We've extensively benchmarked the best Thunderbolt and USB-C docks in 2026 and have compiled a list of the best models on the market here. There used to be a time when laptops would come with a bevy of ports to satisfy most of your connectivity needs. While some larger, desktop-replacement laptops still have a relatively large number of ports, ultrabooks have mostly reduced the number of ports to the bare minimum to save space and reduce weight.

While these efforts result in laptops that are thin and light, if you want to connect a wide variety of devices, including external monitors, you’ll need a dongle or a dock. While dongles are fine for connecting a single peripheral, docks are handy for connecting a variety of devices while simultaneously charging your laptop.

The two most common connectivity options for modern docks are USB-C and Thunderbolt. Nearly every laptop on the market has at least one USB-C port available, which opens up a wealth of possibilities for connecting everything from an external monitor to an external hard drive to webcams to gaming mice. Thunderbolt ports are less common, particularly the latest Thunderbolt 5 standard, but these docks give you the option for even more ports and faster maximum transfer speeds while supporting higher-resolution monitors.

With this in mind, we’re going to take a look at some of the best Thunderbolt and USB-C docks available today.

Quick List

Best Thunderbolt and USB-C Docks for Laptops you can buy today

Best Value Thunderbolt 4 Dock

The Amazon Basics Thunderbolt 4 Pro Dock is a relatively compact dock measuring just 7.86 x 2.95 x 1.23 inches. It features a jet black finish with cooling fins along its flanks to help dissipate heat. As you can see from its name, this is a Thunderbolt 4 dock, so it doesn't offer the higher throughput speeds and loftier Power Delivery figures available to Thunderbolt 5 docks. However, you do get up to 40 Gbps bidirectional data transfer speeds and up to 96-watt charging for your laptop.

The dock supports up to two 4K monitors at 60 Hz, and even includes a 2.5 GbE Ethernet port and an SD slot for offloading images from your digital camera or drone.

With a street price of around $200, the Thunderbolt 4 Pro Dock is a good all-around solution if you need a dock that won't break the bank.

Best Value Thunderbolt 5 Dock

The WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M is a well-rounded Thunderbolt 5 dock supporting bidirectional data speeds of up to 80 Gbps (120 Gbps one way) via its three downstream ports. The dock measures 8.6 x 3.8 x 1.38 inches and includes four USB-A ports for legacy peripherals. Your media needs are also met with microSD and SD slots, while a 2.5 GbE port handles your wired networking. It can also support up to three 4K monitors at a 144 Hz refresh rate.

One of the standout features of the WL-UTD58-M is the M.2 slot on the bottom of the dock, which allows you to add a PCIe 4.0 SSD.

The WL-UTD58-M has an MSRP of $399, making it price-competitive in the Thunderbolt 5 Dock market.

Best Premium Thunderbolt 5 Dock for Windows Laptops

The CalDigit TS5 Plus puts most other Thunderbolt docks to shame with its sheer number of ports (20 in total). The TS5 Plus looks unassuming from the front, offering microSD and SD slots, a single USB-A port, two USB-C ports, and a 3.5mm combo jack. However, the floodgates open at the back, where you'll find a wealth of USB-C, Thunderbolt, and USB-A ports.

CalDigit even offers up a DisplayPort 2.1 port for your monitor, and a 10 GbE port for wired networking. About the only thing missing here is an internal M.2 SSD slot like some other Thunderbolt 5 docks. The TS5 Plus supports up to two 8K60 monitors or three 4K144 monitors.

The TS5 Plus is a premium dock, and it definitely comes with premium pricing with an MSRP of $499.

Best Premium Thunderbolt 5 Dock for Macs

If you have a high-end Mac or MacBook, look no further than the Ivanky FusionDock Ultra. This is the ultimate Thunderbolt 5 dock available, and it only supports Apple Silicon Macs.

It offers a staggering 26 ports, including seven USB-C and two USB-A on the front panel (along with a microSD and SD slot). The back panel is awash in ports, including four Thunderbolt 5 ports, DisplayPort 2.1, HDMI 2.1, S/PDIF, and even a 10 GbE port. You won’t be left wanting, as every possible data and video option is covered here.

The FusionDock Ultra has two Thunderbolt 5 chips onboard, so it requires two Thunderbolt ports on your Mac. While that might seem a bit odd, giving up those two ports opens you to the most feature-packed Thunderbolt 5 dock on the market, while also delivering 140 watts through Power Delivery. With the proper hardware, the FusionDock Ultra can support up to four 6K60 monitors simultaneously.

All of this port goodness comes at a cost; however, the FusionDock Ultra has a street price of a staggering $649.

Best USB-C Dock

The Baseus RD1 Pro is a 15-in-1 unit with dual HDMI ports that support up to 4K resolution at 60 Hz. It also supports Power Delivery to a laptop, along with Gigabit Ethernet, an SD card slot, and a gaggle of USB-A and USB-C ports.

Perhaps its most interesting addition is a Qi2.2 wireless charging dock (25 watts) mounted to the top of the unit. The dock can lie flat or pivot forward, giving you a better view of your smartphone when it's docked.

The RD1 Pro even has a display on the front that shows the status and power level of the USB ports, which is a nice touch. The dock has an MSRP of $199.99.

Specifications

Best Thunderbolt and USB-C Docks for Laptops Shopping Tips

The entire point of highly customizable creator-oriented macropad-like streaming decks is that they're, well... highly customizable. While most of them still center around a series of translucent plastic LCD keys, we've seen both Elgato and Loupedeck add a variety of other input options — dials, knobs, touch buttons, touchscreens, and more — but what if you could make your own custom streaming controller?

That's the premise of Cooler Master's MasterHUB, a fully-customizable modular macropad/controller for any and all creators — or at least, that's what it was supposed to be.

The MasterHUB was actually announced almost two years ago: Cooler Master initially put it on Kickstarter, where it was fully-funded within an hour, raising a total of $267,491 by the end of its run. It had a somewhat rocky start and began shipping to backers a year ago, and has since lagged on the promised software updates and functionality. You can now find the MasterHUB Creator Kit on Amazon for $170, which is the same price as the Elgato Stream Deck+, so let's take a look at what you're getting.

Design of the MasterHUB

The MasterHUB comes in a few different packages — there's the MasterHUB Creator Kit, which includes the base module, a 15-key IPS module, a 5-fader module, and a 2-roller module. There are also two other modules, which are currently sold separately: a module with three knobs, and a module with an encoder dial, which is a clickable dial with a customizable screen.

The MasterHUB is bigger than most Stream Decks — it measures 7.4 x 4.9 inches (190 x 126.5mm), which makes it slightly larger than the 32-key Stream Deck XL (7.2 x 4.4 inches / 182 x 112mm). The base station is 0.6 inches (16.2mm) thick, but with the modules attached it's about 1 inch (25.4mm) thick, not including the additional height of buttons or knobs. So it's not the most space-friendly customizable macropad, since the base station is always a requirement no matter how you set it up.

The MasterHUB also comes with a small rubber stand that attaches magnetically to the back and angle the entire hub up slightly (there are two attachment points, so you can orient the MasterHUB horizontally or vertically. The base also has ports — a mini DisplayPort and a USB-C port — on two sides, again, for horizontal or vertical usage. The base has "MASTER HUB" debossed on its longer (horizontal) sides, and has customizable lighting around the entire bottom edge.

Setting up the MasterHUB is surprisingly easy — all you have to do is pop the modules onto the base and plug it in. The modules can be arranged in a number of ways — there are some limitations, but not many. Each module has a single, square pogo pin connector that needs to fit into one of the base module's slots, and the base has several guides to make sure you get everything placed correctly. Modules can be hot-swapped.

In the box, the MasterHUB Creator Kit comes with the base station and three modules (15-key IPS, 5-fader, and 2-roller), as well as a 6-foot (1.8m) detachable USB-C to USB-C cable. It also comes with a small rubber stand that attaches to the back of the base station so it sits at a slight angle. It does not come with a stand, however.

Specs

Buttons, Dials, Etc.

The MasterHUB comes with three modules in the main Creator Kit, and offers two additional module types sold separately. You can have more than one of the same type of module on your MasterHUB.

The "main" module is the 15-key IPS module, which looks similar to the LCD keys of the Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 or the Loupedeck-powered Razer Stream Controller X: 15 square 0.6-inch (15mm) clear plastic buttons over a larger, full-color (in this case, IPS) display. Each key is fully customizable for function and image/icon, and changes as the setup changes; e.g. if you have different profiles or pages of key functions on your MasterHUB. I do like the way these keys feel — they're snappy, not mushy like Elgato's, and they have more give than Loupedeck's. They're not perfect, but they feel nice and responsive to press.

The module features Cooler Master's text logo along the bottom, which I don't love, because it means you can't really use the module in a vertical position (well, it's not really set up to be used vertically at all, I suppose, and you'd have to manually rotate images for it to look right — but, technically, it could be done).

The 5-slider module also comes in the Creator's Kit, and features five smooth plastic sliders. I love the idea of this module, but at the moment there's not much you can do with it — as only certain controls can be mapped to the sliders, and there aren't many of them. In fact, there are only four of them as of this writing: MasterHUB brightness, system volume control, OBS Studio audio mixer, and Streamlabs audio mixer. Assuming you use all of these programs, you still can't use all five of the sliders. I assume Cooler Master has plans to add in support for other functionality, but I don't know when (if ever) that will happen.

The final piece of the puzzle in the Creator's Kit is the dual-roller module, which features two notched plastic rollers. These have a lot more potential functionality than do the sliders, and can be mapped to do things like control your media, switch between desktops, zoom and scale, and perform specific key actions. The rollers are not clickable.

The other two modules are a three-dial module, which has three clickable metal dials with light rings around each, and an encoder dial module, which has a large plastic dial with a customizable screen in the center. The three-dial module is probably my favorite — it's well-made, with premium, sturdy-feeling machined metal knobs, and it just seems to make more sense than the rollers or the sliders, especially with the current limitations of the software. The encoder dial is nice because it provides an extra screen, but what the screen can display is limited to a clock/date display, CPU/GPU usage, CPU/GPU temp, or an image of your choosing. (Of course, I'm not sure what else I'd like it to be able to display, but I feel limited regardless.)

I love the modularity of the MasterHUB, and I can certainly see situations in which different modules would be useful for different workflows. But with customizable macro pads like these, it all sort of ultimately comes down to the software — and Cooler Master's software leaves quite a bit to be desired.

Software

The MasterHUB uses Cooler Master's MasterHUB software, which is definitely not perfect — though it has been updated twice in the past couple of months, so it's possible (fingers crossed) that it will get better. The software's layout is pretty straight-forward, especially if you've used software for similar devices before — you can click on any part of the MasterHUB to reassign functions to that button, dial, or knob; the functions you can assign will depend on the type of input (e.g. the sliders can only accept a handful of functions).

There are several built-in functions from Cooler Master that can be assigned to most inputs, including functions to control the MasterHUB itself (switch profile, change lighting, navigate through pages, etc), as well as for controlling your system (opening apps, web pages, and files; controlling volume/media; switching desktops; etc). You can also assign hotkeys and macros to specific buttons/inputs, and set up inputs to perform multiple actions from the function menu at once — "multitasking," which is probably the most powerful and unique feature of these types of devices.

MasterHUB also comes with some app integrations: OBS Studio, Twitch, Streamlabs, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premier Pro, as well as MasterCTRL, which is for controlling the lighting on other Cooler Master components and peripherals. These integrations are useful, but they're nowhere near as extensive as, say, the plugins in the Elgato Marketplace for Stream Decks. Of course, many actions for various programs can be manually programmed using hotkeys and macros (most of the preset actions are, after all, just hotkeys and macros), but it's nice to not have to do the work.

The main limitation I found with the MasterHUB software in my testing was the way hotkeys are programmed, however — they need to be entered using a keyboard, and there's no drop-down menu to pull key actions from. This is an issue, of course, if you don't have a keyboard with, say, a numberpad, and you want to enter in numberpad keys. Or if you want to use function keys beyond F12. I was able to assign F18 to a key by recording a macro and using the shortcut from a different stream deck (actually, the stream deck on the Corsair Galleon 100 SD), but that seems like it sort of defeats the point.

You can also use the MasterHUB software to customize the device's lighting, though I was disappointed to find that I could only customize lighting by individual modules — not individual inputs. Meaning I could change the color of all three dials or all five sliders, but not the colors of individual dials or sliders (which would be much more useful for distinguishing functionality). This seems like something Cooler Master could add in the future, however.

The Bottom Line

The MasterHUB has a lot of potential, but it's still just... potential. The modular system works surprisingly well — it's easy to put together, the modules are well-built and hot-swappable, and you can set it up in several different layouts depending on what works for you. I'm actually very impressed with how well they managed to pull off the modularity aspect of the MasterHUB, as that part seemed like the trickiest to get right.

But like all macropads, stream decks, programmable... knobs, etc, the hardware is only one (relatively small) part of the equation. The MasterHUB software is definitely still a work in progress, and while it's been updated a couple of times in recent months — leading me to believe (or, well, at least hope) that Cooler Master hasn't abandoned the project — it still has quite a ways to go before it gets anywhere near as functionally as Elgato or Loupedeck.

You can pick up the entire set — the Creator's Kit and the knob and encoder modules — at B&H for $270 right now, or you can get the Elgato Stream Deck+, which has eight buttons, four knobs, and a touchscreen display for $180. The most unique inputs on the MasterHUB are the sliders, and you can't even use all five of them with Cooler Master's current software.

Tucked in the corner of the ID-Cooling booth here at Computex 2026, a brand called Wokyis is showing off some seriously striking Mac Mini and Mac Studio docks. Its M5 Macintosh dock for the M4 Mac Mini is already for sale on Amazon in 10 Gbps and 80 Gbps flavors, offering retro aesthetics and a 1280 x 720 display, along with a spot on the back for an M.2 SSD.

• 10Gbps M5 Retro Dock Station for Mac mini M4
• 80Gbps M5 Retro Dock Station for Mac mini M4 Pro

But Wokyis also showed off NES-themed docks for the Mac Studio and Mac Mini, which are expected to head to Kickstarter in mid-July. The G7 Retro Mac Studio dock has a larger 7-inch flip-up screen (sadly, still 720p) behind NES-themed controller buttons on top, with the D pad controlling volume, screen brightness, and media playback, and the B and A buttons handling copy and paste duties. The “Start” button appears to turn off the screen, while the “Select” button takes a screenshot. Like the M5, the G7 will come in 10 Gbps and 80 Gbps (Thunderbolt 5) variants, support an M.2 SSD (up to 2280) in a slot under the screen, and up to 36W of PD power. The Thunderbolt variant will support up to 8K video at 60 Hz, via DisplayPort and HDMI.

