Modern laptops are wonderful things. There are fantastic levels of integration and performance in ever-slimmer chassis, though the inevitable cost comes in the form of limited external connectivity. Most laptops, for example, don’t feature full-size Ethernet ports, relying instead on super-fast WiFi.
Aimed at the prosumer market, QNAP’s £350 QNA-UC10G2T box of tricks offers two-port wired networking via a single connection from your computer. Handy if, like me, your daily driver is a MacBook and you want to seamlessly and stably connect to the high-speed work network.
QNAP QNA-UC10G2T Network Adapter
£350 / $375
Pros
- Superb build quality
- Dual 10GbE ports
- Impressive transfer speeds
- Fibre option
- Silent operation
Cons
- Feels a tad expensive
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How we test and review products.
Super-fast network access
Compatible with Windows and macOS though not Windows on Arm, QNAP’s QNA-UC10G2T is a host-powered bridging box that has a USB-C connection on one side and two-port RJ45 capable of 10GbE speeds on the other. Appreciating the fast transfer speeds on offer, you need either a USB 4 or Thunderbolt 3/4 connection on your computer, and QNAP provides a high-quality 1m cable in the box. I’d also prefer a second, shorter cable bundled in the package as the main one can get unwieldy when laptop and QNAP box are sat on a desk.
You’ll have to source your own Cat 6(a) cable(s), however, and that makes sense as everyone’s networking setup is different. The good news is no drivers are required to get it up and running on macOS. In my case, the adapter takes advantage of the ‘Thunderbolt Bridge’ service. Literally plug and play.
Being host-powered it’s difficult to accurately say how much power the adapter takes up from the laptop, though rudimentary calculations suggest it’s around 10 watts at full chat. That’s no problem for the stout battery in the MacBook Pro but it could limit the on-the-go longevity of, say, ultrabooks. Nevertheless, I expect most users to have their laptop or host device plugged in when using the adapter.
The unit itself is built like the proverbial tank. An all-metal construction naturally lends itself to solidity, reinforced by the considerable 520g weight. As you can see, QNAP employs aluminium fins on the top, making the fanless unit act like a giant heatsink for the components inside. It feels like a solid-state device from the 1960s, and I mean that as a compliment to its beefy build. There are rubberised sections on each side that lend excellent grip when held in one hand, while four rubberised feet keep it firmly planted.
Measuring 130mm long, 95mm wide, and 37mm tall, I wouldn’t call it pocketable, but you could certainly drop it in a larger bag easily enough. In a perfect world I’d prefer it to be small enough to slip into a laptop sleeve. Going down that route, mind you, sacrifices good thermals and silent operation.
Inside, Marvell’s Aquantia AQC113C PCIe 4.0 to 10G controller does the heavy lifting of translating from host device to network. Offering the full 40Gbps from the USB-C side, each RJ45’s port speed is negotiable down from 10GbE to whatever your network can provide, so if you only have a 2.5GbE backbone, that’s no problem. In that sense, the QNA-UC10G2T provides a level of future proofing. You often see the same controller in add-in PCIe cards for computers and NAS boxes – and, being cheaper, I recommend using them if your system has a compatible slot – though it’s rare for any to feature two ports. QNAP has also talked about a future adapter featuring the same USB-C but with dual 25GbE SFP28 outputs.
If this particular specification doesn’t quite fit the bill, QNAP also has the QNA-UC10G1T, offering a single 10GbE RJ45 port. For those whose networks and switches favour SFP+ connections, the single-port QNA-UC10G1SF and dual-port QNA-UC10G2SF prove better bets. It’s clear to me that QNAP wants to be a one-stop shop for your adapter needs.
The intrinsic and niche performance benefit of this adapter is the ability to connect to two client devices at the same time, thereby more or less doubling throughput to and from the host device. QNAP quotes Iometer-based read throughput at well over 2GB/s, while actual file-transfer downloads and uploads average 1,430MB/s and 1,468MB/s, respectively. I’d argue the two-port solution is overkill for most users, but then QNAP does, as I note above, offer a one-port adapter with the same speed credentials, leaving you with a further £100 in your pocket.
