There is a blue OWC logo at the top, and you’ll also find a white OWC logo and “Thunderbolt Dock” words printed on the front panel. The Anker PowerExpand 5-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Mini Dock is an excellent option for road warriors or those looking to save significant desk space. There is an additional USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port for other USB peripherals and two status LEDs. A Kensington lock slot and Kensington Nano lock slot are included on the side. The OWC Thunderbolt docking station comes with 4 Thunderbolt 4 powered ports and one USB 3.2 Type-A port for USB devices. You can charge your Thunderbolt 4 laptop using a Thunderbolt 4 docking station. And with each Thunderbolt 4 laptop supporting charging, you can have a clean setup with less clutter and power adapters. It has almost every port you could ever imagine and delivers 90W power for charging to reduce cable clutter on desktops. The CalDigit Element hub is a great little Thunderbolt 4 hub for anyone who wants to add USB-A and Thunderbolt 4 ports to their PC without taking up a lot of space. If you need an SD card reader or an Ethernet port, the full-size docks are no doubt going to be a better choice. Now, this is the best Thunderbolt 4 docking station. If you’re going for looks, you’ll find a hard time choosing between the two. The best feature of this new Thunderbolt 4 dock is daisy-chaining. The other three Thunderbolt 4 ports are located at the back alongside the power input and power button. The accessories included in the box include a 100W power adapter with a 1.2m power cord and a 0.7m Thunderbolt 4 cable. The dock is currently out of stock everywhere, but you can sign up for notifications at Razer's website. All Thunderbolt 4 docks with at least two Thunderbolt 4 ports support daisy-chaining of multiple devices. Need a better variety of ports? Sadly, none of the available Thunderbolt 4 docking stations can be placed vertically. The OWC dock looks so small and compact despite the many ports that it has. The Surface Laptop 4's port selection hasn't really changed, and many people will still need a hub or adapter to maximize connectivity. That’s a bunch of ports to connect external monitors. Kensington is another leading company in the world of hubs and docking stations. The Thunderbolt 4 dock works with Razer's Synapse software for lighting customizations, at least if you're on Windows 10. By. OWC's Thunderbolt dock is probably what you're looking for. It has almost all the ports you could ask for from a docking station. Kensington is another leading company in the world of hubs and docking stations. The Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma is a serious single-block solution for connecting your laptop to everything. It has a space gray finish and black on the top surface. The previous Thunderbolt specifications required you to place bus-powered devices like external storage devices at the end of the chain. Learn more. You can preorder now from the OWC website. Enjoy incredible data speeds up to 3,000MBps on compatible external drives and quickly wake your Mac from sleep by tapping a keyboard/mouse connected to the dock. For the first time, you can find more than two Thunderbolt ports on a docking station. Besides, it transforms a single Thunderbolt 4 port on your PC into three additional ports to connect more peripherals, including dual monitors and external drives. Rest assured this connectivity wonder stands ready for duty as a USB-C hub. Luckily most Thunderbolt 4 docking stations come with up to four Thunderbolt 4 ports. Does the latest M1 MacBooks support dual 4K monitors? This post includes affiliate links, for which we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you... 6 Best Thunderbolt 4 Docking Stations – Buying Guide. However, the output power differs on different docks, while some don’t support charging. The Thunderbolt 4 port delivers 90W power output enough for charging almost every laptop in the market. Here are some killer USB Type-C hubs for your PC. The OWC Thunderbolt Dock also allows you to connect multiple bus-powered devices, like storage drives, and place them anywhere in a daisy-chain, previously impossible with Thunderbolt 3 docks. You can get the well-built Kensington SD5700T, the cheaper OWC Thunderbolt dock, or the RGB-infused Razer Chroma. Learn more. It is finned on the sides to ensure excellent heat dissipation. You can preorder one from CalDigit in the meantime. CalDigit designed the ports to support charging even when not connected to a computer. If your laptop requires more than 60W, this is the ideal compact Thunderbolt 4 dock for you. With a full 40Gbps bandwidth, you connected accessories to deliver the same performance as when they’re plugged directly into a computer giving you desktop-class performance from your thin and light notebook. You can easily switch off the docking