Plugable Thunderbolt 4 (TBT4-UDZ) dock review: A bit off the pace

Price When Reviewed

$299

Best Prices Today: Plugable Thunderbolt 4 & USB4 Quad Display Docking Station (TBT4-UDZ)

Plugable’s Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Docking Station (TBT4-UDZ) affords the huge port choice and a number of display-port choices I’d anticipate in a premium dock. But it doesn’t fairly ship the place it counts, with stability proving to be a difficulty.

Plugable’s TBT4-UDZ is the Thunderbolt 4 model of the Plugable TBT3-UDZ, what I known as the “Cadillac of Thunderbolt docks” on the time due to the plentiful port association. It nonetheless tops our list of the best Thunderbolt docks. But there are very comparable rivals now, as properly.

On paper, Plugable’s Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Docking Station (TBT4-UDZ) is similar to the Kensington Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Quad Video Docking Station (SD5800T): comparable names, comparable options — however not comparable in worth. (Our sister website, TechAdvisor, has its own review of the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 & USB4 Quad Display Docking Station, too.) Kensington’s dock is priced at about $20 extra on Amazon, however different retailers worth Kensington’s dock considerably increased. Plugable’s dock can be remarkably much like the Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Multimedia Pro Dock, a dock we beloved which additionally instructions a $299 price ticket.

Plugable’s TBT4-UDZ has one strike in opposition to it: Because of the similarities between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4, you would possibly wish to think about the older iteration, as a substitute. At about $200, Plugable’s TBT3-UDZ is about $100 cheaper than the newer TBT4-UDZ.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

As the identify suggests, you need to use this dock with both an AMD Ryzen laptop computer, usually outfitted with USB4 ports, or the Thunderbolt 4 ports that accompany and Intel-based laptop computer. (You can do that with nearly any rival dock, too; Plugable simply calls it out.)

Plugable’s TBT4-UDZ affords gobs of ports

Plugable’s TBT4-UDZ mixes up the port association in comparison with its predecessor, although. On the entrance remains to be a microSD/SD card slot — although each slots at the moment are rated for 312MB/s UHS-II efficiency; on the TBT3-UDZ, solely the full-sized SD card slot is. Both a 10Gbps USB-A in addition to a 480Mbps USB-A port seem on the entrance of the dock, with the latter rated for 7.5W to cost exterior units. A headphone jack, the Thunderbolt 4 port and an influence button spherical out the entrance, plus a small yellow LED to sign energy.

Plugable has pushed a second charging port (a 10Gbps USB-C port able to 7.5W of USB Power Delivery) to the rear of the dock, which I’m not a fan of. Trying to fish across the again of the dock to insert a charging cable is more durable than doing it on the entrance, and most telephones cost with USB-C.

Otherwise, there are 4 USB-A ports on the rear of the TBT4-UDZ, two every for 5Gbps and 10Gbps — once more an enchancment. They’re tightly spaced, however USB keys and cables juuuust match. There are additionally two DisplayPort 1.2 ports and two HDMI 2.0 ports, plus the facility port and a 2.5Gbps Ethernet connection.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Physically, the TBT4-UDZ measures 7.7 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches., and a rated 22.7 ounces (646g). Like its predecessor, Plugable tosses in a vertical stand, which does wonders for minimizing the desk house it takes up. The stand can be completely secure from my expertise, even absolutely loaded with numerous cables.

Speaking of cables, the TBT4-UDZ’s Thunderbolt 4 cable stretches a quite luxurious 3.25 ft or so, passing a rated 98W to the host — about 0.5 foot longer than the sooner dock, which handed a rated 96W. That’s concerning the most the present cables will permit.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Plugable TBT4-UDZ efficiency: Stability is a query

Provided that you just’ve linked the dock to the proper {hardware}, the dock can connect with 4 4K shows (utilizing all 4 ports) at 60Hz. The dock does so through the use of a mix of the Thunderbolt port, plus combining DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 (High Bit Rate 3) with DSC (Display Stream Compression). If your laptop computer helps these, it ought to connect with 4 shows; in any other case, it may connect with the usual two 4K shows supported by Thunderbolt 4. (Note that you just most likely received’t be capable of use your laptop computer’s show when you join 4 exterior shows, and also you’ll want to regulate your laptop computer’s settings so it stays on and absolutely operational when closed.)

I wouldn’t be stunned to find that the rival Kensington SD5800T was manufactured by the identical vendor. The port alignment is actually similar, and the efficiency throughout a number of shows is simply too. The Kensington’s front-mounted USB-A charging port was purported to ship about 7.5W of energy. It doesn’t. And neither does the Plugable TBT4-UDZ! Though rated at 7.5W, the Plugable TBT4-UDZ’s USB-A port delivers 3.8W, the identical as the opposite USB-A ports.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Only the rear-mounted USB-C port delivers 7.0W, because it ought to. The dock itself delivers 86W to the laptop computer, which is fairly near its rated energy.

From a stability standpoint, I seen the dock disconnect from each displays twice in succession, simply performing regular workplace work. While taking part in a sport of Diablo IV, the dock disconnected from each displays in addition to the community, booting me from the sport. Whether you’re working, chatting with a colleague, or gaming, that sort of factor is disruptive and a bit stunning.

Neither disconnection occurred on my regular testing laptops, although the glitches did happen with a Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2, which incorporates two Thunderbolt 4 ports. Otherwise, I spent shut to a few days working with this dock, and skilled no different points. (Just make sure to have your laptop computer updated, because the dock didn’t ship full 4K decision with a laptop computer which wanted to be up to date.)

The efficiency of the dock was a bit lower than I anticipated, throughout the board. In our streaming check, the dock dropped 30 frames out of 12,098 — a bit low however nonetheless common, and our 4K60 check stream was easy. While operating the PCMark storage benchmark, the dock dropped 38 frames — about double the Kensington SD5800T. The dock’s efficiency within the storage benchmark was decrease than I’d like, too — 120MB/s versus 127MB/s. Is that a large distinction? Not actually, no. But it’s nonetheless a bit slower.

The check I run the place I copy a multi-gigabyte folder stuffed full of varied recordsdata accomplished in 1 minute, 10 seconds, each whereas streaming and by itself. Again, the dock completed a pair seconds slower than the competitors.

I didn’t have any issues with the Ethernet jack, the mic/headset cable, or the SD card slots.

Should you purchase the Plugable TBT4-UDZ?

I’ve reviewed a number of Plugable docks, and the corporate has a well-founded fame for high quality. (A one-year restricted guarantee is included.) In this case, it falls a bit quick.

I nonetheless assume the Thunderbolt 3 (Plugable TBT3-UDZ) model of the dock is superior, due to the $100 or so low cost. But I’m glad sticking with the Kensington docks as my recommended Thunderbolt 4 docking stations. I really like the flexibleness — who wouldn’t? But with rivals providing nearly the identical factor, I’d go for an alternate.