ceramic grinder and cleaned its burrs with a small brush to ensure there was no debris getting in the way, and reduced the grind size to ensure the next dose of coffee was finer, so would take longer for hot water to pass through. This yielded a better flavor (as did turning the brew intensity option all the way up to five), but the coffee was still unevenly ground. Drip coffee is a lot more forgiving than espresso if the grind isn’t ideal, but I was still surprised at how chunky it was.

The carafe insulates well, although it can be hard to pour out the last cup of coffee (Image credit: Future)

The machine was very quiet when both grinding and brewing coffee, which is a real bonus if it’s going to start working by itself while you’re still waking up. During my tests it briefly reached a maximum of 75dB during grinding, but averaged 65dB, which is similar to a normal conversation. It was around 45dB while brewing, which is quieter than an ordinary refrigerator.

The drip-stop feature worked extremely well, with not a single drop of coffee escaping the machine after I had removed the insulated carafe. The carafe retains heat very well; after two hours, half a pot of coffee still measured 158ºF / 70ºC, which is ideal for drinking. A full pot stays hot even longer, so you can prepare a brew at the start of the day and savor it throughout the morning. However, I did find that the shape of the jug meant I had to turn it almost upside down to pour out the last half a cup.

Even after two hours, a carafe half-full of coffee was still at the perfect drinking temperature (Image credit: Future)

The Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro is an excellent idea, and extremely easy to use, but it’s really let down by the quality of its built-in grinder. Given the choice, I’d opt for the Sage Luxe Brewer Thermal with a standalone coffee grinder instead, which would be available for a similar price during a sales event.

• Performance score: 3.5/5

Should you buy the Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro?Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

Reasonably priced for a mid-range drip coffee maker, and comparable with similar rivals.

4/5

Design

Relatively small footprint, but grinder on top means it’s too tall to fit in many kitchens

3.5/5

Performance

Coffee is ground inconsistently, and the aroma setting had to be dialled all the way up for good flavor, but very simple to use, quiet, and can produce a pretty good brew when you’re used to its quirks.

3.5/5

Buy it if

You want convenience in the morning

The AromaFresh Therm Pro’s built-in grinder means there’s minimal prep necessary if you want to wake to freshly brewed coffee.

You want to savor your coffee

The Therm Pro’s well-insulated carafe means your coffee will still be at an ideal temperature for drinking hours after it's brewed.

Don't buy it if

You’re very particular about flavor

This machine doesn’t grind your coffee perfectly evenly, so flavor might not be identical each time you brew, even if all other factors are the same.

You have limited headroom over your counter

This coffee maker is extremely tall, and you’ll need plenty of free space to access the hopper on top.

Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro is the right drip coffee maker for you, here are two other well-rated options to consider:

Brevilla/Sage Luxe Brewer Thermal

The Luxe Brewer Thermal does the fundamentals extremely well, and can brew a huge pot of great-tasting coffee with ease. It gives you control over brew settings without overwhelming you with options, and its insulated carafe keeps your coffee hot for hours and hours.

Read our full Breville/Sage Luxe Brewer Thermal review

Cuisinart Grind & Brew

Another drip machine that can grind fresh beans on demand, the Cuisinart Grind & Brew is available in two sizes: one for batch brewing and one for single servings.

Read our full Cuisinart Grind & Brew review

How I tested the Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro

I used the Melitta AromaFresh Therm Pro instead of my usual drip coffee maker for two weeks. I used Melitta’s own conical filter papers (folded according to the instructions in the manual), and my regular decaf coffee beans. I used fresh, cold tap water (again, as instructed in the manual), and made sure that the amount in the tank matched my chosen brew quantity.

I measured the noise emitted by the machine in operation with a decibel meter app on my phone, and used a thermometer to check the temperature of brewed coffee in the insulated carafe.

I washed the carafe and brew basket by hand using warm water and dish detergent, and ran a rinse cycle to clean out the coffee maker at the end of each day.

First reviewed April 2026

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Beelink EX Mate Pro: 30-second review

While I’ve covered many Beelink mini PCs, this is the first dock I’ve encountered from this brand. And, unsurprisingly, it's constructed in what appears to be a typical small NUC case.

