CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4 Review: The Ultimate Thunderbolt Hub For Your Mac
At a look
Skilled’s Ranking
Professionals
- Supplies a desktop’s value of ports for a laptop computer person
- Acts as charging station for laptop computer, cellphone, pill, extra
- Helpful front-facing ports, together with each SD Card codecs
- Contains Mac dock-management device to eject all drives without delay
Cons
- Solely provides a internet of 1 Thunderbolt port
- Requires Large Sur 11.4 or later
Our Verdict
With a profusion of helpful ports and high-wattage charging, the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4 turns a laptop computer right into a desktop powerhouse.
Finest Costs At present
Not Obtainable
Apple had a behavior of being stingy with ports on its Macs for a few years. The low-water mark was the 12-inch MacBook, the primary of its computer systems with USB-C—and it sported only a single USB-C port for energy and peripherals. Later iterations of the MacBook Air a minimum of upped the depend to 2 USB-C ports. Apple is altering, although—the corporate turned downright baroque with the 2021 M1 Professional and M1 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional fashions, offering one thing nearer to a pre-2016 vary of built-in connectivity choices.
However many laptop computer house owners and a few with desktop Macs nonetheless lengthy for extra ports—typically much more. When you ever felt, “What I actually need is a dock with 18 jacks in it that attracts over 200 watts of peak energy,” the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4 (TS4) could reply your cry.
The TS4 has an virtually absurd profusion of ports splayed throughout its back and front sides. But the alternatives about which ports and what number of are considerate. It’s additionally not a lot a dock as a mix of port extender and charging station, given its power-output design for recharging cellular gadgets and laptops.
This can be a trendy Thunderbolt 4 dock, providing Thunderbolt hub assist, an possibility for Thunderbolt 3 and required for Thunderbolt 4. To make use of the dock to its fullest extent, you want both a Mac with macOS Large Sur 11.4 or later put in. That may be an Intel Mac with Thunderbolt 3 or any M1-series Mac. (Large Sur’s 11.1 launch enabled the non-obligatory function on Macs with Thunderbolt 3; CalDigit appears to require a later replace of Large Sur.)
A profusion of ports
Let’s begin with the rundown as a result of this dock has—as I’ve mentioned—a whole lot of ports:
- Six USB-C jacks (three Thunderbolt 4/USB4 and three USB 3.2 Gen 2)
- 5 USB Sort-A jacks (additionally 3.2 Gen 2)
- One 2.5Gbps ethernet port
- Two reminiscence card slots: SD UHS-II and microSD UHS-II
- Three audio jacks for enter, output, and the in/out combo
- One DisplayPort 1.4 port
As with all USB-C-based ports, it's important to commit considered one of your laptop’s Thunderbolt connections to the dock; likewise, the dock has a connection particularly designed for the pc. When you’re connecting the dock to a laptop computer, as is probably going, you possibly can make the most of the up 98W cost that passes over the devoted laptop port.
Whenever you run the mathematics on this dock, you don’t wind up with a lot further Thunderbolt connectivity: the 2 unused Thunderbolt jacks on the dock change the one occupied in your laptop and internet you only one further.
CalDigit’s USB-C and Sort-A jacks that use USB 3 requirements are all 3.2 Gen 2’s 10Gbps taste, permitting throughput as much as that knowledge fee over each USB-C and Sort-A. (A appropriate 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-A tool is required on the opposite finish, in fact, in any other case it drops to 5Gbps.) The USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports are indistinguishable from Thunderbolt 3 in operate and are backward and cross-compatible with USB requirements.
The inclusion of two.5Gbps ethernet is a pleasant bump up from 1Gbps, and displays the rising availability of faster-than-gigabit wired networking obtainable within the dwelling and small workplace, and the inclusion of two.5Gbps LAN ports on some higher-end dwelling Wi-Fi gateways. You’ll respect it in the event you’re shifting giant recordsdata round your community or have a faster-than-gigabit web connection.
The SD card slots have the additional of being spring-loaded. The additional push required makes it clear once you’ve totally inserted a card and provides you slightly assist when ejecting to take away it.