Aside from the card reader slots on the front (including 1 Gbps CF Express), you get four 10 Gbps USB ports (2 each, A and C), and three or two USB 2.0 ports (one fewer on the 80 Gbps model, according to the company’s specs table), along with an audio jack. The Kickstarter notification signup page promises a $199 MSRP, with an early discount of 45% ($109). Presumably, that’s the starting price for the 10 Gbps. I’d expect the 80 Gbps model to have an MSRP of around $349 or more, as the smaller-screen 80 Gbps M5 sells for $339 on Amazon.

As a nerd of a certain age, I’m all for this kind of old-school hardware nostalgia paired with modern computing hardware. I have to wonder whether Nintendo’s lawyers might take an interest, but Acermagic did a similar thing with its X5 mini PC earlier this year, and it was on sale on Amazon for months (though it currently seems to be sold out everywhere).

So if you’re interested in one of Wokyis’ NES-themed docks, you might want to sign up to be notified when they launch. Just remember, as always, that pledging at Kickstarter does not guarantee you’ll get a product in the promised shipping window, or at all.

We've taken the top six Thunderbolt 5 docks we could get our hands on and put them into a six-way battle for supremacy. We’ve previously taken a look at a couple of popular Thunderbolt 4 docks on the market, including the Ivanky FusionDock Max 1 and the Amazon Basics Thunderbolt 4 Pro Dock. However, with Thunderbolt 5 now on the market and proliferating on desktop motherboards and laptops, we’ve decided to take a look at what’s available in the Thunderbolt 5 dock market.

This time around, we’ve assembled the CalDigit TS5 and the brawnier TS5 Plus, along with the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock, the Ivanky FusionDock Ultra, Hyper HyperDrive Next, and WAVLINK WL-UTD58. As an added data point, we also have an Orico Thunderbolt 5 SSD enclosure for testing external storage speeds over Thunderbolt 5.

Let's take a look at the contenders, then get to the benchmarks, and finally crown the winner.

CalDigit TS5 Plus

CalDigit TS5 Plus

The TS5 is already impressive in its own right, but the $499 TS5 Plus dials up the specs a notch or two. While the TS5 includes 15 ports, the TS5 Plus bumps that to 20.

The design of the TS5 Plus closely resembles the TS5, but it is slightly taller and features a space grey finish instead of natural aluminum. As for the port arrangement, this is what you’ll find on the TS5 Plus:

Front

• 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 3x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 4x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x DisplayPort 2.1
• 1x 10 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x audio-in
• 1x audio-out
• 1x 240W power port

As you can see, the TS5 Plus is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to ports. While it loses one downstream Thunderbolt 5 port, it gains a DisplayPort 2.1 port. You’ll also find three additional USB-C ports and a total of four USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports on the back. CalDigit also managed to squeeze an extra USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port on the front of the unit.

You’ll also appreciate that the onboard LAN port has been upgraded to 10 GbE (up from 2.5 GbE). In addition, external monitor support remains unchanged from the TS5, allowing you to connect up to four monitors to a M5 Max-equipped Mac.

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock

If the CalDigit docks are all-business with a Mac-infused aluminum unibody style, the $399 Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma definitely shows its PC gaming roots. The dock features an anodized black aluminum chassis with an etched Razer logo on top. However, Razer plays up the gamer angle with a Chroma RGB light ring at the base of the unit, visible along the front and sides of the chassis. If this motif is a bit much for your aesthetic tastes, Razer also offers a “Mercury” version of the dock that features a more subdued natural aluminum finish (it’s also $10 cheaper).

Thunderbolt docks are known for their propensity to generate a lot of heat, and Razer’s offering is no exception. However, Razer tackles this challenge with a built-in cooling fan that helps to dissipate heat.

But active cooling isn’t the only trick up Razer’s sleeve; it also has a built-in PCIe Gen 4x4 M.2 slot on the bottom of the unit. This is a toolless addition: the bottom cover is easily removed using a clip retention system, and the SSD is held in place by a rotating retention clip. Thermal pads are also included that touch the top and bottom of the SSD to help dissipate heat and avoid throttling.

Razer’s solution is ingenious since your SSD is hidden away from view with access to the internal cooling fan, and you don’t have to give up an external port to connect a USB-C/Thunderbolt SSD enclosure.

Speaking of ports, the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock isn’t as well-stocked as the two CalDigit docks. You’ll find:

• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 3x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo port (7.1 Surround)
• 1x 1 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x 250W power port
• 1x Internal M.2 Slot (PCIe Gen4x4)

Razer has made a few decisions with its Thunderbolt 5 dock that I question. The UHS-II SD slot is mounted on the right side of the unit, which is easy enough to access, but there are no front-mounted ports. All of the remaining ports are on the back of the unit. It would have been nice to have at least one USB-C port and one USB-A port on the front of the unit to quickly connect a thumb drive or other frequently used accessories.

The other curious choice is the 1 GbE port on the back of the dock. This is a Thunderbolt 5 dock – I’d expect at least a 2.5 GbE port, and ideally a 10 GbE port, at this price point ($399). The CalDigit TS5 gives you a 2.5 GbE port, while the TS5 Plus offers a 10 GbE port.

With that said, the dock supports up to 120 Gbps (80 Gbps for data and 40 Gbps for video) and delivers up to 140W to a laptop. It also supports up to three 4K monitors simultaneously operating at up to 144 Hz.

WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M

WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M

The WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M is another solidly built Thunderbolt 5 dock, and its chassis is made entirely of high-quality aluminum. The chassis is relatively long and flat, and can only be used in a landscape orientation (unlike the two CalDigit offerings). There are plenty of ventilation slots along the sides and top of the WL-UTD58-M to help keep the internals cool.

Design-wise, I have one issue with the WL-UTD58-M. Power plugs into the back of the dock, while the Thunderbolt cable coming from the host computer plugs into the front of the dock. It makes for a cluttered appearance, and I would have preferred the upstream Thunderbolt 5 port to be on the back, like it is with other docks we have here in this comparison.

With that said, you get a decent allotment of ports, including:

Front

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x audio combo jack
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot

Back

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port

There are handy SD and microSD slots on the front of the unit, along with two USB-A and one user-accessible Thunderbolt 5 port (the other is for the host computer). On the back, you’ll find two more Thunderbolt 5, two more USB-A, and a 2.5 GbE port.

Like the Razer and Hyper docks, the WL-UTD58-M includes an M.2 PCIe Gen 4x4 on the bottom of the device. The bottom panel is held in place by a single screw and can accommodate a 2280-form-factor SSD. There are no provisions included for securing shorter SSDs.

Ivanky FusionDock Ultra

Ivanky FusionDock Ultra

The Ivanky FusionDock Ultra is an ambitious product targeted at a limited set of users. While the other Thunderbolt 5 docks assembled here are compatible with Macs and Windows PCs, the FusionDock Ultra is only compatible with Macs. And limiting its reach even further, it's only compatible with Apple Silicon Macs. And yet another limitation is that, because the dock uses two Thunderbolt 5 chips, you must give up two Thunderbolt ports on your Mac.

However, if you have an Apple Silicon Mac, the number of ports available to you is unmatched by the FusionDock Ultra. If you thought the TS5 Plus was impressive with 20 ports, the FusionDock Ultra ups the stakes with 26 ports, made possible by the dual Thunderbolt 5 chips. To keep the internal circuits cool, Ivanky uses twin cooling fans to expel hot air from the enclosure. The fans are dynamic, spinning up only when necessary, depending on the load.

The dock itself is quite attractive, with a Space Grey finish, gold trimming, and a "floating midframe design" in which the main unit is surrounded by an outer heatsink.

Front

• 6x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (45W PD)
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 2x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 4x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x DisplayPort 2.1
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x 10 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x audio-in
• 1x audio-out
• 1x S/PDIF
• 1x 240W power port

It’s hard to be disappointed with the sheer number and variety of ports available on the FusionDock Ultra. It’s absolutely bonkers to see 7 USB-C ports on the front of the unit, although having access to four fully-fledged Thunderbolt 5 ports on the back is great. It’s also nice to see dedicated HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1 ports, along with an S/PDIF jack. And as you would expect with such a high-end dock, there’s a 10 GbE port onboard as well.

About the only thing missing from the FusionDock Ultra is an internal M.2 SSD slot, but given the number of ports available, we won’t hold a grudge over the omission.

Hyper HyperDrive Next

Hyper HyperDrive Next

Hyper's $399 HyperDrive Next Thunderbolt 5 dock features a dark grey aluminum chassis, but it's not a full aluminum shell like the other docks assembled here. Instead, both the front and rear fascias are mae of plastic, which doesn't impart the same feeling of quality.

The top of the enclosure is smooth to the touch, while both sides feature a ribbed design to better disperse heat.

Front

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port

The $399 dock features a dedicated power button on the front (something that you won't find on the other docks) and includes a 2.5 GbE network port on the back. Interestingly, Hyper doesn't equip the dock with an SD or microSD slot. You do get a good assortment of ports up front, including one Thunderbolt 5 and two USB-A, along with two additional Thunderbolt 5 downstream ports on the back.

The HyperDrive Next includes an integrated SSD slot (PCIe Gen 4x4) for storage expansion. The dock includes mounting points for 2230, 2242, 2260, or 2280 SSDs, providing plenty of flexibility. There are also thermal pads included for both sides of the SSD to aid in cooling (which is important given that Thunderbolt docks, in general, tend to get rather toasty).

The HyperDrive Next supports up to 80 Gbps for data and 40 Gbps for video, and is compatible with up to 140-watt charging to a connected laptop. When connected to a PC, the dock supports up to one 8K/144 Hz display or up to two 8K displays running at 120 Hz. If you're using a Mac, a single display to 6K resolution and 60 Hz is supported, or dual 6K displays at up to 60 Hz. Windows machines can also support triple 4K monitors at 60 Hz, while Macs can only support this configuration if equipped with an M5 Pro (or higher) SoC.

CalDigit TS5 Dock

CalDigit TS5 Dock

CalDigit's "TS" line comprises its high-end Thunderbolt docks (with the "Element" line being a step below). The $399 TS5 is the entry point for CalDigit's high-end Thunderbolt 5 docks.

CalDigit hasn't broken any new ground with the TS5's design, as it looks similar to the TS3 and TS4 that came before it. That means you get a passively cooled dock that can sit either horizontally or vertically, depending on your needs. The chassis is machined from aluminum, which matches almost perfectly with the natural aluminum found on Apple's silver MacBooks. There's also a collection of cooling fins on the sides to help dissipate heat.

Despite being the entry-level model, the TS5 packs a wealth of ports:

Front

• 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 3x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-A 2.0
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x audio-in
• 1x audio-out
• 1x 240W power port

The TS5 supports up to 120 Gbps (80 Gbps data, 40 Gbps video) and external SSDs at up to 6,200 Mbps (twice as fast as previous-generation Thunderbolt 4 docks). In addition, it supplies up to 140W power delivery to a connected laptop.

When it comes to monitor support, the TS5 can support up to four external monitors simultaneously. Properly spec'd Macs and PCs can support up to three external monitors. Only Macs with an M5 Max processor can support four monitors at once (up to four 6K at 60 Hz or four 4K at 144 Hz).

Orico Thunderbolt80G Enclosure

Orico Thunderbolt80G Enclosure

To test SSD speeds with the assembled Thunderbolt 5 docks, we used an Orico Thunderbolt80G enclosure. This is an aluminum-alloy Thunderbolt 5 enclosure that supports up to M.2 (PCIe Gen4x4) SSDs. The Thunderbolt80G enclosure retails for $165 on Amazon.

A single screw is removed to lift off the ribbed bottom panel, which reveals the internal M.2 slot. Orico provides a thermal pad for affixing to your SSD, which is then secured with a screw. A single 80 Gbps Thunderbolt 5 cable is also included in the box.

Thunderbolt 5 Dock Specs Comparison

Thunderbolt 5 Dock Specs Comparison

Thunderbolt 5 Dock SSD Performance

Thunderbolt 5 Dock SSD Performance

For storage testing, we used a PNY CS2150 PCIe 5.0 SSD. We first tested the SSD in our test system, which features an Asus Z890 Creator WiFi motherboard with an onboard PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and two Thunderbolt 4 ports.

Next, we tested the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock with the CS2150 installed into the internal M.2 slot. Finally, we tested the CalDigit TS5 and TS5 Plus connected to the CS2150 within the Orico SSD enclosure via a Thunderbolt 5 port.

We ran a quick test with CrystalDiskMark, which is a free benchmarking tool, to see how each dock handled the PNY CS2150 SSD.

For baseline numbers, we saw 10,381.26 MBps reads and 8,645.4 MBps writes using the CS2150 on an Asus Z890 Creator WiFi motherboard. Switching to the Razer Chroma 5 Dock, the sequential reads and writes dropped to 5,627.29 MBps and 5,620.6 MBps, respectively. Not surprisingly, the CalDigit TS5 and TS5 Plus posted nearly identical performance, at just over 5,300 MBps sequential reads and 5,520 MBps sequential writes. It should be noted that all three docks cite a theoretical maximum of 6,200 Mbps transfers (64Gb/s PCIe 4.0 interface).

Given that the FusionDock Ultra is only supported on Apple Silicon Macs, I couldn’t run our CrystalDiskMark benchmarks on the CS2150. However, when using the CS2150 with an Orico SSD enclosure connected to a free Thunderbolt 5 port on the back, I recorded read speeds of just over 3,000 MBps and write speeds of over 2,500 MBps using BlackMagic Disk Speed Test. Keep in mind, however, that the FusionDock Ultra was limited to Thunderbolt 4 speeds on the MacBook Air (M4) that I used for testing.

I had no trouble using any of the docks to run two monitors simultaneously, including a 49-inch, 240 Hz DQHD monitor. Each dock worked impeccably with my Windows 11 Home desktop system (except the FusionDock Ultra, which is incompatible), an M5 MacBook Air, and an M4 Mac Mini. The latter two systems only support Thunderbolt 4, but the docks are backward compatible with the older, slower interface.

There were also no issues using the onboard LAN ports, as I was able to reach the theoretical maximum on each port using iPerf3 testing across all three docks (including the 10 GbE port on the TS5 Plus and FusionDock Ultra).

As for thermals, all remained warm to the touch, even when the host computer was idle. At no time did any become too hot to handle. The Razer Thunderbolt 5 and FusionDock Ultra docks were slightly cooler to the touch thanks to their internal fans (which are only audible if you stick your ear to the unit).

