JUST picked up my 2020 13" M1 - What USB-C dock to buy?

[Sam5281]

Hey what's up guys!

Super stoked, just got my 13" late 2020 16gb M1 MBP!

So far its amazing! Completely overlooked the no USB option plug in, SO....

that said I rushed and picked up the single Apple USB-C to USB adapter ($20 bucks) - but think there's better options?


Got this to hold me over (and aid in immediate transfer of files)

Will return it, in place of a better USB-C dock. But don't know what the best option is?

Can you guys recommend?

Thanks!

 

[harleymhs]

USB-C Adapter Hub with HDMI, USB-3, Audio Out, MicroSD and SD | 8 in 1 Powered Microphone & Multi Adapter Compatible with Mac, PC and iPad | Super Fast | 1 Year Warranty

www.amazon.com

 

[harleymhs]

another one ..

uni USB C Hub Multiport Adapter with Detachable Cable, 8-in-1 USB C Hub with 4K HDMI, 1Gbps Ethernet, SD Card Reader, 100W PD, Compatible for MacBook Pro 2023, iPad Pro 2023, Galaxy S24/S23 & More

uni USB C Hub Multiport Adapter with Detachable Cable, 8-in-1 USB C Hub with 4K HDMI, 1Gbps Ethernet, SD Card Reader, 100W PD, Compatible for MacBook Pro 2023, iPad Pro 2023, Galaxy S24/S23 & More

www.amazon.com

 

[Sam5281]

Are those 2 just a general pick?

Or have specs that are solid?

 

[mfram]

Keep in mind that if you want to run external displays you may want to stick with Thunderbolt docks. They are more expensive, but you can run multiple 4K displays at 60Hz whereas with a USB-C hub you will be limited to a single 4K display at 30Hz. What things to you want to attach to your Mac? If it's just USB-A ports, then staying with a USB-C hub will be cheaper.

 

[Sam5281]

Keep in mind that if you want to run external displays you may want to stick with Thunderbolt docks. They are more expensive, but you can run multiple 4K displays at 60Hz whereas with a USB-C hub you will be limited to a single 4K display at 30Hz. What things to you want to attach to your Mac? If it's just USB-A ports, then staying with a USB-C hub will be cheaper.

Good point - and I 100% plan to purchase the LG 4K UltraFine display to use with this machine.

Don't see myself running multiple displays, just 1 needed for 4k 60FPS stuff.

 

[Christopher Kim]

OWC makes some nice, high-quality TB3 and USB-C docks.

OWC 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock for Mac and Windows PC

Through a single cable, the 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock brings an unprecedented combination of ports, convenience, and power to your Thunderbolt Mac or PC.

eshop.macsales.com

OWC USB-C Travel Dock E - 6 Ports of Connectivity

The best bus-powered dock to connect, charge, display, and import on-the-go. Compatible with any USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 equipped Mac, PC, tablet, or phone.

eshop.macsales.com

Agree with others above that unless you have a lot of peripherals you want to connect, you may not need one with this much functionality / can go cheaper. That being said, if you're definitely getting an external monitor / setting up a workstation, then you might as well get the dock that fits your needs.

Also, the current M1 MBP / MBA can only support 1 external monitor anyways, so something to keep in mind.

 

[Sam5281]

OWC makes some nice, high-quality TB3 and USB-C docks.

OWC 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock for Mac and Windows PC

Through a single cable, the 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock brings an unprecedented combination of ports, convenience, and power to your Thunderbolt Mac or PC.

eshop.macsales.com

OWC USB-C Travel Dock E - 6 Ports of Connectivity

The best bus-powered dock to connect, charge, display, and import on-the-go. Compatible with any USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 equipped Mac, PC, tablet, or phone.

eshop.macsales.com

Agree with others above that unless you have a lot of peripherals you want to connect, you may not need one with this much functionality / can go cheaper. That being said, if you're definitely getting an external monitor / setting up a workstation, then you might as well get the dock that fits your needs.

Also, the current M1 MBP / MBA can only support 1 external monitor anyways, so something to keep in mind.

So yea, not even 1 full day of using my new 13" M1 and I need the external display for sure!

might go ahead and order it now the 4k version. Which dock would be pair with it?

 

[Christopher Kim]

What other peripherals would you want to connect? If you're already set on getting the LG 24" Ultrafine 4K monitor, it actually has a "mini-dock" built-in already with an extra Thunderbolt3 port for daisy-chaining, and 3 additional USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 (5gbps) ports already.