The small white cube connects to a desktop or laptop via USB4 with the provided cable, and once connected, you can use the USB, HDMI, LAN ports, and built-in speaker on the Beelink EX Mate Pro.

Most docks are rated for connection speed and the number of downstream ports, and while USB4 is a fast technology, the Beelink EX Mate Pro doesn’t offer many additional connections beyond the uplink. There are just three USB, one HDMI and one 2.5GbE LAN port. However, if you are comfortable with disassembly, there are also four M.2 slots inside that support 2280 NVMe modules up to 8 TB. Therefore, connecting provides not only access to the downstream devices but also inserted storage.

Almost as an aside, the top of the dock has touch controls for audio sent through the internal speaker, and the dock can connect to phones via Bluetooth and stream music from them.

At around $200, the Beelink EX Mate Pro All-In-One Docking Station, to use its full title, seems inexpensive for the functionality it offers, and many laptop owners would find it incredibly useful.

Probably not enough features to make it to the best laptop docking stations but still an interesting option.

Beelink EX Mate Pro: Price & availability

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

• How much does it cost? $199
• When is it out? On ‘Pre-Sale’, orders to ship within 35 days
• Where can you get it? Direct from Beelink

Those looking for USB docking stations that support 80Gbps have a remarkably small selection currently.

There is the Beelink EX Mate Pro All-In-One Docking Station, reviewed here, that costs $199 directly from the makers. There is also the Mate SE, also from Beelink, priced at $119.

Beyond those choices, the only way to get an 80Gbps dock is by using Thunderbolt 5, and on some of those docks, you can even access 120Gbps. However, if you have a laptop with TB5, then you wouldn’t be interested in the Beelink EX Mate Pro, and presumably, you will have a much larger budget to get a TB5 dock.

The bottom line is that USB4 v2 as a marketing category barely exists yet. If the 80Gbps bandwidth is what you are after, a Thunderbolt 5 dock will get you there today with far more choice and better-established driver support. The Beelink EX Mate Pro is genuinely interesting, but it is very new and essentially untested at this point.

• Value: 4 / 5

Beelink EX Mate Pro: Specs

Compatibility

USB-C, USB4, USB4v2

Number of Ports

6

Ports

1x USB4v2 upstream

1x USB4v2 downstream

1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A

1x USB 2.0 Type-A

1x 2.5GbE RJ45 Ethernet port

1x HDMI 2.0

Downstream power

1x 15W USB4v2, 1x 7.5W USB-A, 1x 2.5W USB 2.0

Upstream power

96W USB4v2

Size

99 x 99.2 x 98.3 mm (W x D x H)

Weight

‎1051g with case and cables

Accessories

Soft carry case, power cable, HDMI cable, USB4v2 (80Gbps) cable, User Guide

Beelink EX Mate Pro: Design

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

• NUC case
• Limited port selection
• No external PSU
• Requires tools to go inside

My first reaction to the Beelink EX Mate Pro was that I’d seen this enclosure previously. And, indeed, a quick look through the Beelink catalogue turned up the Beelink ME mini, which from the outside is practically identical.

On the front are the power button and two USB ports, one each of USB 4 v2 and USB 3.2 Type-A. Where on the back are the power connection, an HDMI 2.0 port, a single USB 2.0 port, a 2.5GbE LAN port, and the USB4v2 uplink port to the computer?

There is also a visible driver cone for a speaker, and the top surface of the machine has buttons to control volume, switch between PC and Bluetooth modes, and mute the built-in microphone.

Considering that this is only a roughly 10cm cube, I was reasonably surprised to discover that it didn’t come with an external laptop-style PSU, but that the 140W PSU is internal.

This compact design allows the unit and the three cables it comes with to fit neatly inside the provided soft carry case, so someone travelling for business can take it with them. As most docks are designed to live on a desk and ideally never get moved, the portability of this solution is a significant difference.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Another aspect of this dock that’s not typical is that it has M.2 slots inside, four in total. However, getting to these isn’t straightforward, and it's not something you would want to be doing repeatedly.