Bottom Line

Although Thunderbolt docks don’t really make much sense for most desktop systems, they are an incredible lifeline for laptops, which have a more limited port selection. You can take one Thunderbolt 5 port from your MacBook Pro and, in return, get 20 ports with a CalDigit TS5. Not only do they offer a “one cable” solution for data and power, but you also get a wide range of connectivity options across Thunderbolt, USB-C, USB-A, and SD/microSD. And in the case of the TS5, DisplayPort 2.1 and 10 GbE ports are part of the equation.

The Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock is a sleek solution that provides an internal M.2 slot for storage expansion and Chroma RGB effects that can sync with your Razer laptop. However, I’m not thrilled with the lack of front-mounted ports or the lackluster GbE network port provided, given its $399 price tag.

The CalDigit TS5 Plus is the overachiever of the bunch, offering a total of 20 ports and support for up to four external monitors (when connected to an M5 Max system). You get five legacy USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, four USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports, a 10 GbE port, and more. However, that abundance of connectivity options results in a hefty price of $499.

The CalDigit TS5 is not as port-packed as its “Plus” sibling, but it still offers three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports along with a wealth of USB-A and USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports. Like the TS5 Plus, the TS5 also includes multiple front-mounted ports for USB-C, audio, and SD cards. The TS5 also one-ups the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock by including an integrated 2.5 GbE port instead of the old hat GbE. At a street price of $399, the CalDigit TS5 is the best option for most people.

The Hyper HyerDrive Next and WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M are both good options if you're looking to spend $400 or less. In addition, they both include an M.2 slot for expanding storage with an SSD.

That leaves us with the Ivanky FusionDrive Ultra. This dock is an exercise in excess, from its elaborate design to its use of two Thunderbolt 5 chips to its requirement of two free Thunderbolt 4 ports. But in return, you get an insane 26 total ports, including seven USB-C ports up front and four Thunderbolt 5 on the back, along with HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, and 10 GbE ports. However, compatibility is extremely limited, working only on Apple Silicon Macs. In addition, with a street price of $650, it’s by far the most expensive dock we tested.

However, if it were money being spent on a Thunderbolt 5 docking station, I’d have to give the crown to the WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M. With an integrated M.2 slot and a well-balanced assortment of ports, it’s hard to ignore its value proposition.

Additional Thunderbolt 5 Docks to Consider

Although we plan to keep this guide updated as we test additional Thunderbolt 5 docks, here are some additional units to consider:

• UGREEN Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $299.99
• Ivanky FusionDock Pro 3 Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $224.99
• Ivanky FusionDock Max 2 – $339.99
• Anker Prime Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $399.99
• Kensington SD50000T5 Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $239.99
• CalDigit E5 Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $249.99

Many people love adding retro accessories to their modern devices to evoke the nostalgia of the ‘80s and ‘90s, while also making them far more useful. One such gadget is the M5 Retro Dock Station from Wokyis, which is available on Amazon for $169.99.

The dock slots neatly onto the M4 Mac Mini and connects via its USB-C port. When installed, it gives you a tiny 5-inch 720p display that you can use as a secondary monitor for various tasks, such as displaying widgets, serving as a digital photo album, playing media, or simply as a desktop clock. More importantly, it comes with an M.2 NVMe slot to expand the storage on your Mac mini with one of the best SSDs on the market — a crucial feature given Apple’s egregious pricing on storage expansion.

The dock actually comes in two flavors — the $169.99 version delivers transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps and offers four USB-A ports, three USB-C ports (although one is for power and the other is required to connect to your Mac), an SD card slot, a microSD card slot, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm jack. The more expensive Thunderbolt 5 version, which costs $339.99, trades the HDMI port for a DisplayPort output and adds an extra USB-C port at the back. This accessory is specifically designed for the Mac mini, but it also works with any other device that supports DisplayPort over USB-C. This includes MacBooks, Windows PCs, Android devices, and even Raspberry Pis.

The Wokyis docking station will put a retro Macintosh on your desk without the hassle of transplanting the innards of a Mac Mini into the body of an iMac G3 or G4. Allowing you to set it up in a matter of minutes, and without risking damaging your computer.

Apple’s Mac Mini has seen a surge in popularity recently, especially as many people are configuring it to run OpenClaw locally. Because of this, we’ve seen a shortage of these computers, with even the cheapest variant now having a delivery window of five to six weeks. Cupertino has even removed the 512GB option for the Mac Studio from the Apple Store, while raising the price of the 256GB upgrade to $2,000.

Despite its size and influence over hardware suppliers, the company cannot escape the ongoing chip crisis, warning that shortages could last for months. But if you already have a Mac Mini on your desk, then perhaps this accessory can distract you from the fact that you’ll probably need to hold on to it for much longer, as upgrading — on both Mac and PC — is becoming more expensive than ever.

There’s a new USB Type-C dock on the block. So far, so ordinary. But the new DockFrame from HW Media Lab LLC has caused a stir by (unofficially) supporting Framework’s range of modular expansion cards. Furthermore, the maker is promising its own ‘Tool Cards,’ Lego brick compatibility, and more.

The first prototype photos of the DockFrame were released over the weekend, showing some capabilities, customizations, and other options. In the Tweet above, the HW Media Lab director said, “We're iterating on the PCB now (power + routing + port behavior) and we're incorporating the community's requirements into the spec.”

Encouragingly, DockFrame is still on the lookout for device/expansion/tool card suggestions. So, don’t feel you’ve missed the chance to mail in your idea for a USB-powered scone warmer, mechanized bottle opener, or whatever.

DockFrame’s site shows that its first product is set to have four slots for hot-swappable Framework computer-compatible expansion cards. At the time of writing, Framework offers 24 types of expansion cards directly. This range spans offerings for USB-A, DP, HDMI, audio, Ethernet, and more. There are various color options just for fun.

HW Media Lab plans to expand the hot-swap modular docking ecosystem with its Tool Cards. These currently include the following:

• Multimeter card
• Power supply card
• Microcontroller dev card
• Mini SSD card
• Dual USB-C card

The dock maker states that its Tool Cards can be plugged directly into USB-C devices like phones and computers – so they aren’t tied to the DockFrame docking product in any way.

At the time of writing, we don’t have pricing for the DockFrame. Pre-orders are not live, but the firm has a list that you can sign up for. We’d hope the DockFrame is as affordable as it looks, and thus follows the spirit of the official Framework expansion cards, which are available for just $11. Buyers will probably want at least four expansion cards or tool cards to populate their DockFrame.

Remember, the DockFrame should work with any USB-C computer. However, to fully support the full range of expansion cards and tool cards, we’re certain you’ll have to plug it into a ‘full function’ USB-C port. That is a Type-C port which offers power delivery, video (DP Alt Mode), and high-speed data (USB 3.X, USB4, Thunderbolt). You might also want a few Legos.

Sonnet Technologies has announced the Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock. The headlining feature of this dock is that it can accommodate a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD and facilitate 6,100 MB/s data transfers. Sonnet claims it will be the first to ship a dock with this mix of performance and features (it boasts many other ports). The Echo 13 will be available “in limited quantities” starting this month.

Sonnet is a long-time Apple Mac hardware accessories maker. The timing of this hardware release is convenient for Mac M4 users who have recently upgraded and gained access to machines with Thunderbolt 5 ports. It says this device should also be suitable for iPad Pro, Windows, and even Chromebook computers with Thunderbolt 5 and 4 and USB4. Using the older, slower standards will mean reduced performance, but it seems like no functionality will be missing.

In addition to the housing for a fast M.2 SSD, the Echo 13 fairly bristles with ports. It features four Thunderbolt 5 ports – one used for connecting the host and which can take 140W for power delivery functionality (e.g., charging your laptop when it docks). Additionally, it has four USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet jack, a 3.5mm headset jack, and both SD and microSD card slots.

When used with Thunderbolt 5 peripherals, users will benefit from up to 80 Gbps of bi-directional data speed — twice as fast as Thunderbolt 4 — and have up to 120 Gbps display bandwidth. Regarding displays, Sonnet says this dock can connect up to two 8K displays or three 4K displays running at up to 144 Hz – you can use USB-C monitors or compatible adaptors for HDMI or DP ports.

Thunderbolt 5 was finalized and announced in September 2023, promising up to 120 Gbps bandwidth. Last year, we saw a handful of computers and peripherals with support, and things picked up a little at the recent CES 2025, where we saw the first Thunderbolt 5 eGPU dock (which will also support M.2 SSDs). However, it is still far from becoming a standard I/O feature on new laptops, desktops, or motherboards.

The first Echo 13 SSD Docks will be higher-priced SKUs. Sonnet says devices bundled with a Thunderbolt-certified 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Kingston SSD will initially be available for $669.99. From mid-March, the 2TB and 1TB models will hit retail at MSRPs of $499.99 and $399.99, respectively. A Thunderbolt 5 cable is included with your dock purchase.

J5Create unveiled an upcoming Thunderbolt 5 dock at CES. This particular product stood apart by offering both an MXM graphics card built into it and an M.2 slot for an SSD, plus a good selection of high-speed I/O (via Tweakers).

The JTD5174 dock has two variants: one fitted with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 laptop card, and the other with an AMD Radeon RX 7600M. These GPUs use the MXM form factor, which was introduced just over a decade ago to provide laptops with a standard for modular graphics cards. MXM never really caught on, but hasn’t quite gone extinct the same way technologies like CrossFire and SLI did. In recent years, the RX 6600 and the Arc A380 made it to the MXM format.

MXM might be seeing a bit of a revival thanks to external GPU solutions, such as J5Create’s dock. Compared to laptops, docks would generally have more room for an MXM graphics card, and doing an upgrade probably would be easier in a dock too. Though, with very few MXM GPUs on the market, owners of the JTD5174 dock may not be able to upgrade any time soon.

Additionally, it seems the dock has a performance mode switch that users can use to set the GPU to performance mode or silent mode, which sets the power limit to either 100 watts or 60 watts.

J5Create also advertises that the dock has AI capabilities thanks to its “NPU,” but we suspect that the company just means the GPU is also good for AI workloads. On the dock’s product information sheet, J5Create always says “GPU/NPU,” and we know that neither the 3060 nor the 7600M has an integrated NPU. This is probably just marketing fluff to suit today’s AI-centric climate.

The dock also features an M.2 slot for SSDs that can fit 2280-sized drives. Although Thunderbolt 5 has twice the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4 or three times with Bandwidth Boost mode, it’s not clear if this dock supports PCIe 5.0 SSDs. But if it did, we’d probably expect J5Create to mention it, and since it doesn’t, the dock likely only supports PCIe 4.0 models. That’s understandable considering a PCIe 4.0 NVMe connection caps out at 64Gbps; PCIe 5.0 would represent 128Gbps, a speed that even Bandwidth Boost mode couldn’t accommodate.

The dock also comes with an assortment of high-speed ports: two USB Gen 3.2 Gen 2 Type A ports, a Thunderbolt 5 port, two HDMI 2.0 ports, two DisplayPort 2.0 ports, and 2.5 gigabit Ethernet. While that’s not a ton of ports compared to regular USB4 docks, it’s about the same amount typically seen on eGPUs with integrated docks.

For power, the dock comes with a 240 watt charger, which allows for up to 100 watts to be delivered to docked devices, a particularly useful feature for laptops.

Tweakers reports that the JTD5174 Thunderbolt 5 dock will be available in the second half of the year for roughly $1,400. High-end USB 4 and Thunderbolt 4 docks cost around $200 to $300, meaning the perks of having Thunderbolt 5, an eGPU, and the ability to add an SSD are worth over a thousand dollars. But if MXM somehow finds its footing with eGPU enclosures and takes off, the ability to upgrade might make that big price tag easier to swallow.

Yanko Design has announced the HubKey 10-in-1 USB-C Hub, which gives you 10 ports, five keys, and a clickable knob. The hub is currently available on Kickstarter for $69 for the first 300 backers, a 51% discount over its $140 regular price. The hub gives you a 4K@60Hz HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack, a 1Gbps RJ45 Ethernet port, an SD card and microSD card reader, a 100-watt USB-C PD port, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and two USB 3.0 Type-C ports.

But what makes the HubKey 10-in-1 USB-C Hub unique is the addition of four extra keys and a clickable knob. It gives you one key, each, for quickly locking your computer, turning off your external monitor, taking a screenshot, and adjusting the RGB lighting on the hub. Aside from that, you can also rotate the knob to change the volume of your computer or press it to quickly mute its sound.

This makes it easy to control your system directly from the hub while also ensuring that you can plug everything you need into it. This is a good solution for those who love the portability of a laptop but still want the productivity that a desktop workstation delivers, especially with the thin-and-light devices like the Dell XPS or MacBook Air that prioritize form factor over ports.

The HubKey 10-in-1 USB-C Hub also gives you multi-device compatibility. It works with both Mac and Windows. Aside from that, this hub also works with the Steam Deck, allowing you to enjoy gaming on your desktop setup after working an entire day.

The hub also appears well-built, featuring an aluminum alloy case and a unique shape that makes it easy to operate the hub as needed. It’s also fairly compact, measuring 7 x 7 x 3 cm, so you can easily stuff it in your laptop bag if you want to transfer your workstation.

Of course, you should never forget that crowdfunding is not a straight purchase of the item in question, no matter how promising. Instead, you’re investing toward its success, and in exchange for that, you’re getting some nice discounts and being among the first to get the newly launched product. While Kickstarter will do its best to protect your interests and ensure that you get the device you want, it’s still not a guarantee that you’ll get the device. Sometimes, buying an item after it’s been tested by your trusted reviewers is wiser. That way, you know you’re getting your money’s worth with your purchase.

Back in August, Aoostar introduced the AG01 OCuLink eGPU docking station with integrated 400W PSU— and today, the company has officially launched its successor, the 500W Aoostar AG02 eGPU docking station, keeping promotional / delayed "Black Friday" pricing of $219.99 until the pre-sale window closes on December 30th. The company says its new Aoostar AG02 eGPU docks will start being shipped "around January 15th" and, like the AG01, they are cross-compatible with the Lenovo TGX eGPU interface by swapping the OCuLink connector.

So, looking over the unit and its dimensions and comparing it to its predecessor, it's apparent that the actual eGPU dock itself hasn't changed much at all. The exact same design down to port location and compact 22.5 x 6 x 11cm physical dimensions are being retained here, with the exception of a PSU that now runs at 500W instead of 400W. Previously, the PSU configuration allowed GPUs with TDPs of up to 250 Watts, capping out around the RTX 4070 Super— but now, the new allotment is up to 350W, setting the new cap on the RTX 4080 Super and other ~320W-class GPUs. Considering the 4080S is currently the third most-powerful consumer GPU in existence, this PSU configuration should do fine for most eGPU use cases. That said, the company does still recommend cards up to a 4070 Super or RX 7700 XT, noting that the bandwidth limitations of the interface will limit the performance of higher-end cards.