So you'd connect the single TB3 cable from your MBP to the Monitor (it will provide full power, so you don't need to plug in your MBP power cord), and you can connect 3 additional USB-C devices to the monitor and the single TB3 cable has enough bandwidth to handle it all.

You can continue to use the USB-A to USB-C adapter you got from Apple for your hard drive to plug into the monitor (or just buy a few USB-C ended cables). But main point being, you may not need to get a separate dock depending on what you want to connect.

 

[shanewtravel]

I can recommend the CalDigit SOHO dock, it had the right balance of ports and features for me -- especially the DisplayPort port (and at around $80 on sale it was a lot cheaper than the larger, more highly featured $200+ TB3 docks). Prior to purchasing it, I had tried two of the cheap (Anker 5-in-1 & Hiearcool 7-in-1) USB-C hubs, and kept experiencing all the sleep/wake and Power Delivery issues that others have mentioned in the Apple Silicon Forums.

 

[Sam5281]

What other peripherals would you want to connect? If you're already set on getting the LG 24" Ultrafine 4K monitor, it actually has a "mini-dock" built-in already with an extra Thunderbolt3 port for daisy-chaining, and 3 additional USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 (5gbps) ports already.

So you'd connect the single TB3 cable from your MBP to the Monitor (it will provide full power, so you don't need to plug in your MBP power cord), and you can connect 3 additional USB-C devices to the monitor and the single TB3 cable has enough bandwidth to handle it all.

You can continue to use the USB-A to USB-C adapter you got from Apple for your hard drive to plug into the monitor (or just buy a few USB-C ended cables). But main point being, you may not need to get a separate dock depending on what you want to connect.

This is perfect response thank you, had not realized the LG external has a few connection points to it.
Makes buying the display a touch more "justified" as I was preparing myself to spend about $75-100 on a
separate dock.

Definitely have to say the 13" is a bit too small for me for comfortable daily use - the portability is great.

 

[Christopher Kim]

Definitely have to say the 13" is a bit too small for me for comfortable daily use - the portability is great.

As someone else who has the 13" MBP, I know what you mean in terms of smaller screen size. That being said, I knew I was always going to have an external monitor / workstation setup for when using the MBP at home (in closed clamshell mode), so I liked that the 13" felt like a "best of both worlds" situation where I got the portability when I wanted to take it with me, and at home I had my external monitor workstation so laptop screen size didn't really matter.

It also helped that for my use case, the 13" MBP was good enough for my needs, and I didn't need the larger 15" (at the time) / 16" (now) screen footprint or cpu/gpu horsepower, and could save money by getting the smaller MBP.

Here's my small desk setup that I've been working from home with for the last year during COVID - I went from using this setup occasionally on weekends, to full-time WFH use, and have been really happy with it.

Nothing too crazy - the monitor is a 27" LG 4K (27UD68P), a great bang-for-your-buck monitor, and the dock was one of the first Thunderbolt 3 docks that came out in early 2017 when Apple debuted the late-2016 MBP (Caldigit TS3 Lite, which they don't make anymore, but was great for my needs).

 

[JPSaltzman]

I heartedly recommend any of the hubs made by CalDigit. They offer a variety of options (number of ports, size, etc.). They are reliable and the quality control and product finish is Top-Notch. My current one (the TS3-Plus) is so future-proof that there's even a dedicated USB-C port [with high-speed cable included] that will power all the new MBP or MBA lineup.

https://www.amazon.com/CalDigit-TS3-Plus-Thunderbolt-Dock/dp/B07CZPV8DF

 

[Sam5281]

As someone else who has the 13" MBP, I know what you mean in terms of smaller screen size. That being said, I knew I was always going to have an external monitor / workstation setup for when using the MBP at home (in closed clamshell mode), so I liked that the 13" felt like a "best of both worlds" situation where I got the portability when I wanted to take it with me, and at home I had my external monitor workstation so laptop screen size didn't really matter.

It also helped that for my use case, the 13" MBP was good enough for my needs, and I didn't need the larger 15" (at the time) / 16" (now) screen footprint or cpu/gpu horsepower, and could save money by getting the smaller MBP.

Here's my small desk setup that I've been working from home with for the last year during COVID - I went from using this setup occasionally on weekends, to full-time WFH use, and have been really happy with it.

