Belkin's new Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro is a great way to maximise your system's Thunderbolt 3 port
A very fine Thunderbolt 3 dock for your Thunderbolt 3 system.
Note: This article was first published on 2 Sept 2020.
The Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro (Image source: Belkin)
The new Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro is Belkin’s flagship Thunderbolt 3 dock and it’s a marked improvement over the older Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD.
The Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock was universally criticised for being stingy on ports and therefore not fully tapping on Thunderbolt 3’s prodigious bandwidth.
The Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro rights those wrongs by offering a lot more ports. How many? How about 12?
The ports on the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro. (Image source: Belkin)
- USB-A port (USB 3.1, 10Gbps) port
- USB-C port (USB 3.1 Gen 2, 10Gbps)
- SD card reader (UHS-II)
- 3.5mm audio combo jack for headphones and microphones
- DC-in for power
- Thunderbolt 3 port (to Thunderbolt 3 system)
- Thunderbolt 3 port (to Thunderbolt 3 peripherals)
- DisplayPort (up to 8K, 30Hz)
- Gigabit Ethernet jack
- 4 x USB-A ports (USB 3.0, 5Gbps)
In addition, the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro is powered by a 170W PSU and can deliver up to 85W of power to a connected notebook. The extra power will come in handy if you need the dock to charge devices.
85W should be sufficient for most notebooks. I tested the dock with a 16-inch MacBook Pro which comes bundled with a 96W power adapter and it remained fully charged.
The dock also worked flawlessly even with most of the ports occupied. I had the DisplayPort feeding a 27-inch QHD monitor, the second Thunderbolt port connected to a portable monitor, the Ethernet port jacked in, all four USB ports in the back plugged with peripherals, and the front USB-A port could still write files to a portable external SSD at speeds of over 200MB/s.
To be sure, there are competitors with more ports but the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro has sufficient and the placement of the ports thoughtful. If I had to nitpick, I would wish for an additional USB-C port.
Additionally, like most Belkin devices, the build of the dock is also outstanding and should be a good match for your Thunderbolt system.
The Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro is available now and it’s priced at S$599. It’s available on Hachi.tech and the Belkin Flagship Store on Lazada.
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