Technically, you can still replace the built-in PSU as well, though if you're already planning on doing that it's recommended that you start with a cheaper eGPU dock that also supports user-replaceable PSUs, like the Aoostar AG01.

As an out-of-the-box package, this eGPU dock. including its 500W PSU for just $219, looks to be a compelling choice for lots of mini PC and handheld PC users. OCuLink support allows for the fastest possible bandwidth between the eGPU and the host PC, utilizing 4 lanes of PCIe 4.0 bandwidth at an effective 64 Gigabits per second.

Top-end GPUs will still be bottlenecked by this bandwidth, but these are generally minor losses, so long as your CPU can keep pace. The also-supported USB4 interface is another, slower, story, but should be seen as more of a fallback for compatibility's sake than anything else. It's hard to over-emphasize just how important it is to be using proper PCIe, OCuLink, or an equivalent with eGPUs versus standard USB or Thunderbolt connections— you will lose a lot of performance with the more standard connectors, especially old generations.

Sabrent has launched the DS-T4WA Thunderbolt 4 docking station with monitor desk mount functionality. The storage-related accessories specialist must see some mileage in this particular niche, and the DS-T4WA combines a feature-packed hub at the base with a gas-lift mount supporting monitors up to 32 inches and 10kg.

With the growing popularity of hybrid working practices, the convenience of high-performance docking solutions shines. When returning to base, a road warrior will typically also want to connect up to a large screen, and this must be where Sabrent thought its DS-T4WA would win extra approval.

Pondering over the monitor mount features first, we shall repeat that this adjustable gas-lift arm can hold monitors up to 32 inches and up to 10kg in weight. A 32-inch monitor isn’t that big in 2024, though, and it might be pretty small to cater to the fanfare 8K display dock capability.

The docking features of the Sabrent DS-T4WA are pretty extensive. From the product name and description, users only need to plug in a single Thunderbolt 4 cable to their device to enjoy the many ports on offer. Once connected, the following ports become available:

• 1x HDMI 2.1 and 1x DP 1.4 display output ports, supporting display resolutions up to 8K/30Hz (with DSC) singly or 4K/60Hz simultaneously with HDR and HDCP 2.3
• 1x Thunderbolt 4 upstream host port and 1x Thunderbolt 4 downstream port, both supporting up to 40Gbps transfer speeds
• 2x USB-C, 1x USB-A ports with transfer speeds up to 10Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2x1) and 5V/1.5A charging for external storage, peripherals, and more
• 1x USB-A port with transfer speeds up to 5Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 1x1) for external storage, peripherals, and more
• 1x SD, 1x microSD UHS-II card readers (SD 4.0 and TF 4.0) with speeds of up to 312MBps
• 1x RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) port for network and Internet connectivity at speeds up to 1000Mbps
• 1x 3.5mm jack with mono/stereo audio output or microphone input

We also note that the dock supports USB power delivery (PD3.0) with charging to the host of up to 60W. Sabrent provides a 130W power brick in the box (as well as a Thunderbolt 4 cable of 70cm / 27.6 inches in length, which should be all you need to get started.

Some of Sabrent’s promotional images show the DS-T4WA with two monitors attached to the gas-lift arm. If you want to use this product with dual monitors, you can purchase the Sabrent Additional Monitor Arm & Mount Upgrade Kit (SB-DSAM) for an additional $69.99 (currently sold out).

Sabrent lists the DS-T4WA at $349.99 direct, but at the time of writing, advises that the product is sold out.

Mini-PC maker Minisforum just launched one of the cheapest eGPU docks on the market with the DEG1. This GPU docking station uses OCuLink, allowing you to enjoy as much as 64 Gbps of bandwidth. Because of its open-air design, you can fit even the largest RTX 4090 and RX 7900 XTX GPUs, allowing you to pick freely among the best GPUs to interface with your mini-PC, handheld, laptop, or other internal-capacity-constrained device.

The eGPU dock also sports a signal amplifier, ensuring the video signal from the CPU to the GPU remains stable. Nevertheless, we still recommend keeping the DEG1 near your computer to avoid cable spaghetti. Of course, you also need a PSU to power the dock and the graphics card, and the DEG1 will work with any PC standard ATX or SFX power supplies with enough output. Again, we wouldn't want cable spaghetti, so we recommend using a modular power supply to avoid getting stuck with unnecessary wires.

One quality-of-life feature that we love with the DEG1 is that it powers up with the main power switch on the PC, meaning you don’t have to hit two switches to turn on your PC. As long as the eGPU is connected to your computer, it will turn on and switch off alongside it.

The DEG1 is just $99, making it one of the most affordable ways of adding an external GPU to your laptop or mini-PC. However, even though this eGPU dock already uses the fastest OCuLink interface, you will still experience some performance loss, especially if you’re adding a top-end GPU like the RTX 4090 to your system. This kind of device usually also features a USB4 connection (40 Gbps), but the product page, social media posts, and infographics don't mention any way to connect your PC other than via OCuLink.

This niche product doesn’t make sense for most consumers who simply want a desktop gaming PC with a high-end GPU inside. After all, if you’re spending hundreds of dollars on a graphics card, why not just invest in a desktop PC that can accommodate the GPU of your dreams? And if you need portability, then purchase a separate thin and light laptop, like some of the Copilot+ PCs that Microsoft and its partners started selling recently.

But if you can only have one small computer (like the Minisforum EM680) because you don’t have much space, and you also need a discrete GPU to drive multiple displays for work (or play), the DEG1 eGPU paired with an entry-level or mid-range card may be a good solution for your needs.

PC Watch has uncovered a new makeshift laptop design that turns any smartphone into a working laptop. The HTL WitH features a 13.3-inch display and a 5000mAh battery. It is compatible with Android and iPhone smartphones featuring display output through their respectable charging ports.

The WitH features a 13.3-inch IPS LCD that supports a 1080P resolution; the clamshell measures 311x210x14.9mm and weighs 2.6lb. The device carries a very respectable 5000mAh battery that we believe powers both the device and charges the smartphone simultaneously. Either way, the laptop reportedly has a 6-hour operation time.

Port selection includes two dedicated USB ports for phone input - one for Android and the other for iPhone, two HDMI ports, with each one offering input or output capabilities, a 3.6mm headphone jack, and a card reader. Finally, there's one USB port for charging the laptop and another that appears to be a standard port that doesn't do anything special.

Sadly, this laptop device is not available in the United States and only appears to be available from Amazon's Japanese web page, priced at 61,380 Yen or $449.

This isn't the first time we've seen a device like this; though it never came to market, Razer's Project Linda in 2018 was an early example of a smartphone-powered laptop, but with a focus on gaming. This concept device was unique because it docked Razer's smartphone directly where the touchpad would be located, allowing it to be used as a touchpad while installed.

The laptop also had many other cool features, including some unique gaming features that allowed keyboard and mouse inputs to work with the phone, and it featured 200GB of internal storage for the phone to utilize when plugged in. It's just a shame it never came out of its concept phase.

Another device out on the market is the Nexdock laptop powered by Samsung smartphones through Samsung's Dex software. You can buy this device right now, and it works with all Dex-supported phones starting with the S8.

But, the nice thing about the WitH is its wide range of support, including Android and iPhone devices. This is something the two previous examples lack, being locked into either Razer or Samsung's ecosystem.

If you were thinking about installing an RTX 4090 into your shiny new external GPU box, you might want to reconsider. JarrodsTech on YouTube recently released a new video showcasing what the RTX 4090 can do with an external Thunderbolt GPU dock connected to a laptop. The results were incredibly bad. In his testing, the dock/laptop combo crippled the 4090's gaming performance, with most games barely being able to use 50% of its power, at best.

For testing, Jarrod used two different laptops: an Asus Zenbook 14 OLED featuring a i7-1260P processor, and a beefier Aorus 17X gaming laptop equipped with a higher-performing Core i9-12900HX. Jarrod also put together a 7950X desktop test rig as a baseline, to see how much performance the 4090 retains in the external GPU dock configuration. This means we have quite a bit of a mismatch in CPU performance between the laptop and desktop PC CPUs, which is important to bear in mind because the RTX 4090 can bottleneck CPUs in some game titles. 

Unfortunately, Jarrod neglected to share details on the external GPU dock he is using, only noting that it's a Thunderbolt 3 dock -- which is good considering most GPU docks today are using Thunderbolt 3. But, Jarrod did switch to an external Corsair 850W power supply for the tests, since the built-in 650W unit didn't have enough 8-pin power connectors for the 4090's quadruple 8-pin power adapter.

In testing, Jarrod found that all titles tested could barely use 50% of the RTX 4090's GPU horsepower, with most being much worse. God of War was one of the best games tested, representing a 35% reduction in performance at 4K on the i7-1260P Zenbook, compared to the desktop 4090 configuration.

But in a worst-case scenario, the external 4090 was up to 82% slower than the desktop counterpart in Watch Dogs Legion at 4K. 

To make matters worse, the performance difference between both laptops was also drastically different in most titles. A good example of this is in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, where the 12900HX gaming laptop was up to twice as slow as the ultrabook with the slower i7-1260P processor.

This game was definitely the worst offender, but many other titles exhibited similar behavior, including Red Dead Redemption 2, Call of Duty Warzone, Watch Dogs Legion, and a couple more.

The behavior is very bizarre, especially when the 12900HX is a significantly faster part. Jarrod suspects the Resizable BAR feature might have something to do with it, but he isn't certain. His 3DMark PCI Express feature tests measured 2.33 GB/s of bandwidth for the TB3 enclosure, and at least some of that shortfall could be due to the eGPU design. However, even at full utilization, the TB3 interface provides far less bandwidth than the 26.85 GB/s he measured with the desktop PC. 

In either case, it seems like pairing an RTX 4090 with a modern-day Thunderbolt 3 GPU dock and a lower-power laptop CPU will result in very poor utilization of the 4090. Thunderbolt 3 GPU docks simply aren't designed to drive a 4090 well, even at 4K resolutions.

We will have to wait for much higher-performing Thunderbolt 4 or (perhaps even Thunderbolt 5) GPU docks before cards like the RTX 4090 make sense as external gaming options. But with the capabilities of high-end GPUs always increasing, thus putting more demand on both the CPU and the external interface, it's unclear if the highest-end GPUs will ever reach similar performance to traditional desktop setups. So for the foreseeable future, it's clear that if you want the best gaming performance possible, you should opt for one of the best gaming PCs or best gaming laptops rather than an external GPU. 

If you're in the market for a docking station to expand the number of ports available on your laptop, Sabrent is looking to draw some attention to itself with the launch of the Thunderbolt 3 NVMe SSD Docking Station. While it doesn't embrace the newer Thunderbolt 4 standard, Sabrent's latest dock has a few tricks up its sleeve that could make it a compelling option for productivity warriors. 

For starters, the docking station is loaded with a plethora of ports, including two Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps), three USB-A (3.2 and 3.0) and one USB-C (3.0). There's also a Gigabit Ethernet port, DisplayPort 1.4 and a full-size SD reader (UHS-II). With its included power supply and two-foot Thunderbolt 3 cable, the docking station can supply up to 96 watts to a connected laptop. The complete list of specs can be found below:

• 2 x Thunderbolt 3 ports with a bandwidth of up to 40Gbps.
• 2 x USB 3.2 Type-A ports supporting up to 10Gbps.
• 1 x USB 3.2 Type-C supports up to 10Gbps.
• 1 x USB 3.0 Type-A supports up to 5Gbps and BC1.2 5V@2.4A  for cell phones.
• 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 for 8K @ 30Hz, 5K @ 30Hz (HDR, HDCP2.2, Adaptive Sync).
• 1 x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port.
• 1 x Front access 3.5mm audio output.
• 1 x Front access 3.5mm microphone input.
• 1 x SD (UHS-II) card reader with transfer speeds up to 270MB/s.

What makes the docking station interesting – and quite different from competing solutions – is its inclusion of two NVMe SSD slots. That's right, there's onboard SSD storage, so you could use it to store video projects, your games library or even serve as a Time Machine backup on a Mac.

Sabrent offers the docking station in four storage options: 2TB, 4B, 8TB and 16TB. In the case of the flagship 16TB model, dual 8TB SSDs are used t. According to Sabrent, these are PCIe 3.0-based SSDs, so you won't be looking at blazing 7,000 MBps sequential reads and writes like the best PCIe 4.0 SSDs. Instead, the internal SSDs are only capable of speeds of up to 1,500 MBps. That should be fast for most external-use storage solutions, and it's definitely faster than an external HDD. 

However, the added internal SSDs mean that the Thunderbolt 3 NVMe SSD Docking Station doesn't come cheap. The entry-level 2TB SKU costs $500, while the 4TB SKU rings in at $650. The 8TB SKU will set you back $1,300, while the capacious 16TB SKU comes with a staggering $2,900 price tag. For comparison, the newly launched, 18-port Caldigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 Dock costs $350 (granted, it doesn't have internal storage).

The Sabrent Thunderbolt 3 NVMe SSD Docking Station is compatible with both Windows and macOS devices and is now available to purchase.

Synaptics has developed a reference design for wireless docking stations that support dual 4K60 display outputs along with USB devices. The Gemini design uses Wi-Fi 6/6E and is therefore compatible with virtually all new laptops shipping today. But while the idea of wireless docking seems plausible from many aspects, especially compatibility that Synaptics' Gemini promises, it has numerous peculiarities and compromises.

The Synaptics Gemini wireless docking station reference design can work with any PC featuring Wi-Fi 6/6E connectivity. It can drive two 4K60 monitors and has a USB controller that enables it to connect to numerous USB devices (there is no word about USB-C compatibility). Keeping in mind that things like keyboards and mice do not need anything more than USB 2.0 (and data rates more akin to those supported by 1.1), the integration of USB into a bandwidth-limited dock makes sense. Still, docks based on the Gemini design will hardly accommodate high-performance storage devices. 

The Gemini wireless dock relies on chips designed by Synaptics, its partners as well as various internally-developed software elements. 

Hardware Inside

The key element of Synaptics' Gemini is the company's DisplayLink DL-1950 system-on-chip (SoC). It was designed explicitly for wireless graphics connectivity and supports up to two displays with a 3840x2160 or 5120x1440 resolution and a 60 Hz refresh rate connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 2.0 interfaces. The SoC supports DisplayLink's proprietary compression technology to dramatically reduce the bandwidth requirements of two 4K60 monitors. Some independent reviews have indicated that the DisplayLink compression technology is not really lossless, which naturally compromises graphics applications that rely on image quality (think Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign).

The second key ingredient of the Synaptics Gemini design — and perhaps its Achilles heel, albeit a justified one — is its highly-integrated Broadcom BCM43752 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth controller. The SoC was originally designed for smartphones, so it is a low-power chip. It only supports a 2x2 connection and therefore up to a 1.2 GT/s raw data transfer rate.

