TESmart HKS202-E23 Review: EDID Only in Mode 1

For two machines sharing two monitors this does the job, and it carries a caveat serious enough to lead with: the feature most people buy a KVM for is unavailable in one of its two display modes.

A note on this assessment: researched from TESmart's published specification and support documentation, not wired into a desk here. See how we test.

The caveat, first

TESmart states that this switch offers two display modes — Mode 1 covering mirror and extended, and Mode 2 being Dual Display Mode — and that EDID emulation is supported in Mode 1 and not in Mode 2.

That matters because EDID emulation is the reason to buy a switch at this price rather than a cheaper one. Its job is to keep a display identity presented to every connected machine at all times, including the ones you are not looking at, so they do not notice their monitors vanishing and rearrange every window accordingly.

In the mode where emulation does not apply, you have a competent switch without the feature that distinguished it. If Dual Display Mode is the configuration you need, this is not the product to buy — and that is a decision to make before ordering rather than after.

The second thing to know is that it was renamed. This was HKS0402A1U and is now HKS202-E23. Both names remain in circulation, so a listing, a manual and a support article may each use a different one for the same hardware. Record what you actually bought.

The problem it addresses

A work laptop and a personal desktop on one desk produces two keyboards, two mice, and a monitor input menu you learn by heart. A KVM collapses that to one set of peripherals and a button — the broader setup problem is in one desk for work and gaming.

This particular model addresses the two-monitor version of it, which is the harder case: with two displays, the window-rearranging failure is twice as annoying because there is twice as much desktop to reassemble.

How it is specified

Model

HKS202-E23

USB hub

USB 2.0

Resolution

4K at 60 Hz

Connections

DisplayPort and HDMI

Configuration

2 computers, 2 monitors

Previous name

HKS0402A1U — both names remain in circulation

EDID emulation

Mode 1 (mirror and extended) only — NOT Mode 2 (dual display)

What it gets right

Within Mode 1, the emulation does what it should, and it is the correct feature to be paying for.

DisplayPort and HDMI is a genuinely useful combination, because real desks rarely have two of the same output free — a laptop offering USB-C or HDMI beside a desktop on DisplayPort is the ordinary case, and a switch that only speaks one of them forces adapters into the chain.

4K at 60 Hz is a good desktop feed. For text, spreadsheets and everything a work machine does, it is more than adequate.

Ugly score 6, and the cables are most of it

A small black steel box with lit buttons. The box is unremarkable; what it does to the space behind the desk is not, and with two machines and two monitors this is the heaviest cable bundle of any product reviewed on this site.

Four video leads in, two out, two USB, and a power adapter, all permanent. That is worth routing deliberately at installation, and everything in hiding desk cables without blocking upgrades applies with more force here than anywhere else.

Where it stops being the right tool

Mode 2 removes the reason to buy it

Stated once more because it is the decision: if your setup needs Dual Display Mode, you are paying for emulation you cannot use. A cheaper switch, or the monitors' own input switching plus a USB switch, does the same work for less.

The USB hub caps input

USB 2.0 is fine for a keyboard, an office mouse, a webcam and a headset, and it is not fine for a mouse polling at 1000 Hz or above. The workaround is the same as on this brand's four-port model: run the gaming mouse straight into the gaming machine.

It is not the four-port model

If the actual need is four machines onto one monitor rather than two onto two, that is a different product — the HKS401-E23, which has emulation on every input without the mode caveat. TESmart's naming makes these easy to confuse, which is exactly why the exact-revision rule exists.

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Who should buy it, and who should not

Buy it if two machines share two monitors, you will run mirror or extended rather than Dual Display Mode, and the peripherals to be switched are a keyboard and an ordinary mouse. Under those conditions the emulation is worth the premium and the dual-protocol inputs save adapters.

Skip it if only the keyboard and mouse need to move — the monitors already switch inputs themselves, and a plain USB switch is far cheaper. That comparison is in USB switch vs KVM switch.

Would we buy it again?

Only if Mode 1 is the mode. The hardware is capable and the feature set is right, but a product whose headline capability is unavailable in one of its two operating modes puts the burden of reading the documentation on the buyer — and most buyers will not, which is why this review opens with it rather than closing with it.