As someone who spends
over eight hours every single day sitting at a desk,
I've tried my best to make my setup
as functional and as productive as possible.
The problem is though I use a laptop
and depending on the laptop,
ports and connectivity start to become a big issue.
Take the M1 MacBook Air, for example.
It only has two ports
and they both use a USB-C connection, meaning
if I want to attach literally anything other than USB-C,
I need some kind of adapter or dongle.
Even my 16-inch MacBook Pro
with the additional ports has the same problem.
When you have a ton of stuff
on your desk that needs to be plugged in
every single time you move your laptop,
it becomes annoying.
Take me, for example, I need Ethernet, an audio interface,
charging, an external monitor, a NAS
and multiple USB-A devices, and if I want all of that,
my only option is a dock, like this one,
the CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 dock.
With just one cable, I can connect to every one
of the 18 ports on the dock to access everything.
The question is though is this dock actually good
and worth the soul-destroying price tag?
Also, quick thanks to NordPass for sponsoring this video
but more on that later.
Starting with Form factor, taking the TS4 out of the box,
you get the power adapter, which is fairly chunky,
a Thunderbolt 4 cable and two rubber strips.
The overall form factor is surprisingly small and compact.
The metal chassis is quite hefty and sturdy
and it has rubber on one side, so you can use it upright.
Although you can also install those two rubber strips
if you want it to sit flat on your desk.
I found that these strips didn't really work that well.
The dock still sometimes slides when plugging in cables
from the front and I need to hold it in place.
I also think it's one of the better looking docks out there
with a pretty minimal and spartan metal design compared
to some of the chunkier and more corporate-y looking docks,
unless of course you enjoy unicorn vomit
and in that case, go with the Razer Chroma dock.
So what ports do you actually get on this thing?
Well, pretty much all of them.
On the front, there's a UHS-II SD
and micro SD card slot, and yes,
you can use both at the same time.
There's an audio combo jack, two 10 gigabit USB-C ports,
one of which provides 20 watts of power output,
which is great for charging a phone,
and a 10-gigabit USB-A 3.2 gen two port,
providing 7.5 watts of power output.
I found this was pretty much all the front connectivity
I needed, although I would've liked an additional USB-A port
and with the release of the new 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros,
the SD card slot will be redundant for some people.
You also get a white status light
at the front to indicate if the dock has power or not.
Moving to the back.
There are so many ports here that, to save time,
I won't read them all out to you individually
so pause the video if you want the specifics.
I will, however, discuss some
of the main ones, starting with the host port,
which is where you connect your computer to the dock.
This is at the back, which is good.
Some docks have it on the front for some strange reason,
which results in a cable constantly strewn across your desk.
Moving onto the Ethernet port, 2.5 gigabit Ethernet
is an awesome and welcome upgrade
but it's not something many people can take advantage of.
Firstly, most internet plans cap out at one gigabit speeds
and if you're using a NAS like me,
you'll need the existing hardware
or capability like link aggregation, for example,
to be able to max out the 2.5 gigabit bandwidth.
Now, I edit 4K footage from my NAS,
so 10 gigabit is preferable,
which this dock doesn't natively support
unless you use a 10 gigabit to Thunderbolt adapter
like I have.
But if CalDigit had added 10 gigabit,
I think it would've pushed the price on this dock,
which is already expensive to a point
where it wouldn't make financial sense to most people.
Moving on to Thunderbolt,
you get two dedicated downstream Thunderbolt 4
or USB4 ports with 15 watts of power output.
Unfortunately, these are only located on the back,
meaning you have no easily accessible Thunderbolt options
on the front to quickly
and easily plug in external drives, for example.
Now, regarding external drive speeds,
for certain high performance drives,
you'll get slightly worse performance
through the dock compared to directly attached to your Mac
but I've never personally found this to be a big issue
and it's a problem with the controller
on some individual drives and not the TS4 itself.
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Getting back to the ports on the TS4,
CalDigit went with a display port 1.4 port
rather than HDMI.
Why is that?
Well, I find that an increasing amount
of people are switching
to high refresh rate, high resolution monitors.
For example, the 4K 144 Hertz Eve Spectrum,
and display port is able to provide enough bandwidth
for the image signal as long
as you're using the right cable, of course.
In a previous video,
I hooked up my MacBook 4K 144 Hertz gaming monitor
and my gaming PC
to my CalDigit TS4 doc, and was able to switch
between a Mac-based productivity setup
and a PC-based gaming setup with ease.