To put that number into context, a single 4K60 monitor connected using a DisplayPort 1.2 interface requires 12.54 GT/s of raw bandwidth. So, the DisplayLink compression algorithms must be really smart/aggressive to drive two 4K60 monitors over a 1.2 GT/s wireless interface (which by definition has more lost bits than a wired connection). Since notebooks rarely support 3x3 or 4x4 Wi-Fi connectivity, usage of a 2x2 SoC is justified, but it still has certain limitations.

Other hardware in the Synaptics Gemini dock includes a proprietary VS641 network processor that manages the radios and enables the virtualized Media Agnostic USB (MA-USB) interface. This allows USB connections through the dock and manages Wi-Fi messaging to make things work smoothly.

The final constituent of Synaptics' Gemini is the company's Wireless Dock Connection Manager software that works over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to ensure a smooth and secure connection when the user is within range.

Limitations

Modern notebooks often do not have enough physical connectors, which is why docking stations are gaining traction by an audience that spans beyond traditional road warriors. However, sometimes when moving around your home or office often, you may want to dock a laptop wirelessly (hence the idea of wireless docks was born with Intel's WiGig several years ago). Unfortunately, WiGig did not take off even with its 7 GT/s bandwidth, mostly because it required both host and client to feature WiGig connectivity. 

Synaptics' Gemini, to a large degree, solves compatibility problems by making the dock compatible with virtually all modern laptops featuring Wi-Fi 6/6E, and even takes into consideration security. However, given display compression technology that will harm the experience of those requiring pristine image quality, real use cases of the Gemini dock will likely be limited to select applications.

Opportunities

"Wireless docking that is secure, intuitive, and additive to productivity has proven elusive, but its time has come," said Patrick Moorhead, President, Moor Insights & Strategy. "Pervasive high-speed wireless, combined with nomadic work-from-anywhere employees, have made frictionless hoteling and hybrid offices an increasingly critical part of the future enterprise IT infrastructure. It's just waiting for the right mix of technologies to make wireless docking secure and reliable. The Gemini platform appears to have that mix and may kickstart a whole new approach to PC and portable device connectivity."

Asus is making its first convertible gaming 2-in-1, with an eGPU-shaped twist. At CES 2021 today, the company announced the ROG Flow X13, a slim gaming notebook also designed for creative use. But the big surprise is the XG Mobile external GPU that is also a charger, with a proprietary connector to squeeze as much performance as possible from Nvidia's RTX 30-series mobile GPUs. It will release in Q1 of this year but pricing of both the X13 and XG Mobile dock (an optional accessory) were not immediately available. 

Asus ROG Flow X13 Specs 

The laptop on its own is 0.59 inches thick and weighs 2.87 pounds, with options for either a 1080p resolution with a 120 Hz refresh rate or a 4K screen at 60 Hz. Either way, it's a touch display, (which makes sense for a 2-in-1 with tablet and tent modes), in the 16:10 aspect ratio.  

The system is powered by AMD's latest Ryzen processors, with up to 32GB of LPDDR4x RAM at 4,266MHZ and up to 1TB of PCIe SSD storage. For when you're away from the dock, there's an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650. 

Asus XG Mobile eGPU

For enthusiasts, the interest will lie with the introduction of the XG Mobile eGPU, a 2.2-pound combination external graphics card, dock and power brick with up to a mobile RTX 3080. It adds extra USB ports, an Ethernet jack and display outputs (allowing for up to four monitors in total between the devices) and is also a 280W power adapter. 

All of that connects to the laptop with the XG Mobile interface, a custom solution that, at the moment, only works with the Flow X13. Asus claims the connection, which uses over 67 wires in the cable, reaches PCIe 3.0 speeds of 63 Gbps, faster than Thunderbolt 4 eGPUs. That should mean better performance than a standard eGPU, though this is a mobile graphics card, and you can't swap it out. 

On the laptop, Asus claims that custom cooling will provide drops of 7 degrees Celsius on the CPU and 8 degrees Celsius on the GPU, though this machine has different parts and a new chassis that wasn't available in last year's products.

The questions about this device, without an attempt to try it ourselves, are many. How many people will splurge on both the 2-in-1 laptop and the additional XG Mobile? How much better will the XG Mobile truly be over an eGPU? Is there an appetite for a mobile eGPU?

Many of these questions we hope to answer soon, once we have the chance to test the Flow 13, along with the XG Mobile, ourselves. 

Whether you're using a MacBook Pro or another laptop with Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C connectivity, you need a good docking station that can both charge your computer and pump data out to multiple monitors over a single wire. Plugable's new TBT3-UDZ dock is likely your best choice and it's now available for just $225 at Amazon for Prime members, which is $75 off the list price and $25 off the $249 it had been for a while.

When I tested the Plugable TBT3-UDZ, I noted that this docking station easily outputs to dual 4K monitors at 60 Hz over your choice of either HDMI or DisplayPort (it has two of each port, but can only use two at a time) and that it also provides 96W of charging for your laptop, the most you can possibly get and a match for the MacBook Pro's own power adapter. I tested with my ThinkPad X1 Carbon and got great connectivity to both my 4K monitors at once, the ability to connect a slew of peripherals and plenty of juice. 

The TBT3-UDZ works with laptops that have Thunderbolt 3 or just USB-C, in which case it will send video using USB's alternative mode. It has 7 different USB 3 ports, two of which can output at 10 Gbps. It also features both SD card and microSD card readers, gigabit Ethernet and audio out.

What I like most about the Plugable TBT3-UDZ is its design and build quality. It has a really sleek, matte aluminum chassis that comes with a stand so you have the choice of either using it vertically or horizontally. 

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If you need to connect your laptop to one or more external monitors, along with peripherals, there are a slew of docking stations on the market, but most have a limited number of output options, either giving your HDMI or DisplayPort or, in some cases, even DVI, but rarely more than one choice per screen. Plugable’s new TBT3-UDZ dock gives you a ton of flexibility, outputting to dual monitors at up to 4K, 60Hz with a pair of HDMI and DisplayPort connections., along with 96 watts of charging power and 7 USB  ports, two of which can transfer at up to 10 Gbps. 

Available starting today for $299 ($249 on sale at Amazon), the Plugable TBT3-UDZ connects to your laptop via Thunderbolt 3 or via USB-C alt mode if that’s all your laptop has. Its 96-watts of power delivery is more than enough to juice a MacBook Pro or another USB-C-powered laptop such as a Dell XPS 13, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon or another of the best Ultrabooks.

It’s important to note that the Plugable TBT3-UDZ and other Thunderbolt 3 docks differ significantly from the less-expensive USB docking stations you can often find for less than $100. The lower-cost docking stations use DisplayLink compression technology to allow your computer to output video over a standard USB Type-A or Type-C connection and, while that makes them compatible with even older PCs, it also takes up processor cycles for the compression, which can result in lag, depending on what you’re doing. Thunderbolt 3 and docks provide direct access to your laptop’s GPU, which leads to better performance and less tax on your processor.

The 8 x 4 x 1.4-inch Plugable TBT3-UDZ is a slim and attractive device for your desk. The matte aluminum chassis gives the docking station a premium look, and the included stand gives you the flexibility to either prop it up vertically or lay it down horizontally. 

The back of the TBT3-UDZ is filled with ports, including five USB 3.0 Type-A ports, gigabit Ethernet, two HDMI and two DisplayPort outs (you can only use two of the four at once), a barrel connector for plugging into the power brick, and an upstream Thunderbolt 3 port that connects to your laptop. There's also a Kensington lock slot.

The front of the Plugable TBT3-UDZ has a USB-C 10 Gbps port, a USB Type-A 10 Gbps port, an SD card reader, a microSD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack. Having two different card readers is a real standout feature because many docks just give you the full-size SD card opening and then require you to use an adapter if you want to read or write to microSD cards. However, considering that so many devices, including Raspberry Pis, phones, tablets and Nintendo Switches, use microSD cards (see best Raspberry Pi microSD cards), it’s more important to have that slot. 

I had the chance to test out the Plugable TBT3-UDZ with a ThinkPad X1 Carbon (6th Gen) and a pair of 4K monitors. The docking station worked seamlessly with my ThinkPad, installing drivers automatically as soon as I connected it to the notebook’s Thunderbolt 3 port, using the included 2.6-foot cable.  

The performance you get will obviously vary based on the CPU and graphics card in your laptop. However, in my case, I had no problem playing a 4K 60 fps YouTube video smoothly at its native resolution on one screen while working on the other. The USB power delivery was more than adequate to power and charge my laptop.

The Plugable TBT3-UDZ isn’t the cheapest Thunderbolt 3 dock on the market as some competitors hover around $200 or even a little less, but it is by far one of the most versatile, powerful and stylish. 

Its 96-watts of output make it ideal for MacBook Pro users or anyone who wants to charge and output data over a single wire. Perhaps more importantly, the inclusion of dual 10 Gbps outputs allows you to write to high-speed external SSDs that most docking stations don’t support.

Having a good docking station is an important part of working on a laptop. And while it’s standard for bigger offices to provide docks, with so many of us now working from home due to the pandemic, those of us who rely on their work laptops now might have to fend for themselves instead. Enter the Plugable UD-3900Z and UD-6950Z, two new laptop docks that launch today and separate themselves from the pack through an extensive array of display options. 

Which one of these you’ll want to get depends on your monitor setup. The UD-3900Z is built for FHD displays, while the UD-6950Z focuses on 4K. Each has room for two displays at once, meaning you can easily use two monitors at the same time. But while the 3900Z limits itself to HDMI, the 6950Z’s display connections take either HDMI or DisplayPort.

That means the UD-3900Z supports up to two 1920 x 1200 monitors (each running at 60 Hz), while the UD-6950Z supports up to two 4K (3840 x 2160) monitors (each running at 60 Hz. meaning you won't be running two of the best 4K gaming monitors on market).

That means that if you don’t have 4K monitors, the UD-3900Z is a pretty simple bet, and easy to use as well. It can take up to two monitors and simply uses two HDMI ports to do so. The UD-6950Z is a bit more of an oddity. While it has 4 video ports (2 DisplayPort and 2 HDMI), it can only connect your laptop to two monitors at a time, rather than using all of them at once to connect 4 monitors. Each of its two video connections simply gives you the option of either DisplayPort or HDMI, rather than letting you use both at once in the same connection. On top of this, you’ll also get plenty of ports with either hub. The UD-3900Z has four USB 2.0 ports, three USB 3.0 ports, one RJ-45 Ethernet port, and one 3.5mm combo audio/mic jack. Meanwhile, the UD-6950Z comes with 6 USB 3.0 ports, one RJ-45 Ethernet port, and one 3.5mm combo audio/mic jack. Both of these stations mark upgrades to Plugable’s existing USB 3.0 UD-3900 Universal Laptop Docking Station, which is currently the best-selling laptop dock on Amazon and only has 1 HDMI port and 1 DVI/VGA port.

Razer announced an updated version of its Blade 15 gaming laptop in addition to a new external graphics enclosure called the Core X.

Thinner Blade

The new Razer Blade 15 features a six-core eighth-generation (Coffee Lake-H) Intel Core i7-8750H processor with 16GB of DDR4-2667 memory (with support for up to 32GB), up to a 512GB PCIe SSD, and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or GTX 1070 graphics with the Max-Q design. The 15.6” display can be configured as a 1920 x 1080 144Hz panel with 100% sRGB color or a 4K (3840 x 2160) 60Hz IPS touchscreen with 100% Adobe RGB color support.

Razer claimed the new Blade 15 is the world’s smallest 15.6” gaming laptop, boasting a profile as thin as 0.66” and weighing as little as 4.56 lbs. (with GTX 1060 models). The GTX 1070 models are slightly larger and heavier, with a 0.68” profile and weighing 4.73 lbs. All versions of the new Blade sport a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port and three USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-A ports, in addition to a mini DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 interface for display output and an Intel Wireless-AC 9260 802.11ac WiFi module with Bluetooth 5.0.

The new Razer Blade 15 is available now from the company’s website. Currently, the only models in stock feature a 144Hz 1080p display and GTX 1070 Max-Q graphics, with a 256GB or 512GB PCIe SSD, priced at $2,399.99 and $2,599.99, respectively. GTX 1060 models will arrive in June, starting at $1,899.99.

Bigger Core, Lower Price

The Razer Core X is the company’s third external graphics enclosure, and similar to the previously available Core v2, it doesn’t come with a graphics card installed. Also similar to its predecessors, it can accommodate up to full-length AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce or Quadro PCIe x16 graphics cards. However, the Core X is the only Razer enclosure that can accommodate 3-slot graphics cards. The company also expanded official compatibility for all of its Core eGPU enclosures with support for Windows 10 Thunderbolt 3-enabled PCs (instead of just Razer-branded laptops) and Mac laptops. The latter limits GPU compatibility to AMD Radeon graphics.

The Core X is larger than its predecessors, but it’s made of aluminum sheet metal. This greatly reduces the production costs compared to the smaller CNC-aluminum v2 chassis. The 650W power supply offers more juice than the previous versions (the v1 and v2 sport a 500W PSU), but it’s a standard ATX-sized PSU and is less expensive than the v2’s slimline PSU. The Core X also doesn’t have any additional I/O (the v2 has an Ethernet port and a USB hub), and the reduced functionality enables Razer to offer the new enclosure for less money than previous models.

The new Razer Core X external graphics enclosure is available from the company’s website for $299.99.

Gigabyte was out in force at Pax East, showcasing its gaming chops with Aorus-branded desktops and laptops. However, the PCs weren’t the only tasty technological treat Gigabyte displayed: The company quietly revealed an Aorus external graphics dock with a GTX 1070 inside.

The new Aorus GTX 1070 Thunderbolt External Graphics Box runs over a single Thunderbolt 3 connection, and it’s a complete departure from the Gigabyte GPU dock we saw last year at CES. Gone is the tall, upright, handled, awkward chassis; it’s been replaced with a small, sleek, and impressively light case. The new External Graphics Box will also ship with a Gigabyte GTX 1070 mini GPU already inside, and the dock itself is only slightly larger than the graphics card.

Furthermore, the weak 250W power supply from the previous iteration has been replaced with a more powerful 450W PSU, which is plenty of juice for even the most top-end graphics cards (assuming they can fit inside the tiny dock). The new dock also features two USB 3.0 ports and RGB LED lighting.

Pricing and availability for the Aorus GTX 1070 External Graphics Box is unknown, as this new device hasn’t seen the light of day until now. However, judging by the fact that it was running a demo in complete working order, it may not be long until we see it hit the market.

Lenovo just unveiled its new ThinkPad lineup, and the new notebook PCs aren’t the only thing the company has up its sleeve. Lenovo announced two new ThinkVision displays, in addition to two new docking stations, for its 2017 product catalog.

