I’ve tested the best laptop docking stations for several years now, and they’re incredibly useful! They add so much more to your home office than you might think: high-speed connections to mice, keyboards, printers, and multiple monitors using a Thunderbolt or USB4 connection.
Think of a Thunderbolt docking station as a complement to a modern laptop, the vast majority of which now include a Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 port. If you’re not familiar with what a docking station is or how it works, I’ll explain that too.
What this story does is recommend the best Thunderbolt docks — an overall pick, as well as budget and premium recommendations — based on my own testing of dozens of Thunderbolt docking stations. That testing includes a formal performance evaluation, of course, but also simply using each dock for several days.
Be aware that older laptops often don’t use Thunderbolt. They may have a slower, generic USB-C port instead, making our picks for the best USB-C hubs and dongles a better choice. If you’re interested in productivity and not gaming, consider a middle ground: my favorite DisplayLink USB-C docks. I explain how to make that decision below these recommendations.
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DisplayLink USB-C docks, which I discuss in more detail in a separate article, don’t offer enough bandwidth for high-refresh rate monitors or gaming, but they work admirably well for everyday office work, including watching movies. Anecdotally, they’ve often been more stable than a Thunderbolt dock on older hardware, as sometimes Thunderbolt docks have issues “waking up” when the host laptop wakes up from standby. You can “break” the dock by pushing more and more over the connection, like streaming while copying files.
What I’d like to see in a DisplayLink USB-C docking station is a feature set that approaches a full-fledged Thunderbolt dock, but that is priced below what you’d pay for Thunderbolt performance. The current pick does just that. Some recent reviews do not appear here — for instance, StarTech’s USB-C Triple Monitor Dock fell short.
Let’s face it: Tariffs have been a major wild card on all sorts of purchases. Daily discounts and so-called “lightning deals” affect prices, too.
Thunderbolt docks, however, still receive discounts during major shopping events like Amazon’s Prime Day deals and holiday sales. While our automated pricing technology that we use in our reviews should reflect the current price of the item, it’s always a good idea to check PCWorld’s list of deals for these major shopping events. We generally dedicate specific articles to the best deals on Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs.
Ports, cables, peripherals: Those are the three major considerations when buying a Thunderbolt dock.
Check your laptop’s specifications. If you own a laptop with a Thunderbolt 4 port, buy a dock with a Thunderbolt 4 connection. Thunderbolt 4 docks will work with laptops with a Thunderbolt 5 connection, but at Thunderbolt 4 speeds. Still, you may save a few bucks with an older dock.
Think about what you want to connect the dock to. Here, the priority is usually the displays. Consider the displays you own (which typically include either HDMI or DisplayPort connections) and think about whether the dock will accommodate them. I prefer docks with dedicated display ports, so that a display with an HDMI port, for example, can connect directly.
I am seeing a small but growing percentage of Thunderbolt docks that include a Thunderbolt cable to your laptop and then dedicated Thunderbolt connections out to displays. These docks tend to cater to Mac users. However, you can buy a dongle or cable that converts Thunderbolt/ USB-C to HDMI or DisplayPort, or else you can buy a USB-C display.
What will you want to plug into the dock? Use that answer as a guide. Do you want a basic Thunderbolt dock, with just a pair of HDMI ports for connecting two displays? Does an SD card slot matter? How many USB Type A peripherals do you plan to attach? Do you want to charge your smartphone?
Check your laptop’s power supply. Does it plug into your laptop via USB-C? If so, a Thunderbolt dock will likely power it. You’ll need to understand how the dock supplies power, though. Check your laptop’s charger to learn how much power it supplies, and how much the dock will need to supply to replace it. If your laptop or devices aren’t receiving enough power, you may see a warning pop up.
A “bus-powered” dock won’t come with an external charger in the package, saving some cost, space, and power concerns. (Today, these are pretty rare.)
A dock with power delivery will supply its own power and charge your laptop and/or a phone via your laptop’s existing USB-C charger. What I’ve found is that some docks, especially those with a free Thunderbolt port, will supply enough power for even today’s most modern fast-charging smartphones, even without explicit support for them.
There’s one more consideration: the length of the Thunderbolt cable between your laptop and the dock itself. You may have noticed or heard about USB-C ports wearing out on smartphones; a loose or wobbly connector on a Thunderbolt dock can cause a monitor to unexpectedly flicker or lose connection. Consider how much tension will be put on a cable. A Thunderbolt dock that’s dangling from a Thunderbolt port will stress the physical connector. You don’t want that!
We’re starting to see some docks with an SSD enclosure inside. It’s possible that this will become more of a viable product over time, but for now it’s still niche.
If you’re a Mac user who has stumbled across this article, welcome. But please be aware that early Apple MacBook Pros powered by Intel silicon supported up to two 4K displays. The first MacBook Pros powered by the Apple M1 chip only support a single 4K display. Many Mac users have recently left negative reviews on Thunderbolt docks on shopping sites because of this. Apple also hasn’t explicitly committed to Thunderbolt 5, either. Buy a PC!
Author: Mark Hachman
Source: PCWorld
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
