Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma review: A flashy dock with drawbacks

Price When Reviewed

$399.99

Best Prices Today: Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma

Does Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma present the identical enjoyable RGB sparkle as its predecessor? It does certainly. But critical, cutthroat competitors delivers the fundamentals for a lot much less–and a few pretty extreme points ought to provide you with pause.

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Configurations

Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock ships in two variants: the RGB-equipped “Chroma” model and the “Mercury” option. The Mercury possibility is obvious white and (at press time) prices $389.99 — principally, it’s an aesthetic distinction for many who need extra vanilla setups. Razer representatives assured me that there can be no useful distinction between the 2. The solely distinction is the dearth of RGB lighting.

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Design, ports, set up course of

Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 dock is an 11-in-1 dock, consisting of three Thunderbolt 5 outputs and one Thunderbolt 5 connection to your laptop computer. Like others on this Thunderbolt 5 dock technology, Razer has chosen to permit you to purchase the required cables to attach them to exterior shows. Depending upon your monitor, you’ll want both USB-C (Thunderbolt) cables able to the 80Gbps/120Gbps connection that Thunderbolt 5 permits, or else purchase the high-speed cables that terminate in a DisplayPort or HDMI connector. (The Thunderbolt 5 connections assist DisplayPort 2.1.)

Beyond the Thunderbolt 5 ports, the dock consists of two 10Gbps USB-C ports, one 10Gbps USB-A port, Gigabit Ethernet, a 3.5mm headphone jack, plus a UHS-II SD slot on the aspect. A 0.8 meter (31-inch) Thunderbolt 5 cable connects to your laptop computer.

If you’re somebody who does like a little bit of coloration in your desktop, nonetheless, the Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma is a perfect selection. Razer’s dock consists of an RGB strip that runs alongside the underside of the dock, accenting all surfaces besides the highest and the rear ports. That’s a bit ironic because the rear ports (particularly the Thunderbolt 5 connections) are embossed with black-on-black labels, in order that I actually needed to squint (and use a small flashlight) to make out which ports have been which.

While Microsoft has promised that you just’ll be capable of handle your PC’s RGB lighting utilizing its Windows 11 Settings, Razer’s Blade 18 laptop computer — my take a look at mattress — consists of an app known as Synapse which controls the lighting on the Blade in addition to peripherals just like the Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

The Synapse app is highly effective and versatile, and it permits me to configure the dock’s RGB settings from a “Starlight” twinkle to a “Breathing” pulse to waves of coloration to only a static glow. The final possibility is the least distracting. Incidentally, Razer additionally patched out the major RGB vulnerability that exists in most RGB and fan drivers.

Otherwise, the Razer Thunderbolt 5 dock is an improve over the same Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma, an excellent dock priced at $329.99 at press time. Unless you want to future-proof your desktop, you’re higher off shopping for the older TB4 dock to avoid wasting a bit of cash whereas nonetheless preserving that RGB rizz, as the youngsters say. A Thunderbolt 5 dock will work with a PC with solely Thunderbolt 4 docking ports, however you’ll lose out on the higher-speed Thunderbolt 5 interface that permits for 3 4K shows at 144Hz, eGPU capabilities, and extra. On the opposite hand, in case you don’t have such a setup, an older TB4 dock continues to be an possibility.

In addition to the useful variations between the 2, nonetheless, the 2 docks are designed in a different way. The older Thunderbolt 4 dock consists of ports on the back and front, whereas Razer’s designers selected to engineer its newest dock with each single port (save the SD slot) on the rear of the dock. It makes for a pleasant clear look, if that’s your factor. Otherwise, the dock is made out of anodized aluminum, giving it a little bit of a plasticky really feel. All advised, the dock measures 8.1 x 3.3 by 1.2 inches and weighs 1.15 kilos.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

There are not any “dedicated” charging ports, although the Thunderbolt port provides 15W (or an precise load of 13.7W, in response to my energy meter). Dock makers used to promote a port or two as a “charging port.” That’s been quietly dropped as a function from most dock makers as the facility enter that trendy smartphones require to quick cost has hit 40W and above.

You will see small venting on the quick sides, nonetheless, since Razer additionally included an energetic fan that may kick on beneath load. Don’t count on to listen to it whereas tapping away on an workplace doc, nonetheless. The very quiet fan solely activates throughout heavier workloads and the dock remained fairly cool all through.

I didn’t discover any points with any of the ports, the SD card slot, or the headphone jack.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Razer’s dock additionally ships with an M.2 SSD slot, which doesn’t come populated with an SSD just like the Sonnet Echo 13. That lets you add storage on to the dock quite than use an exterior SSD. (Is this crucial? I’ll tackle this within the efficiency part, under.)

Adding an SSD might hardly be less complicated. Underneath the dock is a plastic cowl, which pops off simply however in any other case retains the SSD safe and apparently free from mud. Attaching the SSD takes a second or two merely to slip into the connector sleeve. You would possibly count on a screw to safe it in place. Instead, the SSD features a round notch, which inserts over a small cylinder with a small latching mechanism, just like the fingers of a clock. Simply flip the cylinder a half flip or so to lock the SSD in place.

You’ll then want to make use of the Windows disk administration system to format the SSD, which additionally takes just a few seconds.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

My solely drawback is that after I efficiently inserted the SSD, re-latched the duvet, examined it, and tried to take away the duvet for a photograph… I couldn’t. Right now, my take a look at SSD is caught inside Razer’s dock till I power it open or it manages to wiggle free. Big drawback!

Is the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma one among the best Thunderbolt docks? Let’s discover out.