ThinkVision Displays

Lenovo’s ThinkVision P27h and P24h are the latest additions to the company’s display lineup. Both monitors feature a 2560 x 1440 IPS panel with a 6ms response time. It also sports a near-edgeless border, a super narrow bezel, and a non-glossy finish. The 27-inch (P27h) and 23.8-inch (P24h) QHD displays also feature a built-in 4-port USB hub, in addition to two HDMI and two DisplayPort inputs. However, a USB Type-C port also provides power delivery (up to 45W), video, and data to and from an attached device (such as a tablet or smartphone).

Both displays offer over 99% sRGB color gamut. Combined with the high pixel count, the new ThinkVision displays are ideal for home office and productivity tasks, and professionals in graphic design and photography.

The new ThinkVision P24h and P27h are set to arrive this March, starting at $259 and $329, respectively.

ThinkPad Docks

Lenovo also revealed two new docking peripherals. The ThinkPad USB-C Dock expands the connectivity of your ThinkPad notebook with three USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports, in addition to a VGA output and two DisplayPort interfaces to connect additional displays. You can connect a single display up to 3840 x 2160 @30Hz, or dual displays up to 1920 x 1080 @60Hz via the DisplayPort interfaces.

There’s also a Stereo/Mic combo jack, and a USB Type-C port provides power and data to your attached ThinkPad. You can also connect the dock to the internet with a gigabit LAN port, which lets you create a permanent desk space for your ThinkPad.

The ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock offers even more connectivity options, with five USB 3.0 ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, and an audio combo jack, in addition to two DisplayPort interfaces, an HDMI port, and a VGA connector, giving the Thunderbolt 3 Dock the ability to connect to up to three displays.

The ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock can connect to up to three displays at a resolution of 3840 x 2160. With a single display, either video output (DisplayPort or Thunderbolt 3 port) will give you that peak resolution at 60Hz. Dual display setups can achieve 60Hz on both screens by using one via the DisplayPort and the other through the Thunderbolt connection (USB-C). Using three screens forces the DisplayPorts (two of them) to operate at 30Hz, with the Thunderbolt 3 port still able to give 60Hz to the display, giving you two monitors at 30Hz and one at 60Hz.

The new ThinkPad USB-C Dock and ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock will be hitting the market about a month apart from each other, with the USB-C Dock arriving in January for $199.99, and the Thunderbolt 3 Dock debuting in February for $279.99.

Asus didn’t have many ROG announcements at Computex 2016, and the few it did have were mostly lost at its loud, dark, 3D laser-lightshow-like press conference. But when we had a chance to walk through the company’s booth later in the week and pepper each project manager in turn, we found that Asus’ external graphics dock has received some updates, most notably a USB Type-C port.

Bowing To Compatibility

At CES time this past January, the external graphics docks from major companies were sorted into two camps: those that used a proprietary connector for the PC and those that relied on a standard connector (Thunderbolt 3 over USB Type-C).

The sticking point--at least to hear the companies say it--is bandwidth. Although on paper Thunderbolt 3 is 40 Gbps, it loses some of its total bandwidth to encoding overhead, so the actual bandwidth is closer to 32 Gbps.

In order to get the full 40 Gbps of bandwidth (and possibly for other reasons), both Asus and MSI relied on proprietary PCIe connectors. The downside there is of course compatibility; that dock can work with only a laptop with that special connectivity. Further, Asus’ XG Station 2 had two cables, which is just clunky. By contrast, Thunderbolt 3 is a one-cable solution and an open standard, so any system with the right USB Type-C port could make use of a thus-equipped GPU dock.

Razer took the USB Type-C approach with its Razer Core dock, for the reasons mentioned above, and we suspect that HP (and other companies) might be cooking up their own versions, too. Powercolor, for instance, has its Devil Box GPU dock prototype just about ready to go.

Once Razer announced the Core, Asus had two choices: It could double down on its proprietary connector or it could sheepishly revert to USB Type-C. It did neither. Instead, the company added a USB Type-C port to the XG2 and also kept its proprietary PCIe connector. (Let that be a lesson in false dichotomies, kids.)

Simply, this allows Asus to test the market without risk. If the product team finds that consumers are buying the XG Station 2 and pairing it mainly with Asus laptops, then maybe they nix that USB Type-C port. If the dock sells well as a standalone unit, that would tell them that the Type-C port should stay.

The XG Station 2 will come to market later this year, and when it does, it will have both ports.

You Got The Power

In addition to all the port drama, we learned more about the XG Station 2’s power supply. It’s a 680W PSU, and Asus broke it down for us: 500W is allotted for the graphics card, 80W is for the Quick Charge function and any connected accessories, and 100W is set aside for power delivery over the USB Type-C port. (That means you can connect a laptop to the XG Station 2, and the dock will charge the laptop.)

That leaves plenty of headroom on this PSU, and partially, that’s because Asus anticipates people overclocking the cards, and it allows for dual GPUs to be used in the XG station 2, which is something Asus is considering.

Asus also told us that there will be an Asus ROG laptop coming that will be equipped with its two-cable proprietary connector. We presume that as-yet unnamed laptop will launch alongside the XG Station 2 in Q4 2016.

Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Gigabyte is preparing its entry into the external GPU dock market, but it is still early in development and we are unlikely to see a finished version in the near future.

This early version of Gigabyte’s GPU dock is fairly limited power wise compared to the ones from Asus, Powercolor and Razer. Although the GPU dock is roughly the same size as its would-be competitors, both Powercolor and Razer use 500W PSUs, while Gigabyte is using just a 250W power supply. It is even further behind the Asus ROG XG2, which has a beefy 680W PSU.

This means that Gigabyte's GPU dock cannot support GPUs that consume over 175W. Technically, you could attempt to run a GPU that needs more power than that, but to ensure stability at peak power consumption, it is best to stay 25 percent below the PSUs total power output.

Gigabyte is considering switching to a 350W PSU, which would open the dock up to GPUs that consume up to 262.5W on average. That should be plenty of power to run high-end GPUs like Nvidia's GTX 1080. It wouldn't completely resolve the problem, however, as devices connected to the GPU dock can absorb up to 100W over the USB Type-C port, but it is impossible to tell how serious the power issue is without testing the performance and efficiency of the PSU inside.

Similar to the Devil Box and the Razer Core, Gigabyte opted to use Thunderbolt 3 over a USB Type-C port, and it is designed to be compatible with essentially any PC with that supports these technologies.

The current prototype is a little different from the other external GPU docks we have seen in that it stands up instead of laying down on a flat surface (see photos above). This might be the finished case design, but it it also may change. We actually saw two versions of this GPU dock, but one of them was essentially a black rectangular box and certainly wasn’t a finished prototype.

Because the dock is still being developed, Gigabyte didn’t know how much it would cost or when it would be available. We likely won’t see a finished version for several months at the very least.

Follow Michael Justin Allen Sexton @EmperorSunLao. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

When we heard about PowerColor’s “Devil Box” external GPU dock, we figured we’d learn more about the device when we dropped by the company’s booth at Computex, but we were in for more than we expected. Not only did PowerColor have the Devil Box up and functioning, it was paired with an Intel Skull Canyon PC. And together, they were coaxing an HTC Vive.

Although I was initially wary of the potential bandwidth and latency problems in such a setup, I found that the demo ran without issue. I haven’t spent much time ensconced in VR environments, but this one was no different than the few others I’ve seen in terms of quality.

Connectivity And VR For All

The Devil Box connects to its host system via Thunderbolt 3 over USB Type-C connectors. This enables the Devil Box to work with essentially any system on the market that supports Thunderbolt 3. Of course, a looming question concerns the CPU limitations of the laptop that connects the GPU dock. The Intel Skull Canyon NUC has a high-end Intel Core i7-6770HQ.

The Devil Box external GPU dock seems like it has reached the end of its development stage, but the company is still tweaking its design. There were actually two different prototypes on display, but the only significantly difference between the two was that one had a carrying handle on top.

The external power dock measures 400 x 172 x 242 mm (LxWxH). This spacious design allows PowerColor to fit relatively large triple-fan GPUs alongside a 500W PSU and a 2.5-inch HDD for extra storage. Pulling double duty as an I/O hub, the case has four USB 3.0 slots, a USB Type-C port and an Ethernet port. It also has RGB LED lighting.

We don’t know the Devil Box price yet, but a product manager told us that it will be cost less than the Razer Core, which puts it below $399. The Devil Box can support up to an Nvidia Titan X graphics card or AMD R9 Fury. Next gen graphics cards should work fine as well, as they are more energy efficient than current offerings. PowerColor may ship full versions with GPUs pre-installed, but that is also still being deliberated.

PowerColor plans to complete development of the Devil Box soon and ship to retailers sometime before the end of 2016, but it doesn’t have an exact shipping date set.

Follow Michael Justin Allen Sexton @EmperorSunLao. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Back at Mobile World Congress 2015, MHL showed us a concept that was about one year ahead of its time: a “dumb” laptop clamshell that served as the display and input for a connected smartphone. This year, HP picked up on the idea with its Elite X3 smartphone and unimaginatively named “HP Mobile Extender,” and at least one upstart--Nex--wants in, too.

The company has created the NexDock, which looks like a laptop but is in fact a display, Bluetooth keyboard with a touchpad, and a battery.

Nex has big plans. “We hope to start a paradigm shift in consumer electronics,” the promo video boldly claimed. But for now, those plans start with an Indiegogo campaign, which is live for a couple more days but has already surpassed its $300,000 goal so it can begin manufacturing. You can plop down $119 to reserve one for yourself, with a promised delivery date of June.

Baby Steps

When the NexDock hits retail, it will cost $149. That’s about the cost of a cheap Chromebook or Windows notebook (and it resembles one), and of course you still have to provide the computing device to go along with it. However, the idea is that you probably already have such a device--your smartphone, Raspberry Pi, or mini PC like an Intel Compute Stick.

There are some limitations to the NexDock, though. First, the 14.1-inch display has a mere 1366x768 resolution. Second, there is no USB Type-C port. (The company said that it will swap out one of the existing ports for a Type-C port should the campaign hit the $500,000 stretch goal. It’s currently about $150,000 shy of the mark with two days to go.)

Looking Beyond

As with any crowdfunded project, one must temper one’s expectations. Simply getting funded is no guarantee of success; for every Oculus Rift, there’s a hundred funded-but-failed projects. However, assuming Nex delivers on the promise of the NexDock, the company has its sights set high.

Nex has at least three concept products. There’s the NexDock, but also a 10-inch tablet-like device and a 24-inch AIO-type machine that resembles an iMac and has an external keyboard and mouse. The Big Idea here is that you can swap your computing device around to any of these form factors.

The two computing device types that come readily to mind are smartphones and mini PCs like the Intel Compute Stick. Although Nex’s videos suggest a method of connecting a phone or mini PC to one of these “dumb” devices via an embedded USB-C port (we can think of a few inherent design issue there), you can simply connect a device with a cable. It’s not as sexy, but it will work, and in real life that should suit most users in most situations.

Another potential use case Nex is pushing is using one of its devices as a second display. For example, you could connect a regular laptop to any of them. The practicality is somewhat limited--the NexDock as a second display means you have two clamshells cluttering your desk, for example--but we could see using the 10-inch tablet as a handy second display when at a trade show where we’re writing and editing photos and video and could use a little more screen real estate.  

One of the more compelling uses for the second screen is for those who love mobile gaming. You can use your phone as a controller and view the gameplay on the NexDock’s screen.

Whether or not the NexDock turns out to be a shipping product and also performs as expected, expect to see more products like these cropping up around the market.

Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

It’s all coming together. We’ve been anxious for full details on the Intel Skull Canyon NUC that we first saw at CES, and we’ve pointed out that the Razer Core external GPU dock was obviously designed with more than just Razer’s own laptops in mind. At GDC, Intel took the wraps off of the NUC, and perhaps the most notable detail is that it’s designed in part to make use of the Core.

Skull Canyon: Not That Kind NUC

When you hear “NUC,” you tend to think of a cute little box that has pretty good specs, but this is a cut above. Intel crammed impressive specs into the petite 216 x 116 x 23 mm NUC, including a 6th-gen (Skylake) Intel Core i7-6770HQ 45-watt CPU with Intel Iris Pro 580 graphics. It supports up to 32 GB of DDR4-2133MHz+ RAM and has dual M.2 slots for SATA III (6 Gbps), PCIe x4 Gen 3 NVMe and AHCI SSDs. There’s an SD slot that can handle up to 512 GB of additional storage, too.

You can opt for a lid for the NUC sporting the killer skull logo, or if that’s not your thing, you can go with a simple matte black cover.

In addition to the four USB 3.0 ports, full HMDI 2.0, Mini DisplayPort 1.2, Intel Gigabit LAN and headphone/mic jack, the Skull Canyon NUC sports a USB Type-C port equipped with USB 3.1, DisplayPort 1.2 and -- the kicker -- Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps). That one addition means you can connect “other devices,” and Intel specifically mentioned the Razer Core external GPU dock.

No Steam Machine Here

Although we were told at CES that the NUC wouldn’t ship with Windows, and we inferred that meant it may not be a Windows machine at all, it seems Intel has changed its mind. The NUC will indeed offer Windows 10, and we can’t help but wonder if the original plan was to make this a Steam Machine. It’s not surprising that Intel bailed on that notion. A teeny tiny Windows PC that can (ostensibly) turn into a full gaming PC by connecting to what amounts to a mega-peripheral is a much more enticing setup, thanks to Razer’s work on the Core.

Going with a standards-based external GPU dock, it seems, is already paying dividends for Razer. And for consumers.

Still Pricey

The cost of the Razer Blade and Blade Stealth notebooks paired with the Core bear a sky-high price, and although Intel’s offering isn't much cheaper, it does come in at the lowest-end of the cost scale. The company said the Skull Canyon NUC (NUC6i7KYK) barebones kit will be $650, although a "typical build" with 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD will be around $1,000. Considering the $500 cost of the Core, plus a higher-end graphics card to put in it, this is still a pricey proposition, but it just nibbles at the $1,000-$2,199 cost of the Razer notebooks. (Of course, you still need a monitor for the NUC, but, well, you probably already have one.)

You can lay your hard-earned cash down for Skull Canyon NUC preorders in April. The device will ship in May. The Razer Core begins shipping in April.

Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Although Acer has still not yet released the final details around its high-end Windows 10 for phones handset, the Liquid Jade Primo, another data point has emerged regarding Continuum support for the phone. SlimPort, from Analogix Semiconductor, will enable Continuum support via USB Type-C on the Liquid Jade Primo’s Display Dock.

