Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Pro Dock review: Four 4K displays, for a price

Price When Reviewed

$349.99

Best Prices Today: Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Multimedia Pro Dock

$349.99

$349.99

Satechi’s Thunderbolt 4 Multimedia Pro Dock does one thing not each Thunderbolt dock does: It affords you the choice of utilizing 4 exterior shows. This is a premium function, although, and this premium dock has a premium price ticket hooked up to it as properly.

Satechi’s Thunderbolt 4 Multimedia Pro Dock ought to remind you of Plugable docks just like the TBT3-UDZ, whose distinguishing function is the choice to make use of both a DisplayPort or HDMI cable to connect with a pair of exterior 4K shows, for the reason that dock helps each choices. (Many don’t.) In this case, the Satechi dock goes additional: Of course, you should use two of the 4 show ports. But you can too use all 4. Yes, you may join 4 shows with this dock, in case your {hardware} helps it.

In both state of affairs, the Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Multimedia Pro Dock affords a alternative of both two DisplayPort 1.4 ports or a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports. You can combine and match, after all. The port flexibility provides some value, however you might be just about assured that in case you personal a show with an present cable hooked up, it’ll match into the Thunderbolt 4 Multimedia Pro Dock with none want to purchase further {hardware}.

Further studying: See our roundup of the best Thunderbolt docks to study competing merchandise.

Basically, there are a ton of ports, interval. On the entrance, the dock features a UHS-II microSD and SD card slot, one 10Gbps USB-A port, a 5Gbps USB-A port with charging, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an upstream Thunderbolt 4 port to the host, able to 98W of charging energy. The Thunderbolt cable is about 2.6-feet lengthy. There’s additionally a pushbutton energy button, which surprisingly doesn’t gentle up.

Mark Hachman / IDG

On the again, there’s much more: For starters, two 5Gbps USB-A ports and two extra 10Gbps USB-A ports. Each is correctly, helpfully labeled. There’s additionally a 10Gbps USB-C port, additionally with energy supply, a 2.5GBps Ethernet port, the 4 show ports, and the power-input port, which connects to a 135W energy brick. Even below load, there have been no thermal points in any respect.

Most Thunderbolt docks promise that you simply’ll be capable of join as much as two 4K60 shows, no matter what number of show ports the dock affords. In this case, Satechi says you must be capable of hook up with all 4 show ports, interval, at as much as 4K decision. That’s actually as much as your {hardware}: Satechi warns that your laptop computer could solely be capable of join to 2 exterior shows (some Macs and older Windows machines) and three 4K60 shows even with latest Intel-based {hardware}. The latter state of affairs assumes you want to use your laptop computer’s show as properly; in any other case, you may shut your laptop computer and use 4 exterior shows as a substitute.

But to reply the plain query: Yes, all of it works, and easily too. It does take a number of seconds for the dock to reconfigure itself, which could really feel lengthy to some. And 4 shows plus your laptop computer’s built-in show is sadly out of the query with each Intel Core and even an AMD Ryzen-based USB4 pocket book. If you’ve got the desk house, it’s value it!

The Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Multimedia Pro Dock can be one of many few docks that ships with a vertical stand, permitting it to face on its edge to save lots of house. Otherwise, it measures 7.67 x 4.1 x 1.85 inches and weighs about 1.5 kilos.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Using our multimeter, I discovered that the USB-C port on the rear put out 6.24W — okay, however not nice, and never fairly sufficient to set off quick charging on my smartphone. I examined the entire USB-A ports, nonetheless, and so they persistently yielded about 2.4W — back and front. I actually don’t count on to see a couple of “charging” port on a dock, anyway. I used to be in a position to coax 92W out of the Thunderbolt cable, which is fairly near the 96W score.

An essential evaluation notice: I acquired an early pattern of Satechi’s dock earlier than the discharge date, means again in April — then it sadly was put aside. In that early evaluation interval, I encountered some glitches with our take a look at laptops: I observed three events when the dock briefly misplaced connection to at least one show, inflicting the take a look at laptop computer to reconfigure the remaining shows each earlier than and after the connection was restored. I couldn’t detect a standard trigger.

However, I additionally gave it one other, separate day and a half to check its stability as I completed up the evaluation, and didn’t discover a single fault, stability-wise. Given the likelihood that up to date laptop computer drivers could have quietly been pushed to PCs, bettering efficiency, I’m nonetheless noting my early outcomes. But I’m judging the dock primarily based on my most up-to-date experiences.

Otherwise, the dock dealt with enjoying again 4K films primarily completely, together with each streamed and pre-recorded video. The dock dropped 4 out of 10,000 frames in our 4K60 take a look at video, which is sort of excellent and gained’t trigger you any points.

Storage efficiency on a Thunderbolt dock is normally somewhat slower than a DisplayLink dock, however the Satechi dock carried out fairly properly: about 131MBps on our PCMark storage take a look at, for a rating of 854. That dropped barely when streaming — no shock there. A rating of 126MBps can be acceptable. The time to repeat a take a look at folder from an SSD to the desktop took 1 minute, 1 second (1 minutem 3 seconds whereas streaming), which is sort of good.

Of course, the key disadvantage to this premium dock is the value: properly over $300, and apparently refusing to maneuver any decrease. But the power to connect with as much as 4 shows is admirable, the efficiency is strong, and the choice to mount this dock vertically is a plus. If you’re prepared to pay a top-notch worth, you’ll obtain an (nearly) top-notch Thunderbolt 4 dock in return.