Belkin Debuts New Compact Dock, Power Banks and More

[MacRumors]

Belkin today announced the launch of a range of new products, including updated power banks, over-ear headphones, and a GaN Dock, which is its most interesting new device.

The Belkin 11-in-1 Pro GaN Dock has a built-in power brick inside, so there is no bulky extra power supply that you have to deal with. You'll need to plug it in, but there's just one cable from the outlet to the dock, and then another for the dock to your computer.

The Pro GaN Dock offers up to 150W of charging, though only 96W is available from one of the single ports, with the rest of the power distributed to other ports for charging accessories. 96W is enough for even the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but it doesn't support the fastest charging speeds for the machine.

There are a total of 11 ports, including a 10Gb/s USB-A port, two 10Gb/s USB-C ports, a 5Gb/s USB-C port, a PD 96W USB-C port, a 3.5mm audio in/out port, an SD card slot, a micro SD card slot, two HDMI 2.0 ports, and a gigabit ethernet port.

The dock supports up to three external displays at 4K 60Hz, or one display at 4K 120Hz or 8K 30Hz. There are two ports that support 7.5W charging, one port that supports 20W charging, and one port that supports 15W charging, so you can charge iPhones, iPads, and other accessories.

The dock is priced at $200, and it is available now from the Belkin website.

Belkin also announced new 10K and 20K Power Banks with a display and an included USB-C cable, along with 10K and 20K Power Banks that have integrated cables. Pricing on the power banks starts at $30, with more information available in Belkin's announcement.

Article Link: Belkin Debuts New Compact Dock, Power Banks and More

 

[thefrost]

200 bucks? Yikes.

 

[andiwm2003]

Does that power brick dock use a mag safe or a USB-C port? Also, $200 is steep for saving two cables.

 

[dragoon2745]

Why would you put HDMI 2.0 and not 2.1 on a dock in 2025? Maybe because the protocol uses is USB C 10 Gbps instead of Thunderbolt 4 let alone Thunderbolt 5?

 

[RMo]

Kind of wish it had a different selection of ports (and maybe just more). But that's on the cheaper end for a Thunderbolt dock [EDIT: wait, it's just USB? nevermind...], and the integrated power supply is a neat idea -- and rarely found on these -- so it's hard to complain too much. I'm sure others may find it suitable for their use cases.

 

[atonaldenim]

An article on MacRumors should really do more than regurgitate a press release, for example any Mac user would want to know, the Belkin website states on MacOS the 3 monitor ports will only work to mirror the same single display 3 times. Not very useful. Must be DisplayLink?

Belkin should have at least made this a USB4 uplink to the computer. This product is pretty much a fail, at least for any Mac user wanting to plug in more than one monitor.

 

[uptempos]

after their crappy support/quality with Belkin WEMO back in the day, their brand isnt up to the par for their asking price.

 

[mazz0]

An article on MacRumors should really do more than regurgitate a press release, for example any Mac user would want to know, the Belkin website states on MacOS the 3 monitor ports will only work to mirror the same single display 3 times. Not very useful. Must be DisplayLink?

Belkin should have at least made this a USB4 uplink to the computer. This product is pretty much a fail, at least for any Mac user wanting to plug in more than one monitor.

Wow, yeah, that really would be worth mentioning.

Out of interest, why does this restriction only apply on MacOS? If it’s a limitation of the technologies used, how does Windows work around it?

 

[bradman83]

Does that power brick dock use a mag safe or a USB-C port? Also, $200 is steep for saving two cables.

MagSafe doesn't carry data, only power. The cables do work with any USB-C power source but it would only charge, you wouldn't get the benefits of the dock's ports.

 

[BigBlur]

An article on MacRumors should really do more than regurgitate a press release, for example any Mac user would want to know, the Belkin website states on MacOS the 3 monitor ports will only work to mirror the same single display 3 times. Not very useful. Must be DisplayLink?

Belkin should have at least made this a USB4 uplink to the computer. This product is pretty much a fail, at least for any Mac user wanting to plug in more than one monitor.

Agreed, I'm disappointed that MacRumors didn't mention that.

For $200, I thought this was a Thunderbolt dock. It's not, so no way can you get three extended monitors out of it, let alone two. That will only work with Windows unless it's a Thunderbolt dock (or uses DisplayLink).

