The TS3 Lite, from CalDigit, is one of the first Thunderbolt 3 docks on the market
allowing you to break free from your dongle bondage.
Promising a single cable solution to easily transform your laptop into a workstation.
Something we do at the office all the time.
Without sacrificing one of your highly coveted Thunderbolt 3 ports.
But, can it deliver on this promises?
And at $200. Could it possibly be worth it?
Let's find out. Shall we?
[INTRO]
The Masterkeys Pro keyboard lineup from Coolermaster is available in three sizes,
each in white or RGB flavors, check 'em out in the link below.
The relentless onward march of technology can sometimes leave us...
... stranded, with legacy gadgets.
The TS3 Lite attempts to both:
solve the problem of addapting a newer physical USB standard to your older devices,
and, thanks to Thunderbolt, restore the ports that we've given up for the sake of thinner and lighter devices.
Without compromising performance.
So it's equiped with 1 USB type C and 2 type As, a gigabit ethernet port, audio out AND in,
and one DisplayPort 1.2 port.
Of course, it also sports two Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Though it should be noted that one of them will always be occupied.
It's used to connect the device to your Windows or Mac PC with no manual driver installation required.
That's a fair bit of I/O, by today's standards...
But is it enough to let you ditch your dongles?
I guess that depends on your needs, really.
Let's start with the good things.
The USB ports ALL operate at the USB 3.1 gen 1 5Gbps transfer speed.
So we saw real world speeds of 300 to 350 MB/s on our Angelbird SSDs,
ample for a modern external single SSD,
but it should be noted that if you were to use a high-end external drive that relies on RAID
for increased speeds over USB 3 10Gbps, you may experience some bottlenecking on these ports.
The good news, though, is that the Thunderbolt 3 port, it really is a very cool connector,
can opperate at USB 3 10Gbps as long as you don't need it for additional Thunderbolt devices
or a second DisplayPort monitor.
Now into the mediocre: It only has two type A ports.
A number easily eaten up by a keyboard and mouse, unless you want to... dongle your dongle.
It also lacks an SD card reader AND, we're onto the sub-mediocre now,
the audio ports are nice to have, but they should really be on the front on my opinion
and they introduce an impermissible hiss,
which is a no-go for anyone who wants to listen to music at low volume.
"But hold on a minute..."
"That dongle roundup you did recently
had what seem to be some MUCH cheaper solutions that offered pretty similar functionalities,
some of them even had SD ports..."
"So, why should I spend MORE than 70 bucks?"
Well, the answer is that as great as this thing is,
it's NOT Thunderbolt 3 compliant, and that means NO DisplayPort.
So it's NOT capable of driving a 5K monitor or dual 4K monitors, and in fact
is even limited to 30Hz opperation for a SINGLE 4K monitor.
The TS3 Lite handles ALL of these scenarios at 60Hz...
As long as your OCD can handle potentially needing two different cable types in order to achieve it.
And what about that extra Thunderbolt 3 port?
Does that make the TS3 Lite worth the price of admission?
Uhm... Maybe.
But I will make the argument that it's most valuable if your machine only has one Thunderbolt 3 port.
Being able to daisy chain up to six Thunderbolt devices gives you a LOT of groovy options. Though...
This does fall apart a little when you consider that most devices with only one Thunderbolt 3 port
also have other I/O, decreasing the need for the TS3 Lite's other ports.
And, I mean let's say your machine DOES have multiple Thunderbolt 3 ports, like the 2016 MacBook Pro,
Well then you could easily just plug in a dongle for your peripherals
and a second cable for your monitor when you sit down.
So, maybe then the best argument to be made for the TS3 Lite is that it's...
A ONE CABLE SOLUTION!
BEING ABLE TO TAKE YOUR LAPTOP AROUND THE OFFICE FOR MEETINGS, THEN
PLUNK IT DOWN QUICKLY AT YOUR DESK! THAT'S GREAT!
Except, it's not quite all kitty-cats and tacos in this area either.
You still have to plug-in your wall charger, because even though the TS3 Lite comes with a honking powerbrick,
it only pushes 15W over the type C connector.
Enough to charge your phone and probably operate your computer, but not enough to charge your computer.
This is especially a drag if you have a monitor that will charge your MacBook through its USB type C port,
like LG's Ultrafine 5K, or 4K 27UD88,
because you'll actually lose that capability if you are running through the dock.
Which come to think of it...
Some of these monitors actually have a decent amount of their own I/O. So maybe...
A USB type C monitor with a dongle hanging of the back of it... is a better one cord solution right now.
Though, with that said, CalDigit does have an upcoming non-Lite version that will charge your machine
if you're not ready to invest in a new monitor.
So, we want to hear about it in the comments: What is YOUR setup like?
Is USB-C enough for you?
Is Thunderbolt a cool solution looking for a problem?
Or, are you already on your way to Amazon to buy a TS3 Lite right now? Let us now.
So, thanks for watching, guys.
If you disliked the video, hit the dislike button. But if you liked it, hit the Like button, get subscribed.
Maybe check out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description.
Also down there is our community forum which you should totally join
and our merch store where you could buy cool shirts just like this one.