The four screws that hold the top section of the EX Mate Pro on are hidden under rubber plugs in the corners of the underside. Once these are removed, the outside of the case slides up and reveals the four M.2 slots, two on the left and right.

These have thermal pads already attached, so installation involves removing the SSD retaining screw and then pushing the modules in before replacing the screw. These slots are only designed for 2280 NVMe modules, and the orientations assume that the chips are on the upper surface, which makes them upside down when compared to a normal motherboard install. If you accidentally put them with the chips facing out, the polarizing slot on the M.2 edge connector won’t allow the SSD to be inserted, making it almost impossible to get this wrong.

Once you’ve installed whatever storage you want to use, you can drop the top back on, put the screws in, and even the rubber plugs, if you haven’t already lost them.

Overall, I wish getting to the M.2 slots were a little easier, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s a minor inconvenience.

• Design: 4 / 5

Beelink EX Mate Pro: Features

• Bandwidth management
• Gen 3 x 2 M.2
• Power management

When I review USB or Thunderbolt docks, I’m always struck by how the makers will add more connections than can reasonably be supported by the bandwidth of the host connection.

But in the context of the Beelink EX Mate Pro, there are such a limited number of ports that this is much less of an issue.

The host connection is USB4v2, the 80Gbps implementation of the original USB4 standard, a technology that AMD has supported with their AI 300 series processors.

USB4 v2 can theoretically reach 80Gbps bidirectionally, but that full speed is optional rather than mandatory. The minimum requirement for USB4 certification is just 20Gbps. That creates a genuine problem for buyers. A port labelled USB4v2 on a laptop could be running at a quarter of the headline speed, which would affect how quickly devices attached to the dock can operate, including internal M.2 modules.

For my testing, I used an AI 300 system with USB4 40 Gbps ports, but the availability of machines with 80 Gbps implementations isn’t good at this time. But equally, Thunderbolt 5 isn’t common either. I suspect that USB4v2 is likely to be more popular in the long run since it’s not explicitly welded to Intel chips.

However, on the Beelink EX Mate Pro, unless you want to use every single port on it, 40Gbps USB4 is a generally good experience.

One interesting detail about this hardware is how the M.2 sub-system is implemented, since these drives have the potential to consume large amounts of the potential bandwidth available.

All four are treated as PCIe Gen 3 with 2 lanes. Therefore, putting Gen 4 drives in here wouldn’t improve performance, and Gen 3 drives would be limited to half their normal four-lane bandwidth.

In some ways, I wish Beelink had used a PCIe switch that could allocate bandwidth dynamically on the M.2 slots. If they had done that, the eight lanes of Gen 3 connectivity could have been traded to two G3 ports with all four lanes, or even a single port of Gen 4 with four lanes. But instead, each gets two Gen 3 lanes fixed.

If you want better speed from the M.2 slots, you could ask Windows to use software RAID 0, striping two or more drives for greater bandwidth. However, I’m not sure I’d want to do this, since any drive failure would be catastrophic for the whole array. As a whole, I don’t think software RAID is a wonderful idea, but some people might be keen to either use it to merge multiple drives, enhance performance or resilience (mirrors).

But these are all options, and having choices is good.

That’s also true of the USB4v2 downlink that could take all the bandwidth and leave nothing for the other ports.

The upside of this decision is that you can run dual monitors from this dock, using the HDMI 2.0 port and the USB4v2, or you could also attach a USB4 external DAS or SSD.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

As docks go, other than the M.2 slots, this system has limited ports and, therefore, features.

One area I didn’t especially love was the speaker solution, as it didn’t enhance my audio experience beyond what I already experience from my monitors. But having something that can play music over Bluetooth from a phone, or direct from the PC, might be useful to some. Having an inherent microphone also avoids the need to carry it along if the audio quality is acceptable to you.

As much as docks are about bandwidth management, they are also about the distribution of power. The internal PSU on the Beelink EX Mate Pro has 140W to play with, enabling it to offer 96W on the USB4v2 uplink. That’s plenty for most laptops, unless you have a mobile workstation that wants 140W.

But the USB ports on the dock can also draw power: 15W on the USB4v2 and USB 3.2 ports, and 2.5W on the USB 2.0 port. Therefore, if you plug devices into these, you might find that it comes out of the 96W laptop's recharging budget, since the remaining 44W is probably needed for other things.