Out of interest, why does this restriction only apply on MacOS? If it’s a limitation of the technologies used, how does Windows work around it?

It's most likely using Multi-Stream Transport (MST). MacOS doesn't support MST, but Windows does. It's a software thing and not hardware, because docks like this one would work fine on Intel-based Macs running Windows.

 

[MichaelMaier]

200 bucks? Yikes.

Almost half price of a Mac Mini

 

[ennisw]

A $200 dock but not even USB4 or Thunderbolt. Half of the price goes to Belkin's name.

 

[switz]

The old saying "The devil is in the details" is really appropriate here.

 

[mazz0]

It's most likely using Multi-Stream Transport (MST). MacOS doesn't support MST, but Windows does. It's a software thing and not hardware, because docks like this one would work fine on Intel-based Macs running Windows.

So it’s Apple’s choice not to support MST? Is there a good reason, or is it just a money thing?

 

[bottsjw]

after their crappy support/quality with Belkin WEMO back in the day, their brand isnt up to the par for their asking price.

Came here to say the same thing....

All good until it's time to fix a known open source security issue in the firmware and ... like magic you'll need to buy the new dock!

This is the eWaste king of companies. For that reason ... I'm out!

 

[svish]

The dock seems to be good but quite costly. Like that the power bank comes in multiple colour options

 

[kjvmartin]

1.0 and not 2.5GbE in 2025 is too big of a compromise.

 

[BigBlur]

So it’s Apple’s choice not to support MST? Is there a good reason, or is it just a money thing?

Yep, pretty much. Some speculate that Apple doesn't want to support it due to the lower bandwidth and complexity it adds (difficult to do anything above 4K, and this dock can only do 4K@30Hz for some of the displays). Others speculate that Apple wanted to push Thunderbolt and their displays (especially if you wanted to daisy-chain). Also, with the switch to Apple Silicon, that probably makes things a bit messier too. We no longer have discrete graphics cards, and there are only a certain number of display buffers on Apple Silicon depending on if you have the base, Pro, or Max chip.

 

[akbarali.ch]

For that price it should've been thunderbolt 5.

 

[thefrost]

Almost half price of a Mac Mini

Indeed. It's crazy.

 

[d3vilsadvocate]

SD card slots only, really?

Cant we establish CF slots as a standard already?

 

[Gigolo Joe]

Errr $200? It's 2025, TB5 is 80Gbps, Ethernet is 10Gbps, Mac Mini has both.

What on earth are these nickle & dime pushers thinking?

 

[Bubba-sc]

Wow, yeah, that really would be worth mentioning.

Out of interest, why does this restriction only apply on MacOS? If it’s a limitation of the technologies used, how does Windows work around it?

displayPort Multi Stream Transport (MST) has been in the spec for 15 years since DP1.2
It is an option that allows the high bandwidth DP signal to be split between two independent displays and allows for display daisy-chaining. It also allows for docks to support two monitors on one DP channel from the host PC. It works very well on Windows and is a key feature HDMI doesn’t have. Typically MST on modern Windows hardware supports up to two 4K60 monitors. This is not software compression like displayLink. Apple has never supported the MST mode. I request it every time i meet with apple reps. Initially i thought it was because Apple preferred to support the 5K resolution and switching MST on or off was complex. By now i think they just don’t care.

 

[Bubba-sc]

Agreed, I'm disappointed that MacRumors didn't mention that.

For $200, I thought this was a Thunderbolt dock. It's not, so no way can you get three extended monitors out of it, let alone two. That will only work with Windows unless it's a Thunderbolt dock (or uses DisplayLink).


It's most likely using Multi-Stream Transport (MST). MacOS doesn't support MST, but Windows does. It's a software thing and not hardware, because docks like this one would work fine on Intel-based Macs running Windows.

i’m not sure how it supports 3 independent monitors on Windows. MST gets you 2 screens, where does the other video stream come from?

 

[Bubba-sc]

A $200 dock but not even USB4 or Thunderbolt. Half of the price goes to Belkin's name.

part of the high price is due to the integrated GaN power supply. It reduces clutter vs a separate power brick . Not worth it for me but others will appreciate it.