However, if you want to connect A HDMI monitor,
you can either connect an active display port
to HDMI adapter or use a USB-C to HDMI adapter.
Either option is relatively inexpensive.
Quick side note here, this dock does not solve
the single external display output restriction
on entry level M1 and M2 MacBooks,
specifically the M1 MacBook Air, the M1 MacBook Pro
and the M2 MacBook Air and M2 MacBook Pro.
You will still only be able to use one external monitor,
and the only workaround to this
is if you purchase a dock with DisplayLink technology,
which this TS4 dock does not have.
Now, as some of you might know,
there is a previous version of this dock
and that is the TS3 plus with Thunderbolt 3.
There are several differences
between the TS3 and the TS4.
The first one you'll notice is the size.
The TS4 is noticeably bigger and slightly heavier.
The TS4 also has 18 ports versus 15 on the TS3.
Notably, the front port selection is better and faster
with them all being 10 gigabit versus five gigabit
on the TS3 and the TS4 provides more power output
for device charging like your phone, for example,
with a 20 watt output versus just 7.5 on the TS3.
Moving to the back, you, of course, get 2.5 gigabit Ethernet
versus one gigabit on the TS3.
The display port on the TS4 is display port 1.4
versus 1.2 on the TS3, and this is important depending
on what monitor you're currently using
and what kind of bandwidth it needs.
Speaking of bandwidth, the TS3 can do up
to a 5K display at a 60 hertz refresh rate
or dual extended 4K displays each
with a 60 hertz refresh rate.
The TS4 bumps the single monitor resolution up to 8K
with a 60 hertz refresh rate or dual 4K displays,
each with the same 60 hertz refresh rate.
For those of you using a single monitor,
for high refresh rate monitors, 4K can go up to 144 hertz,
ultra wide 1,440 p can hit 180 hertz
and standard 1,440 p can hit up to 240 hertz.
You'll also get an additional Thunderbolt port
on the TS4, which in my opinion is the most welcome upgrade.
However, the biggest question you're probably asking
is what's the difference
between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4?
Well, not much.
The throughput or speed is the same
at 40 gigabytes per second.
Thunderbolt 4 is essentially just a more strict version
of Thunderbolt 3 to ensure
that anything you see with Thunderbolt 4 branding
has certain guaranteed capabilities,
like minimum video output requirements
or PC wake from sleep capability.
That being said, Thunderbolt 4 is, of course,
the most up-to-date version of Thunderbolt
and will be relevant for many years to come.
So if you're someone who likes to future-proof
I'd recommend getting the TS4
over the TS3 whenever possible.
The only exception is if you can get the TS3
for an insanely good price.
Speaking of price,
I distinctly remember buying my original CalDigit dock,
the TS3 plus from the Apple store a few years ago
and just cringing at the price,
and I think most people will do the same with the TS4.
I think it's too expensive for most people,
especially because in my opinion,
a dock is the least most important part of your setup.
My philosophy is, in order of importance,
desk and chair first.
Otherwise, in 10 years, your back is going to be busted.
Then monitor and keyboard plus mouse.
Now, I spend the majority of my budget on these things
because I'm physically sitting in them, staring at them
or touching them the entire time I'm at my desk.
Anything else like a dock just aren't really things
that most people want to spend a lot of money on
but at the end of the day, you do get what you pay for.
I'm at my desk for sometimes 10 hours a day.
I have a ton of stuff that needs to be plugged in.
I also don't intend on buying a new dock
for at least five years, possibly even 10,
as long as the technology doesn't change too much.
And when you look
at some other Thunderbolt 4 docks out there,
the price of the TS4 actually starts
to look a little bit less eye watering.
Many of them have big compromises, like way fewer ports
or the host port is at the front resulting
in a Thunderbolt cable strewn across your desk 24/7
or they're just as expensive as the TS4, but again,
compromise in a lot of areas.
So yeah, after six months of daily use,
the experience has been pretty positive with the TS4.
Very occasionally I might run
into an issue where my laptop won't connect to the monitor
or the doc won't respond, but I can count the number
of times this has happened on one hand and it's fixed
in about 10 seconds by simply unplugging the power
from the back and plugging it back in.
Overall, there is a reason why this doc constantly pops up
in reviews or online forums
and the previous version was even sold
by Apple themselves on the Apple website.
It is a good dock even
if you have to sell a kidney to afford it.