Belkin Debuts New Compact 'Dual Power' Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core

[FaustsHausUK]

Would you please point us to the source that supports your statement, above? I'm asking, because your statements is absolutely and completely FALSE, and I continue to see this "fact" posted in these forums over and over again. Intel did produce the original TB design, however they opened it up to the public a while ago (Spring of '19). There are no royalties for the use of TB3 - it is no longer (well over a year) a proprietary interface. Anyone can produce and use TB3 tech. Got that??

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It’s royalty-free, but Intel are still in charge of optional device certification, and I believe you still need to source controller chips from them. USB4 won’t have that limitation hopefully. Whatever happens, I’m close to certain you’ll be able to plug Thunderbolt 3 devices into Apple Silicon Macs and get the same features and performance.

 

[PTLove]

Not sure why I would get this over the CalDigit USB-C Pro dock. Seems to have more ports and works with base usb-c devices on top of thunderbolt.

 

[yurc]

The ultimate test: Can it handle a classic 30" Apple Cinema Display?

Those display was gorgeous at that time, but yes it kinda a power hogging, not power efficient at all so probably it doesn’t seems possible powering that classic 30” ACD.

 

[topdrawer]

why the usb 2 port?

 

[DeepIn2U]

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, if you can't make the cable between the dock and the Mac replaceable at least give it a reasonable length so we can hide the dock behind the display.

Indeed! I'd prefer the connections all at the back for this table-top like design. Great written marketing though. Much more discreet and effective mobile options out there - even if you need to supply the T3/USB-C 4 cable.

 

[BGPL]

My USB-C dock from "UTechSmart" on Amazon costed me $80 and has two HDMI, pass through power, SD card reader, audio out, Ethernet, VGA (for PowerPoints at older venues) and 4 USB ports. It's not 40GBps or 8K, but it's pretty cool for $80. I would guess the Belkin dock is one of the few to support 8K and full TB3 bandwidth so they will probably get $170 from a small market segment of professionals. Honestly, seems kind of like offering the 101 octane fuel option for a Honda owners. But if I was running an 8K display, I would probably be okay with popping $170 to get the full potential of a rockin display.

Also, for $170 I would want the SD card reader. Anyone with a digital camera or drone appreciates this.
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Apple sells a 0.8 meter (31 inches) and a 2 meter thunderbolt cable (78 inches). This tethered Belkin one is 0.15 meters (6 inches). The longer one still gets 40 Gb/s and supports 100W.

Even high quality active cables are limited to 2m if you want the full 40Mbps. The cheaper passive cables can only get 40Mbps at 0.5m, and are limited to 20Gbps at 2m. If you see a 40Gbps cable longer than 2m be wary. They do have optical TB3 now, but they are expensive, and they are good up to 50-60m.

 

[anshuvorty]

Hope the new ARM Macs have Thunderbolt.

I was listening to TWiT and the guests on the show mentioned that instead of Thunderbolt, Apple might instead opt for USB4 instead as that specification already includes Thunderbolt and USB4 is scheduled to debut in the Fall, the same time as these Apple Silicon-based Macs are scheduled to come out.

 

[DrRadon]

Remember when stuff like this was just part of your laptop and all you had to sacrifice for it was 2mm in less slimness?

Now you get to pay 170$ extra to get a part of pasts functionality and essentially something that looks like a cancerous outgrow on your expensive as hell designer brand laptop.

 

[tadasZ]

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, if you can't make the cable between the dock and the Mac replaceable at least give it a reasonable length so we can hide the dock behind the display.

This is the reason why I came to the comments! WTF is wrong with all those dongle makers, why can't they make replaceable cable or at least with decent length cable, whats the point of a dock if it takes as much space on the desk as macbook itself

 

[canonical]

This should be exactly what I am looking for: a simple clean dock that lets me run POWER + ETHERNET over a single cable to a MacBook .... EXCEPT that their Thunderbolt 3 cable is hardwired in ... and the whole point of the exercise for me is to hide the dock away from the computer (not placed next to the computer), so that only 1 cable is visible for both Power + ETHERNET.
By tethering the cable to the dock (and it being short), they have unfortunately ruined it for me.

 

[and 1989 others]

I still have, in perfect working order, an early 2015 MBP with all the ports. And It will be a very sad day when it stops working. I simply cannot see myself carting around a new MBP and a myriad of dongles and docks, to be able to do what I could with ONE device 5 years ago.

 

[sbrunner]

The short one is $39 and the long one is $129 because it has a lot more circuitry

The longer active cables go for about $50 on Amazon, like CalDigit.

 

[latts]

They won't since thunderbolt was made with Intel, but they will probably just use usb4 which will be compatible with thunderbolt, I guess?

That would be my question whether this or any other Thunderbolt peripherals ( i already have a Thunderbolt3 docking station) will be compatible with the new ARM macs or will they be obsolete?

 

[Marx55]

Single Thunderbolt 3 port is a deal breaker!