Nothing too crazy - the monitor is a 27" LG 4K (27UD68P), a great bang-for-your-buck monitor, and the dock was one of the first Thunderbolt 3 docks that came out in early 2017 when Apple debuted the late-2016 MBP (Caldigit TS3 Lite, which they don't make anymore, but was great for my needs).

Really nice setup! and thanks for responding, you get it 110%!

And also brings me to the point of wondering; are there "Cheaper" non $700 dollar LG 4K monitors that are just as good? (as I post this - I am going to research specs on yours).

I guess what does the price difference of a new 4K LG buy me VS a non apple current monitor....

 

[Christopher Kim]

And also brings me to the point of wondering; are there "Cheaper" non $700 dollar LG 4K monitors that are just as good? (as I post this - I am going to research specs on yours).

I guess what does the price difference of a new 4K LG buy me VS a non apple current monitor....

Take a look through the Mac Accessories sub-forum here, lots of good threads on good external monitors for MBPs.

The main thing to know is that macOS has really good HiDPI scaling, where they "pixel-double" higher-resolution screens (twice the height, twice the width, so 4 pixels used for every 1 pixel of what you're showing on the screen), which makes things look nicer and smoother.

The 27" 5K LG Ultrafine (5120 x 2880) is made to show an effective resolution of 1440p (2560 x 1440), which in my opinion, is a great size for a 27" monitor fin terms of size of text / icons / UI based on how far most people typically sit away from the monitor. This is what the 27" iMac is (5K screen, but default resolution is "Looks like 1440p").

Similarly, the 24" 4K LG Ultrafine (3840 x 2160 resolution) is made to show an effective resolution of 1080p (1920 x 1080), but pixel-doubled. So it looks like 1080p in terms of text size / icons, but much better because it's using 4 actual pixels for every 1 pixel of desktop screen. However, in my opinion, "Looks like 1080p" is a bit big for a 24" monitor. 1080p is a bit more better suited for a 21-22" monitor (ie. like the 21.5" iMac - 4K screen, default resolution of "Looks like 1080p").

If budget is a concern (which it was for me), but you want a bigger monitor, there are people who get a 27" 4K monitor (like me) which there are plenty of (my LG 27UD68 being a very reasonably priced one), but still run it at "Looks like 2560 x 1440". What macOS will do is pixel-double it to 5120 x 2880 (as if you had a 5K monitor), and then scale it down to fit the 3840 x 2160 monitor resolution. In my opinion, this looks better than if you ran "Looks like 1440p" with a native 2560x1440 monitor (WQHD), and almost as good (but not quite) as if you did so with a true 5K monitor. Note that doing this means your GPU performance takes a hit, as the computer is doing non-integer scaling. So depending on what you're doing, it's a factor to consider. But as long as you're not doing anything too graphics-heavy, you shouldn't really see much of a difference.

 

[funwithstuff]

The M1 Macs don't support multiple external displays without some workarounds, so bear that in mind. Also know that most cheaper USB docks will no longer charge your Mac while in use, as some of them were killing M1 Macs (overcharge? surge?) and Apple have now blocked them from charging. You can still use them for power, but the Mac won't charge as well, and they'll probably get pretty hot if you use them all day.

Thunderbolt docks are a more solid choice but the market is in flux right now. There are many choices, some which offer passthrough Thunderbolt, some which don't, and some newer ones (mostly backordered) which offer multiple Thunderbolt ports downstream but don't yet include monitor support. It's a bit complex!

 

[deeddawg]

Keep in mind that if you want to run external displays you may want to stick with Thunderbolt docks. They are more expensive, but you can run multiple 4K displays at 60Hz whereas with a USB-C hub you will be limited to a single 4K display at 30Hz. What things to you want to attach to your Mac? If it's just USB-A ports, then staying with a USB-C hub will be cheaper.

Good point - and I 100% plan to purchase the LG 4K UltraFine display to use with this machine.

Don't see myself running multiple displays, just 1 needed for 4k 60FPS stuff.

FYI - current two-port M1 MBP and MBA support only one external display unless you go down the displaylink path.

Still, if you expect to run an external display plus move a lot of data to/from external storage, a thunderbolt hub or dock may be the better choice for the greater throughput vs. a USB3 hub.

I use a Caldigit TS3+ with my M1 MBP and it's been really good. I already owned it -- if I were to buy new I'd look further into the OWC Thunderbolt options.

