Satechi’s Thunderbolt 4 Dock offers a mess of ports, together with three Thunderbolt 4 ports, 4 USB-A ports, Gigabit Ethernet, a UHS-II card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack, to extend your Mac setup’s versatility for a value of $299.
Thunderbolt permits information switch from the entire ports to happen by a single cable linked to your host gadget. Whereas not all Macs have a Thunderbolt 4 port, Thunderbolt 4 is backwards suitable, which means that almost all Mac fashions since 2016 ought to work with Satechi’s Thunderbolt 4 Dock, in addition to the most recent iPad Professional fashions. The dock comes with a U.S. energy adapter and a brief Thunderbolt 4 cable. Many rivals are nonetheless utilizing Thunderbolt 3, so Satechi’s Thunderbolt 4 dock is an effective way to get the most recent specification.
The dock includes a compact, premium look with a glossy aluminum enclosure. It has a tapered design, with recesses on both facet housing shiny black plastic with cutouts for the varied ports. Although it is a minor concern, I did discover the protecting movie on the shiny plastic troublesome to take away since it’s recessed so deeply contained in the enclosure.
Rubber ft on the underside of the dock cease it from sliding round on surfaces and the general design feels strong and durable. The anodized aluminum end intently matches Apple’s House Grey, which is ideal for having a consistent-looking setup offering that’s your Apple gadget colour of selection, however I want Satechi would supply a silver possibility too.
The Thunderbolt 4 Dock is a “plug and play” gadget, not requiring any further software program or drivers. It includes a single Thunderbolt 4 host port that must be linked on to your Mac or iPad Professional. Merely join the dock to energy and hook a Thunderbolt cable up from the host gadget Thunderbolt port to a port in your Mac, and also you’re able to go.
In my expertise, the dock is best to arrange with a single, all-in-one Mac like a MacBook Professional or an iMac. If you wish to use an exterior show, issues should be thought by slightly extra fastidiously. My LG UltraFine Thunderbolt show didn’t appear to work when linked to one of many three non-host Thunderbolt 4 ports, which means I needed to join any shows I wished to make use of on to my Mac. Satechi claims that the dock helps twin 4K HDMI output as much as 60Hz, so I consider that is simply a difficulty with my LG UltraFine show, reasonably than a mirrored image on Satechi’s dock.
You’ll be able to join as much as three USB-C units to the dock’s Thunderbolt 4 ports, with assist for 40 Gbps information switch and 15W charging on every port. The three USB-A 3.2 information ports are perfect for quick information transfers and backups with switch speeds as much as 10 Gbps. Once I maxed out the ports with units like exterior onerous drives, some equipment appeared to be drawing an excessive amount of energy and triggering a warning in macOS, however typically the dock appears to deal with a number of units very effectively. The only USB-A charging port can be utilized to energy or cost a tool with as much as 7.5W of energy, and there’s additionally a Gigabit Ethernet port and a UHS-II card reader slot, all of which appear to work completely.
Total, Satechi’s Thunderbolt 4 Dock offers an effective way to simplify cable administration, significantly for MacBooks, and develop your Mac’s number of ports in additional demanding setups and with a single, quick, dependable connection.
Learn how to Purchase
The Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Dock is accessible from Satechi’s web site. Word that it solely comes with a U.S. energy adapter.
Word: MacRumors is an affiliate companion of Satechi. If you click on a hyperlink and make a purchase order, we might obtain a small cost, which helps us maintain the positioning operating. Satechi supplied MacRumors with a Thunderbolt 4 Dock for the aim of this overview. No different compensation was acquired.