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Power points

Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma carried out adequately, though not in a single situation. Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma demonstrated instability inside minutes of connecting it to my take a look at PC, the Razer-manufactured Blade 18. I might excuse some flickering when the dock was first plugged in, however it spontaneously disconnected the shows earlier than reconnecting them a short while later. Within a couple of minutes, Razer’s dock had disconnected once more. It continued to point out indicators of instability.

In this case, there was an excuse: I used to be by accident powering the laptop computer on battery energy. The dock provides solely 140W of energy to the laptop computer, not the total rated 240W that the Thunderbolt 5 spec permits for. That’s commonplace, as the opposite Thunderbolt 5 docks I’ve examined solely supported 140W as effectively. I don’t often take a look at a dock’s efficiency on battery energy, however it was value noting {that a} typical Thunderbolt 4 dock provides sufficient energy (60 to 90W, on common) to fulfill the wants of the standard enterprise pocket book with a Thunderbolt 4 port. Thunderbolt 5 is often confined to gaming laptops, which may demand as much as 400W beneath load.

I didn’t initially mark down the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma due to this, because it’s an uncommon situation.

The query, nonetheless, is whether or not the dock displayed any instability whereas the laptop computer was linked to energy. It didn’t, however there was a whole lot of show “panic” when the laptop computer and dock resumed from sleep: docks turning on and off for a number of seconds when the laptop computer resumed from sleep. I noticed extra of this habits than on different Thunderbolt 5 docks I’ve tested on the identical laptop computer. Otherwise, the dock’s stability earned a passing grade however that’s all.

I’m extra involved in regards to the energy supply to the laptop computer.

Under regular assessments, the Razer dock transferred about 85W to the Razer laptop computer — nothing unsuitable there. But then I made a decision to play a PC recreation to see how a lot the laptop computer would draw from the dock. I unplugged the laptop computer from its energy cable and used the dock itself as its solely energy supply.

My energy meter immediately confirmed that the facility provided dropped to zero, often spiking to 85W or so once more, then dropping off to zero for seconds at a time. A second battery meter reported related outcomes. The laptop computer by no means acquired 140W, nonetheless, which is what the dock is rated for. Windows, in fact, complained a few lack of obtainable energy.

I recorded what I noticed and provided it to Razer, which didn’t ship a proof by press time, greater than ten days after we contacted them for remark.

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Performance

The dock’s efficiency was a bit of slower than its competitors. The streaming efficiency was completely wonderful; the dock dropped 11 frames on one show and 15 frames (out of 10,000) on the opposite show whereas streaming a pair of 4K movies at 60Hz. Again, this metric was fairly good.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

When transferring knowledge through an hooked up Thunderbolt 5 SSD, the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma and the SSD reported 396.5MB/s beneath the PCMark storage take a look at, for a rating of two,654. That’s lower than the Sonnet Echo 13 (436MB/s) or the Plugable TBT-UDT3 (437MB/s). While streaming within the background, the efficiency dropped to 365.1MB/s, versus 402MB/s for the Plugable dock. That’s in all probability not one thing that you just’ll really feel in real-world purposes, however it’s nonetheless a tad slower.

Copying a basket of greater than 30GB of video and different information from the SSD by the dock to the desktop took 18.6 seconds, or 19.3 seconds whereas streaming. Again, that’s about two seconds slower than the competitors.

I additionally examined the dock utilizing a 2TB Crucial P310, a PCIe 4 SSD. Here the dock confirmed its value: 423.08MB/s from the inner SSD utilizing PCMark’s assessments, with a slight drop to 415.09 MB/s whereas streaming. The folder copy accomplished in a blistering 16.08 seconds, or 18 seconds whereas streaming. The primary PCMark rating elevated simply 7 p.c from utilizing an exterior PCIe 5 SSD to a barely slower (and cheaper) PCIe 4 M.2 SSD.

By comparability, that’s a lot sooner than Sonnet’s inner SSD, which delivered knowledge at 279.8MB/s, a 51 p.c improve. Clearly, the interface in addition to the pace of the SSD issues, however that’s efficiency to consider, too. For players, a high-speed exterior SSD makes a distinction, and it’s a constructive mark for Razer’s dock.

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Conclusion

I wouldn’t, and that’s not fully Razer’s fault. Most of it’s, nonetheless.

In the center of this overview, Intel — whose chips energy about 80 p.c of the laptop computer market — revealed that its 2026 laptop computer platform, the Core Ultra Series 3 or “Panther Lake” — will solely assist Thunderbolt 4 natively, or Thunderbolt 5 with the addition of a separate, discrete chip. That tells me that the majority 2026 laptops will assist Thunderbolt 4 as an alternative, not 5. That’s a strike towards this dock.

Thunderbolt 5, then, will likely be reserved for gaming laptops. But Razer markets itself as “for gamers.” If that’s the case, I count on the dock would work acceptably beneath a gaming situation, which it didn’t. Somewhere alongside the road — between the mix of Razer’s take a look at laptop computer and its dock — the facility supply didn’t, effectively, ship.

I did like this dock beneath regular operation. It carried out completely acceptably, and except for clearer labels for the ports, was a stable dock. Adding an M.2 slot is a pleasant contact… however in case you can’t get the SSD free for a future improve, what good is it?

With all that stated, I’d take into account options. Plugable’s 11-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 (TBT-UDT3) docking station is functionally equivalent to Razer’s dock (once more, with out RGB), is priced $100 much less, and runs a bit sooner. We’ve reviewed a handful of Thunderbolt 5 docks as a part of our recommendations for the best Thunderbolt docks, and our roundup is an efficient place to begin.

I believed Razer’s Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma was surprisingly good! But this Thunderbolt 5 replace falls quick between its energy instability, excessive value, and unclear labeling.