As laptops grow ever thinner, Ethernet ports are typically among the first connectors to fall by the wayside in service of slimness. Innovations like Wi-Fi 7 make cutting the cord much easier but there’s still nothing like a good old-fashioned wired connection. If you wish to free yourself from the built-in bandwidth shackles of your devices, QNAP’s 10GbE adaptors might be worth a look.
These adaptors come in two flavours: QNA-UC10G1T and QNA-UC10G1SF. The former is a USB4 to 10GbE NBASE-T port, whereas the latter uses the more sophisticated SFP+ to USB 4 Type-C. NBASE-T uses RJ45 connectors and are easy to implement in small offices and home networks. Meanwhile, SFP+ uses fibre optic cables, allowing them to transmit data across multiple kilometres of distance.
QNA-UC10G1T comes with Marvell’s AQC113 network controller, while the QNA-UC10G1SF uses AQC100S. Both models are compatible with Thunderbolt 3 and 4 giving Mac, Windows, and Linux users an option to boost their machine’s network speed. All this in a compact, lightweight, and fanless design.
QNAP is also preparing two additional models, the QNA-UC10G2T and QNA-UC10G2SF, boasting dual 10GbE BASE-T/SFP+ ports, but neither will be immediately available.
As a reminder, you will need compatible hardware across your devices and networking infrastructure to take advantage of this faster connection. If you can tick those boxes, QNA-UC10FG2T seems like a great choice for anyone running a NAS at home or in an office environment. Local Steam caching or media distribution would be ideal use cases for those with lots of clients.
Regardless of your needs, at £249 for the (RJ45) QNA-UC10G1T and £264 for the (SFP+) QNA-UC10G1SF these are nice options to boost your LAN speed. There are more affordable alternatives out there albeit with slower speeds, so it’s really a case of weighing up the value of such dizzying speeds.
