These days, a well-equipped new Mac mini and a good docking station buy you loads of computing power and connectivity to plenty of peripherals for years to come. Today’s M4 Pro Mac mini workstation features a fine dock for Mac mini in the iVanky FusionDock Max 1 (even though the Thunderbolt 4 dock with a whopping 20 connection options was designed for MacBooks).
As your Mac computer setup grows with newly added peripherals and capabilities, keeping it all connected and powered becomes a greater challenge. Enter multiport Thunderbolt 4 hubs. They offer high-speed data transfer, great options for high-resolution external displays and power for connected devices. Today’s featured MacBook Pro setup with dual displays and more takes great advantage of a cheap Thunderbolt 4 dock — the 13-port WavLink Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station. On sale currently, it goes for just $170.
Coding with Magic Mouse? Apple’s sleek input device has plenty of haters of all stripes. But at least one developer, who works with an M1 Max MacBook Pro, loves it. And perhaps even more surprisingly, he detests the mouse that is surely Magic Mouse’s biggest competitor, given how it shows up in most of the setups we cover.
Certain names in USB-C and Thunderbolt docks and hubs carry a lot of weight, like CalDigit and Satechi — both well-respected brands. But in today’s M2 MacBook Air setup, a discussion broke out over the user’s exceptional experience with a CalDigit Thunderbolt dock and a commenter’s woes over a Satechi Thunderbolt dock. Read some of the commentary and learn more about the gear below.
The new Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station with DisplayLink uses DisplayLink software to enable Mac users to connect with up to four external monitors, in addition to accessing 96W power delivery for a MacBook and realizing blazing-fast Thunderbolt 4 data transfer speeds, the company said Thursday. If you’re looking for a versatile port hub to expand your Mac’s connectivity, check out this 6-port hub from Zagg.
Thunderbolt docks bristling with ports are great tools for connecting your Mac to displays and other peripherals in your computer setup. And right now you can get excellent deals at Amazon on well-reviewed 15-port CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 dock or — for blazing-fast connectivity — an 18-port Thunderbolt 4 dock.
Ugreen rolled out three new series of Revdock hubs Tuesday compatible with Macs, including the Revodok Max 213 Thunderbolt 4 dock with 40Gbps transfer speeds, support for dual 4K displays and a staggering 13 ports.
“The Max 213 [is] the premier product specifically tailored for professionals in fields such as media, data/financial analysis, photography, audio/video production and more,” the company said. “With ultra-high speed and ultra-high efficiency, it facilitates seamless collaboration and productivity.”
A new Plugable docking station provides 10 ports for Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 laptops, including support for dual 4K displays at 60Hz, the company said upon rolling out the new device Tuesday.
★★★★☆
The OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock was designed to be taken on trips, which is unusual for a hub that uses this extremely fast connection standard. While portable, it still has room for eleven ports in a range useful types, including Thunderbolt 4 (of course), USB-A, HDMI, USB-C and more.
I put the dock through a series of real-world tests to see how well it performs.
The most important feature of the new Hyper Thunderbolt 4 Power Hub is something it doesn’t have: a giant power brick. The three-port hub offers 40Gbps data transfers as its rivals do, but in a more compact form.
The device was unveiled in summer 2022 and went through crowdfunding but is only now available for all to buy.
The Kensington SD5780T is a desktop dock that connects to a Mac over Thunderbolt 4 at up to 40 Gbps. And it includes almost a dozen ports of various types to enable to everything from a mouse to a high-speed external drive.
The dock can also fast charge a MacBook.
★★★★★
Thunderbolt hubs add super-fast ports to your Mac, speeding up your workflow. But these hubs also require a really bulky power adapter … usually. The just-announced Sanho HyperDrive Thunderbolt 4 Power Hub is the exception. It’s small enough to travel with.
I tested the Thunderbolt hub in my home office for a couple of weeks to see how it stands up to real-world use.
With Thunderbolt 4 connectivity becoming more and more common in new laptop computers, including various Macs, you may be in the market for a worthy docking station. After all, small, lightweight laptops don’t always have all the ports you need. So it’s a good thing StarTech.com recently released its TB4CDock for Mac and Windows. If you also need an apple sd card reader along with a docking station, consider checking out this 6-port hub from Zagg.
The Thunderbolt 4 station bristles with the ports you need to turn your laptop into a desktop, or close to it.