 

[deckard666]

From a new to the MacBook Pro and TB in general I am amazed at the cost difference between the TB docks and USB C.

 

[deeddawg]

From a new to the MacBook Pro and TB in general I am amazed at the cost difference between the TB docks and USB C.

Let's back up a second... 🧐

USB-C is a connector style. It's used by Thunderbolt 3 and also often by USB3.1 & USB3.2 devices.

What you probably meant to reference is the cost difference between Thunderbolt docks and USB3 docks.

Okay, enough nitpicking...

Basically, Bandwidth is expensive. Thunderbolt has a lot more bandwidth than USB3.

If you want maximal data throughput to an external drive such as a fast SSD while also driving a 4K60 display, you'll want to look at Thunderbolt.

Explaining 4K 60Hz Video Through USB-C Hub | Big Mess o' Wires

www.bigmessowires.com

 

[Sam5281]

This topic is craziness! and to quote someone about "a bit complex" ... yes!

I just want the easiest/simplest solution. No guess work - plug in external and go.

Realizing now - you can't appreciate the ability of the M1/and 4k viewing on such a small 13" screen.

If I'm shopping for the Apple 4k 24" Display, anywhere other then apple that may have better price?

 

[applemacbookm12020]

As someone else who has the 13" MBP, I know what you mean in terms of smaller screen size. That being said, I knew I was always going to have an external monitor / workstation setup for when using the MBP at home (in closed clamshell mode), so I liked that the 13" felt like a "best of both worlds" situation where I got the portability when I wanted to take it with me, and at home I had my external monitor workstation so laptop screen size didn't really matter.

It also helped that for my use case, the 13" MBP was good enough for my needs, and I didn't need the larger 15" (at the time) / 16" (now) screen footprint or cpu/gpu horsepower, and could save money by getting the smaller MBP.

Here's my small desk setup that I've been working from home with for the last year during COVID - I went from using this setup occasionally on weekends, to full-time WFH use, and have been really happy with it.

Nothing too crazy - the monitor is a 27" LG 4K (27UD68P), a great bang-for-your-buck monitor, and the dock was one of the first Thunderbolt 3 docks that came out in early 2017 when Apple debuted the late-2016 MBP (Caldigit TS3 Lite, which they don't make anymore, but was great for my needs).

View attachment 1745575

awesome set up! quick question, I'm using the same monitor as you but I can't get 60hz. I'm using this dock

Hiearcool Docking Station for MacBook Pro, 4K Triple Display 9 in 2 Laptop Docking Station Compatible for MacBook Pro/Air Thunderbolt 3 Multi-Port Dock USB C Dongle (HDMI PD3.0 SD TF Reader RJ45 USB)

Docking Station for MacBook Pro/Air

www.amazon.com

and connecting it with an HDMI cable. I can't get more than 30Hz, any ideas?

 

[Sam5281]

^ Shoulda bought the overly expensive LG Ultrafine, by apple. Cause ya know, then you wouldn't have any issues...
(please read that sarcastically)

I too am extra frustrated I can't find a middle ground priced monitor to use with my 13" M1 MBP.

 

[applemacbookm12020]

^ Shoulda bought the overly expensive LG Ultrafine, by apple. Cause ya know, then you wouldn't have any issues...
(please read that sarcastically)

I too am extra frustrated I can't find a middle ground priced monitor to use with my 13" M1 MBP.

I bought mine off of facebook market place for $200 lol but the fact i cant get 4k @ 60Hz is driving me crazy!

 

[Sam5281]

^ Solid deal, nice find. I hope you get it working properly

 

[Christopher Kim]

awesome set up! quick question, I'm using the same monitor as you but I can't get 60hz. I'm using this dock
and connecting it with an HDMI cable. I can't get more than 30Hz, any ideas?

So I remember there were issues with this monitor running 60Hz over HDMI. I use it over Displayport, and while I still occasionally have 30/60Hz issues using my dock (where I have to turn everything on in the right order), I can get it to 60hz consistently following the procedure.

Assuming you're sure that your HDMI cable is 4K@60Hz capable, check that you've enabled Deep Color Mode in the monitor settings. The default for that is off, and it has to be enabled for 4K@60Hz over HDMI.

It's under Menu > Picture > Picture Adjust > HDMI ULTRA HD DEEP COLOR.