There’s no getting around the fact that this adapter is expensive. At £350 or so, there are cheaper alternatives on the market – heck, even a USB-to-5Gbps Ethernet adapter is no more than £40 – yet that’s missing the point somewhat, as you’re paying for top-notch throughput in this instance.
Furthermore, there’s performance benefit in considering this over existing Thunderbolt 3-to-10GbE devices on the market. Sure, they’re less expensive, but typically use an older Marvell AQN107 controller whose inflexible PCIe lane architecture means you cannot guarantee the super-fast speeds on show here. Put simply, the AQC113 chip used by QNAP is the premium solution in 2025.
Testing this device’s technical mettle, I connected my MacBook Pro M4 16inch laptop to the QNAP adapter via one of its Thunderbolt 4 ports and then hooked up a Cat 6a cable to a 10GbE RJ45 switch which was in turn connected to an office PC containing a large file repository across its 16TB of storage. Said PC’s motherboard featured an Asus XG-C100C network adapter, thus keeping the entire chain at the maximum 10Gbps for a single connection.
Performance
I prefer to rely on real-world results than express performance in terms of peak Iometer speeds. To that end, I copied over a folder containing eight media files totalling 307GB. The same files were written back to the QNAP-connected PC.
Moving the files over to my MacBook took an average of six minutes and two seconds, over three runs, resulting in a single-port transfer speed of 848MB/s. I’m happy with that speed which apes the best you can do with a 10Gbps external solid-state drive. Going the other way, the average time increased to six minutes 17 seconds, or around 814MB/s, which is still nothing to sniff at. The results are within expectations, and faster than any consumer WiFi can produce. The QNA-UC10G2T’s casing became warm but not hot to the touch. My infra-red thermometer read a maximum 38C temperature. Going down in size would naturally increase heat and perhaps necessitate a fan, both of which are no-nos in my book.
Aside from the electric speed on offer when moving files between devices, having a 10GbE connection to a network provides ancillary benefits. For example, my MacBook Pro ships with 512GB of storage as standard, reducing down to a usable 400GB or so when OS overheads and critical programs are accounted for. This is fine for me, but content creators specialising in 4K and 8K video may find the lack of space and sheer cost for time-of-purchase upgrades unpalatable. A whole genre of MacBook-attached storage has sprung up to negate the issue, of course, yet opting for a single external SSD is limited to my machine alone.
This is where an adapter like the QNAP QNA-UC10G2T is useful. The native-like access to a number of computers and NAS on the network opens up a far more expansive pool of storage and options. Manipulating large videos feels the same as if the multi-GB files were resident on the MacBook Pro itself. When shutting down work for play, having a 10GbE-equipped NAS on the network facilitates either lightning-fast transfers or stutter-free playback of even the largest of media files. Sure, I could do this over WiFi, albeit more slowly, yet the old-school nerd in me prefers a rock-solid wired connection.
Conclusion
WiFi is good but wired is better. This rings especially true for small to medium businesses and content creators requiring access to multiple computers or storage devices resident on networks. This is why the QNAP QNA-UC10G2T comes in ever so handy when paired with a recent laptop featuring either USB 4 or Thunderbolt 3/4 connectivity.
Though the rise of mega-fast WiFi steps on the toes of a device like this, there’s peace of mind knowing the connection won’t drop out. Enjoying near-Gigabyte speeds across myriad network-attached devices is great to see.
This is a premium bit of kit whose first-class construction, good thermals, silent operation, and two-port ability elevate it from a glut of other solutions plying the market. Nevertheless, I feel as if the £350 price tag speaks to its niche nature and limits appeal to those of you who, with USB 4 and/or Thunderbolt 4 machines, can truly take advantage of dual 10GbE connections to a fast network. If that’s you, I recommend putting the QNAP QNA-UC10G2T in your laptop bag.