station when not using it to save power. If you want to add more USB Type-A ports to your M1 MacBook Pro and Air without breaking the bank, CalDigit Element Hub is the kind of docking station you need. Daniel Rubino is the executive editor of Windows Central. OWC's Thunderbolt dock is in many ways almost identical to Kensington's SD5700T, right down to port selection, port layout, and lock slots. One Thunderbolt 4 port connects to the host laptop and the remaining three ports to other Thunderbolt peripherals, including monitors, external storage, audio interfaces, and more compatible devices. The best Thunderbolt 4 hubs and docks all provide robust external monitor support, lots of USB-A connectivity, and charging back to a host laptop. If you want a Thunderbolt docking station with HDMI or DisplayPort ports, be sure to check out our roundup of the best Thunderbolt 3 docking stations. The dock offers more ports and power while taking up less desk space, thanks to its small design footprint. Element Hub is ideal for M1 based Macs since they can fully leverage the Thunderbolt 4/USB4 connectivity. The best Thunderbolt 4 hubs and docking stations are slowly taking over for the best Thunderbolt 3 docks thanks to much better performance and compatibility with many other interfaces. It’s a great solution to add legacy USB-A ports to your ultraportable Thunderbolt 4 laptop. Yes. You can now create separate “tree branches” in the Thunderbolt 4 ports, enabling you to connect many Thunderbolt devices than ever before to expand the functionality of your ultraportable laptop. Kensington SD5700T provides a similar set of ports, but it costs more than the OWC. The back edge holds the AC input and three Thunderbolt 4 ports with 40Gbps speeds and 15W of charging power. Bringing lighting 40Gbps speeds, charging, and video on the same port allows you to get high performance from your thin and light ultrabook. This port delivers up to 60W, which is enough for charging most laptops in the market. You can still take it on the road if you want more ports for your accessories, but its ideal use is desktop setups. Microsoft has Surface Laptop 3 discounted by $400. Other ports include four USB Type-A ports, a Gigabit Ethernet jack, one audio headphone/microphone combo jack, and an SD card reader. These are the features to look out for when buying a new Thunderbolt 4 docking station for your smart office home office. You can connect any Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, USB4, or USB-C devices to the Thunderbolt ports on the Element Hub. Considering the OWC Thunderbolt Hub only supports 60W PD, the SD5700T makes the best fit for power users. Element Hub is fully compatible with USB4, Thunderbolt 3, and USB-C devices, including the iPad Pro. As long as you're not searching for a wide variety of ports and want to add USB-A and Thunderbolt 4, this is a great dock that isn't as expensive as many of the other options. Kensington SD5700T Thunderbolt 4 Dual 4K Docking Station with 90W PD, Anker PowerExpand 5-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Mini Dock, Compact Thunderbolt 4 Dock with 85W Power delivery, Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station with 4 USB-A Ports. It has rubber feet strips to secure the dock in place and excellent connectivity, including four USB-A ports, features you won’t find in the other compact Thunderbolt 4 docks. Why the price discrepancy? The Kensington SD5700T should be considered. OWC's new Thunderbolt Dock has three Thunderbolt ports, and you can plug USB-C devices into them, too. He is an avid PC gamer and multi-platform user and spends most of his time either tinkering with or writing about tech. Kensington SD5700T Thunderbolt 4 Dual 4K Docking Station with 90W PD – Best Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station. You can now connect several bus-powered devices in a daisy-chain for improved performance and reliability. This includes, but is not limited to, external storage, eGPUs, docks, monitors, 10G Ethernet adapter, USB-C to SD card readers, and USB-C to ethernet adapters. The host laptop plugs into the side of the dock and opens up seven extra ports. There's a USB-A 2.0 port on the front, flanked by a UHS-II SD card reader and 3.5mm audio jack. More ports are always better. In terms of performance, Zikko Thunderbolt 4 docking station supports dual 4k displays and up to a single 8k display. It’s a great way to connect more legacy devices to a thin and light laptop such as the MacBook and Dell XPS. The OWC Thunderbolt Hub is the only Thunderbolt 4 docking station available, and the best unless you need more charging power. USB Type-C is the wonderful new connector that allows you to hook up various devices without having to mess around with a cable, making sure it's pointing the correct way up. From a performance standpoint, this tb4 dock supports dual 4K displays at 60Hz or a single 8K30 display.