With this many ports, slightly assist managing mounted linked gadgets may also help. CalDigit gives a Mac utility that exhibits all linked drives and permits a single click on eject of these drives to keep away from disconnecting the dock with mounted volumes. That software program additionally permits the TS4 to assist the Apple USB SuperDrive. SuperDrive assist is uneven by way of docks and adapters as a consequence of peculiar energy necessities.
CalDigit isn’t dishonest with its port declare, by the way in which: the safety slot and energy jack (for as much as 19.5 volts at 11.80 amps, or 230 watts) aren’t included in that whole of 18. This offers CalDigit what I imagine is the present bragging rights for many ports on a Thunderbolt dock.
Energy to the Macs—and iPads
That’s the info facet, however CalDigit thought-about recharging as a basic a part of this AC-powered mega-dock. It requires a separate rundown to grasp the way it powers gadgets and at what wattages.
CalDigit pushes out three different wattages by way of particular ports:
- Two of the three USB-C ports that deal with simply USB 3.2 Gen 2 (one on the entrance, one on the again) present as much as 7.5W (at as much as 1.5A).
- All the USB Sort-A ports, additionally USB 3.2 Gen 2, provide the identical (a kind of is on the entrance; 4 on the again).
- The front-facing USB-C jack delivers as much as 20W (at 1.5A).
- The 2 rear-facing Thunderbolt 4 ports can go as much as 15W.
As a result of the dock can suck in a lot energy, you possibly can actively cost a laptop computer, an iPad, and a number of different cellular gadgets, together with an iPhone, at full velocity or practically full velocity.
Calculating the variety of video adapters
The video a part of the equation is kind of difficult. Mac video assist for exterior shows resembles the parable of snowflakes: no two is alike. It’s not fully true, as a handful of Mac fashions can enable as much as the identical quantity and mixture of exterior screens. (My full rundown on show assist is right here.)
Of Intel and M1 Macs of the final decade or so, some fashions embody an HDMI port to permit a show of as much as 4K decision along with some other exterior shows allowed over different ports. For all Macs launched since 2015, some other show is added by way of a USB-C connector on a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 port. (A handful of screens have native USB-C-based DisplayPort connectors.)
Including a dock doesn’t improve the variety of shows you possibly can connect to a Mac (or to a PC), but it surely does make it simpler to take action and preserve extra ports free for different functions. The TS4 consists of a typical DisplayPort jack, decreasing the necessity to use a Thunderbolt port with an adapter for many screens. In case your Mac can deal with one 4K show by way of HDMI and one higher-resolution one over USB-C, the TS4 DisplayPort connection means you want no adapters in any respect.
If you wish to add extra shows or at larger decision than a possible native built-in HDMI jack in your Mac and the TS4’s DisplayPort jack, you possibly can solely use a Thunderbolt port on the TS4 or one constructed into the Mac. That would come into play with newer Macs, just like the Mac Studio and 14- and 16-inch MacBook Professionals. The USB-only USB-C ports don’t carry DisplayPort video. (The dock splits USB 3.x site visitors off individually from DisplayPort knowledge.)
CalDigit has an in depth desk concerning the amount of shows assist throughout which ports and at which resolutions for each Mac and PC fashions on the TS4 product web page.
Backside line
The CalDigit TS4 is the proper hub if you wish to arrange a workstation with a number of screens, exterior drives and peripherals, and wired enter gadgets. You'll be able to simply add your Mac laptop computer, and also you’re able to go. Some Mac mini and iMac house owners may also discover it helpful for the sheer variety of further ports and the wattage that may be fed out of a lot of them for bus-powered gadgets and charging cellular {hardware}.
The one flaw on this jack-festooned dock is that it provides a internet of 1 Thunderbolt 4 port. A internet of two would have been higher. However that will not be a downside for the viewers it appeals to—and the place would you have got put one more USB-C jack on this gadget?
You not have to think about the final word Thunderbolt 4 dock. It’s right here, and it’s the CalDigit TS4.
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