The Kensington SD5700T Thunderbolt 4 dock has all the ports you need

The Thunderbolt 4 is here, as is the first fully equipped Thunderbolt 4 docking station. Kensington’s SD5700T includes 11 ports, 90W of power delivery and transfer speeds of up to 40 Gbps. It provides an 8K output at 30 Hz or two 4K outputs at 60 Hz.

Make no mistake: this is a chic pier. It is listed for $ 289.99 on the Kensington website. But if you are the type of person who uses a table setup designed with multiple monitors and peripherals and has money to spend, this may be a good choice.

If you look at the latest Thunderbolt 4 releases for laptops, you will probably notice that some of them have … sparse port selections. This is normal as laptops get thinner. The Dell XPS 13, for example, has only two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an audio connector and a microSD card reader. (And one of these ports will sometimes need to be occupied by the charger.) If you have decided to buy one of the XPS 13 models (which is a good choice – they are great), and want to use an external monitor, peripherals such as a mouse and keyboard or a Ethernet connection, you will need some type of dock.

That doesn’t mean you need the SD5700T – Thunderbolt 4 ports will still support a cheaper Thunderbolt 3 dock if you already have one nearby. But I think it’s worth spending on the SD5700T if you need more connectivity and value the functionality of Thunderbolt 4. Basically, it contains a complete home office setup in a very portable box.

The dock is also compatible with MacBooks Thunderbolt 3 running macOS Big Sur. It worked great with my MacBook Pro 2019.

In addition to the aforementioned MacBook Pro compatible with Thunderbolt 3, I have been using the SD5700T with an Acer Swift 5 compatible with Thunderbolt 4 as well. I’m someone who usually needs to connect more mice, cameras, drives, headsets and other things to bobs than my laptops allow, so my workspace is often covered in a mess of dongles and docks. The SD5700T offers a lot more connectivity than the docks this size I used in the past, and it made my life a lot easier.

With a single Thunderbolt cable (which is included), owners of the Kensington 5D5700T have access to the following:

• Four Thunderbolt 4 ports (with transfer speeds up to 40 Gbps and dual 4K video output)
• Four USB-A ports (one 5V / 1.5A charging port at the front and three Gen 2 @ 10 Gbps ports at the rear)
• One Gigabit Ethernet port
• One audio combo connector
• A UHS-II SD 4.0 card reader
• 90 W power delivery (regardless of the number of devices connected)

Obviously, the use cases vary, but I really can’t think of anything else that the vast majority of people would need. And remember, this is not all you have – plugging the dock into a port releases the other ports on the laptop that could be occupied by a charger, monitor adapters and other peripherals.

The SD5700T did not require any kind of experience to be configured: I connected the dock to the wall, I connected all my connections, I turned it on and then I connected it to the laptop. And that was it – it just worked.

Everything I connected worked perfectly. I have not had any bugs or performance problems. The only thing I would like to see is a way to disconnect the dock as a whole with a single click. Currently, you need to eject each connected device individually before disconnecting a laptop from the SD5700T, which can be a pain if you have a lot of things connected. There are third-party applications that can make this happen, but some companies like Corsair provide optimized ejection utilities for their own docks.

Final note: it is not a bad looking dock. It has a beautiful, shiny but discreet finish – nothing that stands out on your desk or draws attention in the office. At 0.96 pounds (0.435 kg) and 7.68 x 2.95 x 1.18 inches (195 x 75 x 30 mm), it is also easy to transport if you need to move your workspace. You can put it in a bag or backpack without any problems (although the 180 W brick is a bit clunky).

You can order the Kensington SD5700T now, and it will be shipped in the second week of January.

Monica Chin / The Verge Pictures