We’ve received slightly uneven details about the Display Dock. After a quasi-announcement that the Liquid Jade Primo would ship with multiple peripherals, Acer later walked that back, and it seemed that the phone might ship with none. Then at CES, we saw a prototype of the Display Dock that will come with the phone, and an Analogix rep confirmed that the final version offers the same ports. (It also appears that the device will share the same “Display Dock” name as Microsoft's version.)

The Liquid Jade Primo smartphone itself will be equipped with the SlimPort ANX7816 and ANX7418 transmitter and controllers, and the Dock will have ANX7402 controllers and ANX7737 converters. These enable, among other features, DisplayPort out via an Alt Mode and Power Delivery, so that the smartphone can be charged while it’s connected to an external display (whether it’s connected to the Display Dock or directly to a USB Type-C-equipped monitor.)

The Acer gear joins the Microsoft Lumia 950 and its Display Dock, as well as HP’s Elite X3 smartphone and HP Desk Dock, as adopters of the smartphone-as-PC (enabled by Continuum) paradigm. Canonical has its own Ubuntu Core-powered version of the concept, which impressed us at Mobile World Congress.

Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Stardock announced March 31, 2016 as the release date for Oxide Games’ real-time strategy game Ashes of the Singularity. Set in a future where humanity has expanded into the stars and is now in conflict for control of key planets in the galaxy, players wage planetary warfare on a massive scale to conquer opponents and control planets.

The Launch Date Trailer shows off some of the various factions’ weaponry and military technology, including a blast from the devastating orbital strike cannon. One of the game’s key features is its Nitrous 3D engine, whose 64-bit, multi-core foundation supports DirectX 11, DirectX 12 and multiple GPUs.

A while back we sat down with Dan Baker, one of the co-founders of Oxide Games, and discussed what makes the Nitrous 3D engine unique. Ashes of the Singularity is currently available in Early Access on Steam or through Stardock. The full version with all of its intended features will be released on March 31, 2016.

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We got a quick look at the Acer Liquid Jade Primo and its still-in-development dock at CES.

The dock is coming, although apparently Acer is still adding the final touches. Most notably, it uses an HDMI port to connect with the monitor, which seems an odd choice, and indeed an Acer rep said that the final version will probably have a USB Type-C connector instead.

As you can see, the dock has three USB ports (one USB 3.0 on one side, two USB 2.0 on the other), as well as a power port and the aforementioned HDMI port.

Although Acer has backed off on its intentions to release the Liquid Jade Primo with a spate of peripherals, a rep told us that it’s still possible that the phone may yet ship with an optional monitor bundle.

That’s not a terrible strategy. The monitor the team had on display with the Primo is the H277HU, Acer’s first USB Type-C monitor (which looks lovely in person, with a silver chassis, thin black bezel, and an attractive circular silver stand.) A monitor, dock and smartphone bundle is probably sufficient, as both home and business users likely already have preferred mice and keyboards, and cramming five items into one package may be overkill. Further, Acer doesn’t really have a nice desktop keyboard/mouse combo, so it would either have to build a set or partner with another company on a peripherals bundle.

As for the phone itself, I was surprised at how easy it was to use. Despite the large size (5.5 inches), I found that could reach all the parts of the screen with my thumb easily. Typically, I struggle to thumb-navigate any smartphone over about 4.7 inches one-handed, but Acer balanced the thinness and weight balance of the Liquid Jade Primo, and it worked well for me.

To pair the phone with the monitor, there’s a tap-to-connect option that pops up when you dock it.

Acer did not reveal when the dock would be shipping, nor what price it might command.

Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

It seems like there are a slew of vendors releasing mobile desktop graphics docks at CES, but Asus appears to be differentiating from the typical solution with its ROG XG2 graphics dock. The dock is designed to work with particular Asus mobile devices (no word on which ones just yet) and unlike other competing devices, it uses PCI-e bandwidth instead of Thunderbolt.

We got to check out the Asus ROG XG2 at the company’s suite in Las Vegas, and it definitely catches the eye. A tinted side panel shows off the LED-lit interior, which can house virtually any graphics card on the market today. The side panel also has a small space between the chassis and glass to allow air intake.

Perhaps it’s just me, but the LED lighting and plasma tube on the front make for an impressive design, clearly more flashy than practical in some cases. The chassis itself is not as sturdy as the Razor Core, which used heavy steel for its case, and the XG2 is much lighter by comparison.

Another key difference, and possibly unique from any other graphics dock we’ve seen so far, is that the ROG XG2 uses two USB Type-C cables to connect to the mobile devices (in our case, an Asus ZenBook). This is because the XG2 uses PCI-e lanes to transfer the data between the dock and the PC.

Asus explained that Thunderbolt 3 interfaces can create latency for external graphics docks, so the company decided to implement the dual-USB Type-C configuration to use four PCIe-3.0 lanes instead. Each cable handles two PCI-e lanes, and the interface provides adequate bandwidth to run even the most powerful graphics cards (Asus explained that its internal testing with a Titan X showed that four lanes operate at 99.99% of the performance of a x16 lane interface). Additionally, the USB Type-C ports on the PC will automatically switch between USB protocols and PCI-e protocols based on what you plug into it.

There’s no word on price or availability yet, but more importantly, it opens like a taco.

Derek Forrest is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware and Tom’s IT Pro. Follow Derek Forrest on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

StarTech, which makes a plethora of hard-to-find cables and adapters, has announced a new product lineup designed to address the growing needs for universal docking stations for offices with bring-your-own device policies.

StarTech said it recognized that hot-desking is a growing trend in office environments and saw an opportunity to fill a growing gap in the market. The company is launching three new docking stations under the newly created Essential Family lineup, with each one offering different display capabilities. 

The USB3VDOCK4DP is designed to interface with 4K displays through the included DisplayPort connector. The USB3VDOCKH features an HDMI port with support for resolutions up to 2560x1440, and the USB3VDOCKD includes a DVI port. The DVI version is limited to a max resolution of 2048x1152.

The rest of the features of the Essential Family laptop dock lineup are shared across all three models. The docks include two rear-mounted USB 3.0 ports and a front mounted port with fast-charge support, gigabit Ethernet, and a front mounted 3.5mm 4-position audio jack with simultaneous headphone and microphone support.  

Each docking station includes the USB 3.0 cable to plug it into a computer and the 5V DC power adapter. It also features an integrated security lock so it can be secured to the desk if necessary.

StarTech said the Essential Family docking stations will soon be available at a number of online retailers and that they will be distributed through multiple channels, so you should find them anywhere StarTech products are sold. The DVI version will sell for $134.99. The HDMI version will be a dollar more at $135.99, and the 4K DisplayPort dock will be available for $157.99.

Follow Kevin Carbotte @pumcypuhoy. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Club3D announced the addition of two new USB 3.0 docking stations to its SenseVision lineup. One is designed for use with a laptop or Ultrabook, and another is designed to output UHD video signals.

Club3D's SenseVision line of products expand the video outputs on your computer. The company makes dongles and docks that plug into either a Display Port and split the signal into more outputs, or through a USB 3.0 port, which is the case for the docking stations announced today.

SenseVision USB 3.0 Ultra Smart Docking Station

The SenseVision USB 3.0 Ultra Smart Docking Station has been designed with laptops and Ultrabooks in mind, but it can be used on a desktop PC as well, if desired. It's made of brushed aluminum and has what Club3D is calling a "slim Bar Design" that can be used to prop your laptop up higher. The device is wrapped with two rubber bands around it to secure the dock in place on your desk, and your laptop on top of it.

The docking station plugs into a single USB 3.0 port on the computer and provides a host of additional connections through it. There are five USB 3.0 ports, mic and headphone jacks, RJ45 network adapter, MicroSD card reader and three video outputs (DVI-D, VGA and HDMI). Club3D said that two of the video interfaces can be used at the same time and offer resolutions as high as 2048x1152 at 60 Hz.

SenseVision USB 3.0 4K UHD Mini Docking Station

Club3D also launched the SenseVision USB 3.0 4K UHD Mini Docking Station, which offers similar functionality, but much higher resolution. The mini docking station includes four USB 3.0 ports, an RJ45 network jack and a single audio jack that doubles as a headphone and microphone port.

The docking station can also output to two displays though the included HDMI and DVI-D interfaces. The maximum resolution on the DVI-D port is 2048x1152, which is the same maximum resolution found on the Ultra Smart Docking station. The UHD Mini's HDMI port is capable of outputting 2560x1600 at 60 Hz or 3840x2160 at 30 Hz, thanks to a DisplayLink DL-5900 chip that Club3D included inside the dock.

Club3D did not reveal pricing for the SenseVision USB 3.0 4K UHD MINI Docking Station nor for the USB 3.0 Ultra Smart Docking Station. Partner resellers should have them in stock soon, though.

Follow Kevin Carbotte @pumcypuhoy. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

At some point, the screens on our smartphones weren't enough for entertainment and work. Innovations such as SlimPort and Microsoft's Continuum allow users to display their smartphones on bigger displays and televisions. This opens up the industry for more smartphone-to-TV devices from third parties, such as the SlimPort Nano Console from Analogix.

By connecting your Android smartphone to the device via the SlimPort micro-USB connector and then connecting the Nano Console's HDMI cable to a larger display, Analogix believes it can deliver the same smartphone experience as before, but in a living room setting. This allows you to watch movies, show presentations, respond to emails, and even play games from your smartphone on a larger screen.

Of course, this means that you also need a remote or controller of some sort. Fortunately, the company made one to go along with the Nano Console, appropriately called the Nano Remote. Along with the three traditional Android buttons at the bottom of the remote, the rest of the surface area is used as a trackpad, so it should feel the same as swiping or tapping on your smartphone.

For gamers, Analogix partnered with Mad Catz for use of the C.T.R.L.R. device, which is the same controller used in Mad Catz's M.O.J.O. Android mini-console, and also uses your smartphone as the main source of games. The Bluetooth-paired controller also includes media controls, as well as a mouse mode that brings up a mouse cursor on the screen controlled by the left analog stick. Support for multiple controllers on the same device is also available.

Other features for the Nano Console include the ability to charge your phone while connected in order to prevent power loss in the middle of entertainment or work, as well as an extra HDMI port to allow another device to display on screen via the Nano Console.

However, Analogix needs support from early adopters for the Nano Console in the form of a crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo. The goal amount is $10,000 before October 27. So far, the campaign received $3,452. The retail price for the Nano Console is $59, but customers can pledge as low as $34 (plus shipping) to get one of the first copies that includes the device and remote. At $54, those interested in the gaming aspect can purchase The Gamer Pack, which includes the Nano Console, Nano Remote, and the Mad Catz C.T.R.L.R.

Last week, Microsoft introduced the Lumia 950 and 950 XL smartphones. In addition, the company introduced an accompanying device, the Microsoft Display Dock. However, this was a more work-focused presentation, with the goal for users to take the dock with their new Lumia smartphone and plug it into a TV or monitor, grab a keyboard and mouse, and immediately get down to business. This is made possible by a new feature in Windows 10 called "Continuum."

Analogix, on the other hand, seems to aim for the catch-all category. Instead of just using the smartphone screen, it believes that customers want something more with their device. The Nano Console seems to be the answer by providing the same capabilities of your Android smartphone and giving it a display boost to allow users to convert their living rooms or workspaces into a fully functioning entertainment and work environment, all from their Android smartphones.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

By our very nature, we at Tom's Hardware aren't much interested in the many, many accessories and gadgets that are optional add-ons to devices like mobile phones and laptops. (A neato Bluetooth dongle, you say? Who cares! Is that a very expensive protective laptop sleeve? Not for me! And so on.) Those items tend to be the "slice of pie" of the tech world, unnecessary detritus that only serves to add to the final bill but isn't much part of the meal, as it were.

The new Display Dock (HD-500) that you can purchase with an upcoming Lumia 950 or Lumia 950 XL smartphone is not one of those things. Indeed, although you can certainly use one of the relatively high-end Lumias without ever missing the Display Dock, the little $99 device can open up a world of possibilities for many users.

The small, square device is like a laptop dock you can fit in your pocket. Leave it hooked up to your monitor, keyboard and mouse, where it will wait for you to plug in your new Lumia phone using the USB Type-C cable, transforming your phone into a PC thanks to Windows 10 Continuum, or take it with you and have a PC-like experience wherever you go.

My Phone, My PC

Let me back up a bit.

The ability to use your phone as a primary computing device is something of a panacea in the minds of many, and that question -- Can my phone be my PC? -- has been asked repeatedly since Apple created the smartphone market with the iPhone.

There have always been severe limitations, though. The mobile hardware wasn't at all powerful enough. The apps weren't sufficient substitutes for desktop software. There weren't good enough ways to connect and display the smartphone's contents on a larger monitor. Battery life was an issue. And so on.

Things have been changing on that front, of course. Mobile hardware continues to increase in power, and innovations such as SlimPort and MHL and USB Type-C have all in one way or another helped to ameliorate the connectivity and battery issues.

Microsoft cleared one of the final, and most formidable, hurdles -- that of the UI problem -- with Windows 10 by enabling Universal Apps on the new OS (that is, applications can run on any device with the same code, from desktops to mobile phones to the Xbox) and creating Continuum (which intelligently displays a device's contents to fit a larger display).

In other words, the technology baked into Windows 10 enables you to connect your Windows 10 Mobile smartphone to a monitor and display the phone's contents in a pretty, intuitive, familiar UI, with applications that run (more or less) just as well on your desktop as they do on your phone.

(Windows 10 Mobile is not yet out -- it's coming in December alongside the launch of the Lumia 950 and 950 XL -- so we'll have to reserve some judgment on how well that will work. But the demos we've seen are promising.)

The Last Mile

What Microsoft has done with the HD-500 display dock is to create a "last mile" solution for all the aforementioned tech. It's a linchpin of sorts, a dedicated little hub for your high-end Lumia phone that lets you add a keyboard, mouse and large display to your phone.

With the additional available ports, you can also attach, for example, an external hard drive, effectively increasing your available storage by as much one or two TB. Also note that the hub enables DisplayPort over the USB Type-C connection.

Reservations

The above is all well and good, but you probably have some reservations about that really important little thing we call "performance." To be honest, I share that concern. Can the hardware inside the Lumia 950 and 950 XL (and any subsequent phones that the HD-500 will support) really hack even a relatively lightweight workload?

We wouldn't dare state definitively that they could (or couldn't) without testing it for ourselves, but we can speculate. Consider the specs of these new Lumias:

They run high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs and have 3 GB of RAM. That's not nuthin', as they say. And we've certainly seen smartphone-level hardware running non-smartphone devices before, such as some 2-in-1 tablets and Chromebooks, and those experiences aren't terrible.