 

[latts]

In a way I agree with you, the whole if they just put up more ports then I won't have to have a docking station at all type of argument. However, even back then, even with all the USB ports, I still had a USB hubs. Simply because its less work to plug everything in the hub and then connect one cable to the PC or laptop. I'm coming around to the idea, and I think it's rather nice to just have a all encompassing hub and all I have to do plug in a single cable whenever I come and go.

Of course, if you are talking about when you are traveling, then yes it's annoying to have to carry dongles.

Actually travelling is the one time when you do want dongles. Going into a customer's office and not knowing what monitor connections they have you normally have to cover you bases. This is very handy having no power connector and good output but i'll stick to my Hyperdrive which works for me for now

 

[[AUT] Thomas]

There's a tethered Thunderbolt 3 cable to connect to a Thunderbolt 3 laptop

In a 90° angle! WTF?! Which genius came up with that? You can't properly store the cable when you actually use it when travelling. That cable will brake rather sooner than later... Unfortunately, things like that are usually representative for the rest of the device... The thickness of the device is further adding to the bad impression that this is was designed by someone who actually isn't travelling.
Consequently, this is just another TB dock... thanks but no thanks... I can get a Dell Dock with a decent PSU for that money. That's not portable, but quite frankly who needs a DP on the go? I'd rather carry a cheap, small and light USB-C dongle when on the go...

There's no market for that product IMHO...

 

[Stephen.R]

Remember when stuff like this was just part of your laptop and all you had to sacrifice for it was 2mm in less slimness?

I couldn't care less about 2mm of thickness or slimness.

I care quite a lot about getting the functionality I want specifically.

The last MBP before the introduction of TB3 had:

1x SDXC
2x USB3.0
1x HDMI 1.4
2x Thunderbolt 2

The SD slot was/is connected via an internal USB2 bus, so even if I used SD cards (which I don't) it's woefully slow compared to what most flash memory is capable of.

The USB3.0 ports use a type-A connector, and thus don't support alt-mode, so they're limited to USB3.0 and nothing more. I have just two USB-A devices connected to my Mac right now: a UPS, and a scanner. If I still used a MBP as my normal machine, I wouldn't even have the UPS connected.

HDMI 1.4 will only run 1080p at 60Hz. If you want 4k, it's at 30Hz. And why would I want HDMI? DisplayPort gives a better result every time, and isn't limited by a specification designed around players and screens you put on the other side of the room.

The Thunderbolt 2 ports are the only saving grace here. But with only two, you've got limited options.



I get it, you just bought a <checks notes> $2400 (minimum) laptop, and the <checks notes> $25 required to buy a USB-C hub which offers 1x HDMI, 3x USB 3.0, 1x SD card, 1x TF card plus a downstream USB-C PD port is just unthinkable. A much better approach is that everyone who buys a laptop should be limited to the ports you specifically want to use, now and forever.
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Actually travelling is the one time when you do want dongles. Going into a customer's office and not knowing what monitor connections they have you normally have to cover you bases.

Well that, or if you happen to use anything besides whatever random port selection it happens to have.

 

[BeatCrazy]

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, if you can't make the cable between the dock and the Mac replaceable at least give it a reasonable length so we can hide the dock behind the display.

0.8M is the longest you can go with a passive TB3 cable and still maintain 40Gbps.

Not sure why I would get this over the CalDigit USB-C Pro dock. Seems to have more ports and works with base usb-c devices on top of thunderbolt.

This Belkin would be useful to throw in your travel back and not have to worry about a bulky power supply, i.e. you use it as monitor dongle in a pinch, then most of the time it sits on your desk as a dock.

The longer active cables go for about $50 on Amazon, like CalDigit.

Those longer active cables only support USB 2.0 speeds. The Apple 2M “Pro” cable at $129 is the only one (in the world) that supports 40Gbps and USB 3.1 Gen 2, which is apparently the result of some sort of Apple witchcraft

 

[saudor]

wow this one actually does 4K 60hz? almost every dongle I've seen so far does only 4K 30hz UNLESS it's a dedicated single dongle (e.g. HDMI, DP, etc)

 

[Spectrum]

$170 for an enormous brick and a couple of ports, the equivalent of which used to be included *inside* a laptop.

 

[KPOM]

The longer active cables go for about $50 on Amazon, like CalDigit.

Except those cables don’t support USB 3.0.

 

[4jasontv]

0.8M is the longest you can go with a passive TB3 cable and still maintain 40Gbps.

Ok. Cool. So?

 

[3xBoom]

How does this compare feature for feature with CalDigit's TS3 Plus?

 

[Apple Macintosh 128K]

Cable is far too short. I don't want to be that attacked to my dock or have it that front and center on my desk.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Cable is far too short. I don't want to be that attacked to my dock or have it that front and center on my desk.

Ok. Cool. So?

So you can’t have a longer than about a 0.5M “tether” cable like you were wanting (to hide the dock), else the ports on the dock would have terrible performance leading to a headache for Belkin’s customer service.