Review: Anker's 778 Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station Offers an Array of USB and Display Connectivity Options

[bradman83]

What is the technical limitation that prevents it working with non-Pro processors?

Standard M1 and M2 chips only support Thunderbolt 3, whereas M1/M2 Pro/Max/Ultra chips all support Thunderbolt 4. This is a Thunderbolt 4 dock.

The dock will probably work fine if you plug it in, since TB4 is backwards compatible with TB3, it's that Anker is opting to not officially support it on non-TB4 machines. (CalDigit takes the opposite approach by providing official support and a handy table showing what capabilities their TB4 dock has on everything from plain old USB-C to TB3 to TB4 machines).

 

[theluggage]

What is the technical limitation that prevents it working with non-Pro processors?

Looks like it needs a Thunderbolt 4 port which supports two displays. Non-Pro M1 & M2 Macbooks only support a single display via Thunderbolt (and, technically only have Thunderbolt 3 ports).

Note that it says "not compatible with M1 and M2 MacBooks" - the M2 Mini might work (although I can't think why you'd want to know). Fun fact: M2 Minis have Thunderbolt 4 but MacBook Airs still only have Thunderbolt 3 (probably because they only support one external display and the TB4 specs require 2)

But, more generally, Mac doesn't support DisplayPort daisy-chaining - which allows PCs to split one display port stream between multiple displays - so with any TB or USB-C docks with multiple DisplayPort outputs you need to carefully check Mac compatibility.

The M1 display topic and the graphic on the Anker page are very confusing.

Yes, but what I think they're saying is that M1/M2 Pro machines (and maybe the M2 Mini) can support one display via the downstream TB port and one display via one of the DP/HDMI ports.

Or - TLNR - don't buy this dock if you mainly want to use it with a Mac. It's "unique selling point" is dual DisplayPorts that PCs can use for multiple displays via DisplayPort daisy-chaining but which Macs don't support.

 

[pappl]

I'm missing TB4 docking stations without extrernal power supplies.
My monitor supports USB-C (TB & PowerDelivery), so i'd like to see:

Monitor <-USB-C-> TB dock with additional ports <-USB-C-> Mac (charging & DP-AltMode from/to monitor)

Havent found any dock which can do PowerDelivery AND DP (AltMode over USB-C).

This would be great, to only have only two USB-C cables in total for a complete desktop setup.

 

[itsthenewdc]

How do these high-end types of docks continue to be made without multi-gig support. I mean, I guess you could use a TB adapter, but it's just ridiculous, even more so with the price it's at.

 

[antibolo]

Apple needs to fix their daisy-chaining limitations, it's getting absurd at this point.

 

[carbonrain]

a Gigabit Ethernet port

All that money and still just a gigabit ethernet port? shame..

 

[rmariboe]

Get the OWC Pro if you desire 10 GbE; it works flawlessly, even with an eGPU daisy connected through it (albeit the heap of connectivity does technically impede performance though I haven’t really noticed) 🤷🏽‍♂️

 

[TheKrs1]

Can I please just get a hub with 2.5 Gig ethernet and dual monitor output. (preferably through USB-C, but I'd take HDMI if I had to).

 

[ChromeAce]

“Pro” users don’t need 1998 USB-A ports. They need 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports for external drives. They need a 10Gb ethernet port.

DisplayPort is dead. HDMI is on all pro Macs already.

These companies keep trying to widen the audience for their products and end up pleasing no one.

 

[GlryX]

What T-Bolt 4 dock with HDMI are people recommending over this? It's been surprisngly difficult to hone in on one for my 16" MBP. The Kensington SD5780T was my leading choice before reading about this one - but this one had HDMI 2..1