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The Best Thunderbolt Dock for Mac? Comparing the CalDigit TS4 to the TS3 Plus

8:12 video

CalDigit finally took the wraps off the Thunderbolt Station 4 (TS4), with 18 ports. CalDigit sent me one for an unboxing and overview video; here’s a quick overview of how it differs from the existing TS3 Plus. This video isn’t sponsored or paid for by CalDigit. At the time you could still pre-order the TS4 on B&H for a hopeful February delivery.

Design

They’re clearly the same family: a full aluminum enclosure with a fin design on the top and sides for heat dissipation, rock solid and premium. The TS4 is a bit larger, about half an inch to three-quarters of an inch deeper and a quarter to half an inch taller. Both can stand vertically or lie horizontally with rubber feet under a monitor or on a desk.

Front ports

The TS4 has 18 ports, the TS3 Plus 15.

  • SD cards: the TS3 Plus has one UHS-II reader (full-size SD). The TS4 has two separate UHS-II readers, SD and microSD, usable at the same time, so you can pull in data from a camera card and an audio card simultaneously.
  • USB: the TS3 Plus has a USB-C and a USB-A on the front limited to 5 Gbps. On the TS4, all USB ports are 10 Gbps. The standard USB-A and USB-C ports are 7.5 W on both, except the TS4’s front USB-C, which outputs up to 20 W, good for high-powered devices or Apple’s MagSafe puck.

Back ports

  • Ethernet: the TS3 Plus has 1 Gb, which is what almost all your devices use. The TS4 has 2.5 GbE, up to 2.5x faster. With a 2.5 Gb switch or router and a NAS with 2.5 GbE you’ll see way faster transfers, and if you have multi-gig internet, you can take advantage of it.
  • USB-A: both have four on the back; the TS3 Plus’s are 5 Gbps, the TS4’s are 10 Gbps, which helps with an external SSD that has a 10 Gbps connection (up to about 1 GB/s).
  • USB-C data: one on each, 10 Gbps.
  • DisplayPort: the TS3 Plus has 1.2 (4K at 60 Hz). The TS4 has 1.4: up to 144 Hz at 4K and 240 Hz at 1440p. I don’t currently have a high refresh rate display to test, but hopefully will soon.
  • Audio: the TS3 Plus had optical audio out, which I understand was rarely used. The TS4 has separate audio in and out jacks, great for connecting speakers full time; when you plug headphones into the front, they take over as the default output.

Thunderbolt and power

The TS3 Plus has two Thunderbolt ports: one to the computer, one for a device such as another monitor, fast storage or an eGPU. The TS4 has two additional Thunderbolt 4 ports beyond the computer connection, so if your only display is connected via USB-C or Thunderbolt, you still have a Thunderbolt port for fast external storage.

A concern in the comments: too many ports on a single Thunderbolt 4 connection. Thunderbolt 4, like 3, maxes at 40 Gbps. Reading from a Thunderbolt SSD at about 2,800 MB/s uses roughly half the bandwidth, and adding a couple of 10 Gbps SSDs, a 5K display and 2.5 GbE could max it out. CalDigit says displays take priority, so you shouldn’t have display issues, and in my basic testing I still got around 2,800 MB/s from a Thunderbolt SSD with the LG 5K UltraFine connected to the dock.

Power: the TS3 Plus supplies up to 87 W through the Thunderbolt connection, the TS4 up to 98 W. I’ve used both with the 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro with no issues. Even the Element Hub’s 60 W is enough for regular use; only if you push the machine at full tilt for 20 hours straight would you see drain.

Price and verdict

The TS4 is around $360 on CalDigit’s site and the TS3 Plus around $300. If you need optical audio out and don’t need the fastest storage, the TS3 Plus is great and saves $60 while still giving a ton of ports. If you use a Thunderbolt or USB-C display, need fast Thunderbolt storage, like to use a couple of SD cards at once or need multi-gig Ethernet, the TS4 is the way to go. Does it have everything you want in a Thunderbolt dock?

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

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