At a look
Professional’s Score
Professionals
- Nice mixture of options
- Finances worth
- 60W of passthrough charging energy
Cons
- Two DisplayPort ports restrict show I/O choices
- Charging energy wasn’t fairly as much as score
Our Verdict
This clone of the IOGear Quantum Twin Mode Thunderbolt 3 Dock Professional (GTD737) is a targeted, funds Thunderbolt dock that will get the job finished effectively.
Value When Reviewed
$259.99
Greatest Costs Immediately: Kensington SD5500T Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C Docking Station
$82.42
Free
For those who’ve learn our evaluation of the IOGear Quantum Twin Mode Thunderbolt 3 Dock Professional, you’ve learn our evaluation of the Kensington SD5500T Thunderbolt Dock as properly. They’re an identical in look and performance, although the Kensington dock is just barely dearer for some cause.
Each are superb for what they’re: a compact Thunderbolt 3 dock that gives a really targeted variety of ports, in a configuration that gained’t take up a lot of your desk. There are actually solely two issues which may flip off a purchaser: the considerably restricted 60W of energy the dock offers, and its use of a pair of DisplayPort connections, an no HDMI ports.
There’s additionally no possibility to face the dock vertically, for space-saving. However Kensington does promote a $20 mounting bracket, which may connect the dock to the again of a monitor. We haven’t tried out that possibility, however it actually seems like a novel and helpful answer.
The dock is compact (6.6 x 3.1 x 1.1 inches, 2.7 kilos) with small rubber ft to maintain it stably planted in your desk. The included Thunderbolt 3 cable measures over two ft, providing you with loads of room to connect the cable to your laptop computer. It connects to the entrance of the dock, subsequent to a 10Gbps USB-A port and a headphone jack.
Word: This evaluation is a part of our roundup of finest Thunderbolt docks. Go there for extra details about competing merchandise and our purchasing suggestions.
Mark Hachman / IDG
On the rear of the dock is a gigabit ethernet port, a pair of 5Gbps USB-A ports for a keyboard and mouse, and two 10Gbps USB-C ports. (Kudos to Kensington, by the best way, for utilizing the devoted 10Gbps USB emblem to determine the quicker ports.) There are additionally a pair of older DisplayPort 1.2 ports for a pair of shows; notice that the dock powers a pair of 4K shows at 60Hz if linked through Thunderbolt. In any other case, the dock will energy two 1080p shows at 30Hz, based on the handbook, in case your laptop computer simply has USB-C. (For those who do exactly have a USB-C connection, don’t purchase this dock and buy a USB-C dongle as a substitute.)
Another docks, just like the pricier Plugable TBT-UDZ, provide the choice of utilizing both DisplayPort or HDMI cables to hook up with your show. Kensington’s strategy is okay, on condition that many 4K shows ship with with each HDMI and DisplayPort choices. Simply be sure you personal the proper cables. The dock carried out as anticipated, taking part in again protected content material on Netflix and never dropping a single body whereas streaming 4K video whereas linked to ethernet.
Whereas the built-in USB-C and USB-A ports are rated to offer 5V/1.5A per port (for 7.5W charging of smartphones), they provided 4.8V/1.37A to our USB energy tester, for a complete of 6.61W. That was sufficient to cost, however not quick cost, a Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphone. The dock by no means will get too sizzling, even beneath load.
This dock comes with a three-year guarantee.
Between IOGear’s dock and this one, we’d select IOGear: It’s a bit cheaper proper now at present costs. In any other case, they’re each strong choices for a Thunderbolt dock.