With relatively few ports and a somewhat idiosyncratic port selection, the Beelink EX Mate Pro focuses on laptop users who need these particular functions. I can’t see desktop or Mini PC users wanting some of these capabilities, but it depends on how they use their systems, I guess.

• Features: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Beelink EX Mate Pro: Performance

• 80Gbps upstream bandwidth
• M.2 and USB4v2

It should be obvious that the performance of any external dock depends on the bandwidth available to connect to it and how that bandwidth is divided among the ports in use.

Because of the huge number of possibilities, I decided that what was most relevant is how fast NVMe drives are when placed in the M.2 slots. And what sort of speed can you expect from external SSDs using the USB4v2 downlink port?

For my M.2 testing, I used a single Kioxia Exceria Plus G3 that’s rated for a sequential read speed of around 5000 MB/s. That speed level is only possible when this NVMe drive is run on a Gen 4 slot with 4 lanes. On a Gen 3 slot with two lanes (a quarter of the bandwidth), it managed only 1655 MB/s reads and 1556 MB/s writes using CrystalDiskMark as the benchmark. This underlines that investing in Gen 4 over Gen 3 is largely pointless if you intend to put them inside this hardware.

But where I saw much better performance was with the USB4v2 port, attaching a Corsair EX400 2TB USB4 SSD. That delivered an impressive. 3912MB/s reads and 3703MB/s writes, which is close to the fastest that I’ve ever achieved with this external drive.

For the sake of completeness, I also tested it with an OWC Envoy Pro FX, a 4TB external drive that was made for Thunderbolt 4. It achieved 3029MB/s reads but only 1290MB/s writes, curiously.

Overall, the performance of this dock with its external USB4 v2 port was more impressive than that of the M.2 internal drives. Although it's important to realise that the speeds I achieved with the external drives would have been largely similar if they had been directly connected to the host system.

The Corsair EX400 achieved 4059MB/s reads and 3748MB/s writes when connected directly to the host, as an example.

• Performance: 4 / 5

Beelink EX Mate Pro: Final verdict

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

The Beelink EX Mate Pro is an interesting option, especially for those who stay out of the office but need the additional ports and storage options that a device like this can add.

It’s not a replacement for a dedicated desktop dock with ten or more ports, but then it's not priced like one either.

To get the most from this equipment, you need a minimum of a USB4 port with 40Gbps (not 20Gbps) and ideally a full USB4v2 implementation with 80Gbps. That last option isn’t common yet, but hopefully, more laptops will appear with those in the near future.

At under $200, this isn’t an expensive choice if you have the right ports on your laptop and want to add some extra ones that the maker of that device left off.

However, it isn’t clear yet if the future of external connections lies with Thunderbolt or USB, since the latest technologies from both camps have yet to see widespread use.

Beelink EX Mate Pro: Report card

Value

Inexpensive for a USB4v2 dock

4 / 5

Design

A repurposed NUC case with no external PSU

4 / 5

Features

Limited ports outside, but four M.2 slots inside

4 / 5

Performance

Works well enough for USB4 hosts and devices

4 / 5

Overall

Inexpensive option if you have USB4v2

4 / 5

Should I buy a Beelink EX Mate Pro?

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Buy it if...

You have USB4v2
Like Thunderbolt 5, almost nobody has USB4v2 currently, though this device will work well enough with USB4 if it has 40Gbps available.

You need 96W charging
While 96W isn’t enough for some mobile workstation-class machines, it's plenty for the majority of laptops, enabling you to work and charge simultaneously. View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You don’t have USB4
If you only have USB-C (USB 3.2), or a USB4 port with only 20Gbps bandwidth, I’d avoid this dock, since the performance of the M.2 storage and the through ports won’t be ideal.

You need many ports
As docks go, this one doesn’t have many ports, limiting what you can reasonably connect to it. If you need a USB4 external drive and two monitors connected, then this dock doesn’t support that at the same time.

The Beelink EX Mate Pro All-In-One Docking Station is a USB4 dock that can mount four M.2 NVMe drives internally.

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