OWC Thunderbolt Dock review

Now that Thunderbolt 4 is here and starting to ship on premium laptops, it’s important that your docking station is certified to this latest connection standard.

OWC’s Thunderbolt Dock is fully certified for Thunderbolt 4 and its close cousin USB4, and boasts 11 extra ports for your connected computer.

Specs and features

One Thunderbolt 4 upstream port (40Gbps, 90W)

Three Thunderbolt 4 downstream ports (40Gbps, 15W)

Up to two external displays (4K at 60Hz)

Three USB-A ports (10Gbps, 4.5W)

One USB-A port (480Mbps, 7.5W)

SD Card Reader (SD 4.0 UHS-II)

Gigabit Ethernet port

Front-facing 3.5mm Audio In & Out port
135W power supply

The OWC Thunderbolt Dock loves Thunderbolt 4 so much that it includes four 40Gbps TB4 ports; one upstream port to connect to the host computer and three downstream ports to connect to other USB-C/TB3/TB4 devices and displays.

This is the maximum number of TB4 ports any one device can support. Thunderbolt 3 was limited to just two, so even TB3 users will prefer the new connector if they require multiple Thunderbolt or USB-C devices.

Unlike with USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 docks, there are no DisplayPort or HDMI ports on the Thunderbolt Dock. Instead, OWC gives you the choice of display connector. USB-C monitors can be connected directly, but you’ll need a USB-C-to-HDMI or USB-C-to-DisplayPort adapter for non-USB-C displays.

This could mean extra expense, but it does give you more flexibility than having to find a docking station with whichever DisplayPort/HDMI port your monitor has, and is actually better if you have two screens each with its own display type.

An alternative approach is seen with the Anker Apex Thunderbolt 4 Dock, which has just one downstream TB4 port but two HDMI 2.0 ports for direct display connections.

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