Granted, Chrome OS is built to be as lightweight as possible, and thus a mobile chip can handle its demands more readily than it would a bulky Windows desktop installation. And although today's high-end smartphones can keep up with whatever you throw at them, there's a certain way that we're prone to use a desktop environment that is different from how we'd work on a mobile device.

However, if you simply take everything you do on your phone all day (shooting off emails, writing notes, using Office 365, working on social media, maybe even doing some light photo editing, etc.) and give yourself the ease of keyboard/mouse input and the large display area afforded by a monitor, that's a terrific upgrade to your workflow, is it not?

Your phone can't do all the things your PC can -- even if that PC is a lightweight ultrabook -- and in that sense, no, your phone can't replace your PC. And it never will. But with the aforementioned technologies, linked together with the HD-500 dock, your ability to be productive with your phone can skyrocket.

One other issue, though, is the HD-500's exclusivity. It's unclear what future handsets it might support, although it's reasonable to assume that it will work just fine with any phone running Windows 10 Mobile that has a USB Type-C port. (At present, there are precious few devices that meet that criteria. But more could be coming.)

The Bottom Line

We can confidently surmise from the listed specs that the Lumia 950 and 950 XL will offer strong performance as standalone smartphones. And we can safely assume that, via the HD-500 dock, they will provide reasonably sufficient performance for lightweight productivity applications on a nice, big display.

Further, Microsoft has done a nice job of framing this little device. It's simple and straightforward, convenient, and its use is purposeful and clear: Plug your peripherals into it. Plug your phone into it. Off you go. That's it.

And it costs just $99.

Even so, no one is expecting Microsoft to sell millions and millions of Lumia 950 and 950 XL handsets. I believe many Windows Phone users have been waiting for a new flagship option, and many will snap up one of these phones, but the market share just isn't there to make a huge dent. For however many new Lumias Microsoft sells, it will unload even fewer HD-500 docks.

And that's okay. It doesn't matter if these things sell like gangbusters. On paper, Microsoft has figured out the way to do this smartphone-as-PC thing better than anyone else to date, and because of that, it's likely that we'll see more handset makers, and possibly third-party dock makers, come to market with similar options.

That's a good thing for consumers. It could force other OEMs such as Apple and Samsung and HTC to develop similar hardware solutions, and it could put some pressure on Google and Apple to do a better job of reproducing a mobile OS interface on a large external display.

In that sense, even if Microsoft doesn't sell many HD-500 docks -- and even if it doesn't work all that spectacularly well -- it could still be a catalyst for changing the smartphone game.

Seth Colaner is the News Director at Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Do you remember MSI's Gaming Dock, launched at CES? My colleague, Seth Colaner, said it looked like an "ugly, bulky brick." Not to throw him too far under the bus with MSI, he ended up liking the idea of it, just not some of the execution. But others must have thought the same thing, because here at Computex we saw a couple variations of the theme, both of which were equally intriguing, but less ugly and bulky and bricky. 

Specifically, MSI showed us the GamingDock Mini and an AX24 AIO with an optional graphics card housing. The GamingDock Mini, like its previous bulkier iteration, is also meant to be used with the GS30 Shadow laptop, but MSI indicated that will likely change over time (meaning a broadening of its use across the MSI product line).

The gaming dock will still use MSI's proprietary PCIe x16 connector, and it still won't let you plug in without restarting to get the graphics card functionality (Microsoft does not support hot swap in Windows). We're looking forward to Thunderbolt 3-powered external graphics docks, specifically because they would support not having to restart your system when you plug them in.

The GamingDock Mini will support any current, standard-sized Nvidia or AMD graphics card, and it has room and power enough for a Titan X. There's no internal power supply, as it will use the GS30 power adapter.

MSI said that the GamingDock Mini will ship in the second half of the year and would cost $169.99.

The company was less forthcoming about pricing on the AIO AX24 but said it would ship in late Q4. It comes with an optional housing for a video card, again using the proprietary PCIe x16 connector, and again it's able to house standard-sized cards up to a Titan X.

The housing is quite stealth, like a leach on the back of the AIO. There is dedicated power for the module, giving it 330 extra watts. The CPU will be Skylake, if I’m reading the signals right (and the timing; why wouldn’t it be!). The unit also has a carrying handle for easier schlepping to LAN parties. 

We asked MSI the question you, dear reader, always ask on things like this, which is why someone would buy such a docking component instead of just building their own PC. MSI acknowledged that it sees that feedback, but that with the AIO, you can easily transport your gaming PC and the display too, especially with that handle on top.

Follow Fritz Nelson @fnelson. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

If you've been longing for a Thunderbolt dock for your MacBook, but felt left out in the cold because you could only find 10 Gb/s Thunderbolt docks, you can now come to a warm place. Belkin has announced its Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD, which follows a similar idea as the original but sports Thunderbolt 2 for a bandwidth of 20 Gb/s with extra display connectivity.

The new dock comes with two Thunderbolt 2 interfaces, which will allow you to daisy chain up to five additional devices. It also has an HDMI port, support for a 4K display and three USB 3.0 interfaces (one of which is at the front of the dock), along with a Gigabit Ethernet port, a rear audio-out jack and a front headphone/microphone combo jack. In short, this gives you all the connectivity you'll need for a basic desktop environment, and you can link it to your laptop over just a single Thunderbolt cable.

It might not entirely make sense to buy an expensive dock to avoid having to plug in a couple of cables, but note that there are plenty of Apple devices that simply don't have a lot of on-board connectivity, and additional ports might be worth a lot of dough to some people. The Belkin Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD works with the iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, MacBook pro with Retina Display and any other system with a Thunderbolt 2 port.

Belkin priced the Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD at $299 in the US. The original Thunderbolt Express Dock has been lowered in price to $199, and it now comes with a 1 meter Thunderbolt cable, too.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Looking for a cool dock for your laptop? TRENDnet may have what you're looking for in the just-released TU3-DS2. The device features a vertical "space-saving" design, USB 3.0 connectivity, and means to expand your working environment without the need to purchase extra expensive hardware.

The specifications show that the new dock provides one DVI/VGA port and one HDMI port on the back, allowing users to expand their visual workspace by adding two more 1080p HD displays. The dock also includes four USB 2.0 ports on the back for adding a mouse, keyboard, wireless modem, external Blu-ray burner, and other peripherals that would normally hog the ports of a laptop or desktop.

The front of the device also includes two USB 3.0 ports with transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbps, which is great for devices like external hard drives, optical drives, and so on that support the SuperSpeed technology. A single USB 3.0 port resides on the back, which connects to a USB port on a desktop or laptop. USB 3.0 isn't a requirement, but it is ideal if you're going to expand the visual desktop.

TRENDnet's new dock also provides a Gigabit Ethernet port on the back and speaker and microphone ports on the front. "Full 5.1 audio channel support is provided to the connected HDMI display. Analog audio headphone ports on the front of the docking station override HDMI display audio," states the product page.

As a comparison, Diamond Multimedia actually provides something similar but at a lower price: the DS3900 Ultra Dock. For $99, this dock is DisplayLink certified and provides two USB 3.0 ports on the front and four USB 2.0 ports on the back. Also mounted on the back are HDMI and DVI/VGA ports for adding two screens, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a USB 3.0 port that plugs into a laptop or desktop. A headphone/microphone jack resides on the front as well.

TRENDnet's new USB 3.0 docking station is available now for $184.99.

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In addition to introducing its new gaming laptop on Thursday, Gigabyte also revealed a three-in-one laptop called the U21MD. While the name isn't all that catchy, the device itself looks rather snazzy, especially when it's parked in the "innovative" docking station. Pricing and availability are unknown at this point, but additional details are expected to be provided next week.

As with Gigabyte's other models, the U21MD will have multiple configurations. On the processor front, the laptop has an Intel Core i5-4200U (1.6 GHz, 2.6 GHz) or an Intel Pentium 3558U processor (1.7 GHz). There will also be either 4 GB or 8 GB of DDR3L memory (2 slots up to 16 GB), and Intel HD Graphics. The 11.6 multi-touch screen has a resolution of 1366 x 768.

Surprisingly, this notebook features a dual-storage system. There will be four possible configurations, one with a solid state hybrid drive with 500 GB to 1 TB of storage capacity, an mSATA SSD and hard drive combo, and so on. Capacities range from 128 GB to 1.5 TB.

In addition to the storage configurations, the laptop has two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI output, an SD card reader, a SIM card slot, and jacks for earphones and a microphone. There's also Wireless N and Bluetooth 4.0 +LE connectivity, an HD camera, and a Li-polymer 40 Wh battery.

As for the dock, this device provides three USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, a docking connector, and jacks for a microphone and headphone. The laptop comes with a chicklet keyboard as well as an optional backlit keyboard.

"For those who seek ultimate multimedia experience, U21MD has the best audio and visual experience a 3-in-1 laptop could offer," reads the PR. "The equipped Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater technology eliminates sound distortion, enhances volume and reinforces even the smallest details of the sound. Enjoy a fantastic audio experience on the U21MD, which is great for music, movies and games."

Thanks to a special hinge on the laptop, this device can be used as a tablet by rotating the screen 180 degrees, as a notebook and as an office PC when docked. This notebook is ideal for those who want the traits of an entertainment PC but also the quick and light functionality of a tablet. Want a gaming laptop? Check out the new P15F v2 instead.

HighPoint has announced a new storage dock that is a rather simple one. It is called the RocketStor 5411A, and it runs over a USB 3.0 interface.

The storage dock will accept both 3.5" and 2.5" drives as long as they run over the SATA interface. It also has support for the newer 6 TB size hard drives, which might prove useful for a number of users. For those of you who wish to install smaller or older drives, that won't be a problem; the unit has support for SATA I, II, and III drives.

To use a docking station like this as external storage might not be the most practical solution, but if you're archiving data to disks or quickly retrieving archived data, such devices can prove useful. If you are using it as external storage, though, it will spin down the hard drive installed when there is no I/O activity, extending the drive lifespan and reducing energy consumption.

There was no exact word on pricing yet, though the unit is said to be the industry's most affordable.

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Elgato has introduced a new I/O device – the Thunderbolt Dock. This device, as its name implies, is a connectivity dock that connects to the host device through a Thunderbolt interface.

The dock features a handful of ports, including three USB 3.0 ports, a single HDMI 1.4 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a set of headphone and microphone jacks, and of course two Thunderbolt v.1 connectors. The device is powered through a 12 V AC adapter.

Packed in the box is the dock itself, a Thunderbolt cable, and of course the required power brick.

Pricing is set at $229.95, with availability expected soon.

Thermaltake has announced a new accessory – the BlacX Urban WiFi docking station. This product, in short, is simply a hot-swap hard drive docking station with a built-in wireless adapter.

The docking station can be filled with either a 2.5" or 3.5" SATA-based drive, and is accessible through either a USB 3.0 interface or a WiFi network created by the docking station itself. This network can be protected with up to WPA2 wireless security.

In the Google Play Store, as well as the Apple App Store, you'll be able to download apps for mobile phones and tablets to access the device, allowing you to avoid having to transfer the data to your mobile device through a PC or Mac. The app can be found by looking for "TtCloud."

Thermaltake has not revealed information on availability or pricing.

Icy Dock has built a new hot-swap bay. This one, which is to be known as the TurboSwap MB171SP-B, is a unit that fits in a  5.25" bay and can house a 3.5" drive.

The unit is fully made of metal and has a number of extra features above ordinary 5.25" hot-swap bays. For starters it has a cooling fan; for the main course it has a built-in fan controller for that fan; and for dessert it has a locking mechanism.

The 80 mm fan can also be swapped for a 120 mm fan, though that will extend into the space below the cage. Power for the fan is taken from the SATA power connector that is also used to power the 3.5" drive.

The locking mechanism is done with a key and a barrel lock, which you should hide somewhere you won't lose it.

Revealed at CES 2014, Snakebyte's new Android-based Vyper gaming tablet allows users to instantly go from their tablet (1280 x 800 pixels) to a large panel display (at 1080p) via docking station. There's no need to exit the game, as the transition is seamless. A simplified user interface makes it even easier to select your favorite game or application.

The 7" tablet includes a 1.6 GHz quad-core processor, 2-megapixel camera, 1 GB DDR3, and 8 GB flash storage. A microSD slot allows users to expand storage by up to 64 GB, and the device includes HDMI plus two USB ports.

Two Vyper packages include the Media Edition (with remote) and Gaming edition (with remote and gamepad). The controllers use a Bluetooth interface and are most useful after the Vyper has been docked.

Flipping the remote reveals a QWERTY keyboard, while the game controller also hides digital/analog mode switches.

In addition to two new Surface tablets, Microsoft also announced a couple of new Touch Covers today. The company assures us that these new accessories will work with the old models of Surface, too, so you don't have to buy a new tablet to get a new keyboard for your Surface. The Touch Cover 2 will be back-lit and packs 1092 sensors. This is compared to the paltry 80 sensors in Microsoft's original Touch Cover. Despite all those extra sensors, it's actually thinner than the original as well, measuring in at 2.75 mm. It will be priced at $119.99 when it launches and is up for pre-order tomorrow.

There's also a new Type Cover, which Microsoft says has the same design as the original (so we assume the same thickness and weight). It too is back-lit, and Microsoft says it's quieter and more rigid. Available in Cyan, Magenta, Purple and Black, it will be priced at $129.99

As previously rumored, Microsoft also debuted a new Power Cover, which comes with an integrated battery to extend the life of your tablet. It's basically a Type Cover with a battery thrown in, and Microsoft says it'll increase your battery by up to 50 percent. It won't be out for a while (Microsoft is promising early 2014) but it will retail for $199.99 when it does go on sale.

The Docking Station for Surface Pro is the first real dock we've seen for the Surface brand and allows users to connect to an external monitor, Ethernet, a power supply, or speakers thanks to USB 3.0 port and three USB 2.0 ports. Its price and release date match that of the Power Cover.

Microsoft also announced a wireless Bluetooth adapter for its covers. This attaches to the cover (Touch Cover or Type Cover) and allows users to type from anywhere in the room via Bluetooth. It'll cost $59.99 and is up for pre-order starting tomorrow. The USB car charger offers power and charging via the the lighter port in your car and provides a USB port for charging another device. It is priced at $49.99 but won't be available until next year.

Lastly, there's the Arc Touch Mouse for Surface. The Arc Touch Mouse has been updated to match the Surface aesthetic and connects via Bluetooth 3.0. Priced at $69.99, it goes up for pre-order tomorrow.

Microsoft also briefly showed off a Music Cover, which has 16 programmable keys and additional pressure sensitive buttons that allow you to mix tracks using your Surface Tablet. The back-lit keyboard is a limited edition cover that requires a special app and is part of the Surface Remix Project. You can win a new Surface complete with the Music Kit via the Surface Remix contest page.  

Stay tuned for our hands-on impressions with these accessories!

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