The Raspberry Pi B+ introduced four USB ports back in 2014 (previous models only had one or two ports), but it wasn’t until the Raspberry Pi 4 that we saw USB 3 enter the mix. On the flagship Raspberry Pi 5, and the previous Pi 4 we get two USB 2 ports, and two USB 3. But what if we want just a few more USB ports? Raspberry Pi has today announced its latest product, a $12 (£10) Raspberry Pi USB 3 Hub, which converts one USB 3 port to four, and provides an external power input for power-hungry devices.
We’ve got one on the bench, but this is not a review, more of a hands-on. So let's see what it can do.
Raspberry Pi USB 3 Hub Technical Specifications
Using the Raspberry Pi USB 3 Hub
As you can probably guess, using the hub is simply a matter of plugging it in, and then connecting your devices. It just works and I ran a few basic tests to see how it performed. The tests revolved around copying a 6.2GB Ubuntu 24.04.1 ISO image to and from a USB device connected to the hub.
The main USB device is a USB 3 to NVMe adapter, and the drive is a 1TB WD_Black SN850X. This ensures that the drive is not the bottleneck. I copied to and from WD_Black SN850X, and the Raspberry Pi 5 was running from the new Raspberry Pi branded NVMe SSD running at Gen 3 speeds. Basically, everything was running at the best possible speed. I used rsync to show the progress of the file transfer between drives.
As you can see, the USB 3 interface is certainly fast enough for most projects. It's not PCIe Gen 3 840MB/s that we enjoy with SSDs on the Raspberry Pi, but 232 to 278 MB/s is plenty fast for most applications. As you can see in the table, the write speed when copying from the Raspberry Pi SSD to the SN850X increased by 10 MB/s when an external 5V power source was supplied, leading me to think that the SN850X may have needed a little extra juice to get the most from it. If you plan to use higher-power devices, then the 5V 3A (15W max) power input will ensure that any hungry downstream devices are well fed.
After taking my photos, I wondered what was inside the case. So, armed with pry tools and spudgers (and a little heat from the hot air rework soldering station) I gently opened the case. Inside, it is not a generic, off-the-shelf USB 3 hub. It is a custom Raspberry Pi designed PCB, with the Infineon CYUSB3304-68LTXC USB 5Gbps hub controller at its heart. I was looking for some custom Raspberry Pi silicon, maybe an RP2040 or RP2350 thrown in for hacks? Alas it was not meant to be.
Running sudo dmesg in a terminal, I could see the board details. A high-speed USB device, made by Raspberry Pi with the unusual serial number of 000TESTING.
Who is the Raspberry Pi USB 3 Hub for?
The simple answer, anyone who needs more USB ports. The hub is a little bulky, but not obscene. The $12 price tag is also not bad, but you can get similar for around $10 on Amazon.
Would I go out and buy one? Probably not, but I already have a plethora of USB 3 hubs at my disposal. If I needed a USB 3 hub for my Raspberry Pi, then sure, I would pick one up. If I wanted to complete my Raspberry Pi USB device collection (USB keyboard and mouse) then $12 isn’t a great deal to spend for what is a pleasantly designed, and very usable hub. As ever with Raspberry Pi products, the unit will remain in production for a good few years, January 2030 according to the product brief.
You may not need one right now, but when you do need extra USB 3 ports on your Raspberry Pi, and you like the Raspberry Pi design aesthetic, then look no further.
The Raspberry Pi USB 3 hub is available from official Raspberry Pi resellers, priced at $12 (£10).
