Review: OWC's Thunderbolt 3 Dock Gives Your MacBook Pro 13 More Ports to Work With

[linhvb]

Hi from a newbie in the forum and also the mac world, just got one of this from ebay at a good price. Everything seems fine except for the hiss that appears as soon as I plug in/turn on the dock. Seems like this is one of the units from the early batch (mostly sent to reviewers and some of them reported this problem), as I don't have proper proof of purchase, OWC refused to provide warranty support for this. Anybody encountered this problem and have got a solution?

Thanks very much in advance,
Linh

 

[paulfarr0w]

I do not see that problem. I have had mine for a week and the only issue I had was once my external monitor was not recognized when waking up from sleep. Unplugging it and plugging it back in fixed the issue.

So you actually got one? Was it worth the wait? Does it charge the macbook pro through the thunderbolt 3 cable?

 

[richpjr]

So you actually got one? Was it worth the wait? Does it charge the macbook pro through the thunderbolt 3 cable?

I don't anything hugely taxing on my MBP so it charges just fine. The only issue I have with it is that about half of the time when I plug my MBP in the morning and wake it up from sleep, it doesn't recognize my external monitor until I unplug and plug it back in. Then it flashes a few times and works fine.

It's worth it to me because I have a whole bunch of stuff plugged into it and having a single cable into my MBP removes a whole bunch of clutter on my desk.

 

[paulfarr0w]

I don't anything hugely taxing on my MBP so it charges just fine. The only issue I have with it is that about half of the time when I plug my MBP in the morning and wake it up from sleep, it doesn't recognize my external monitor until I unplug and plug it back in. Then it flashes a few times and works fine.

It's worth it to me because I have a whole bunch of stuff plugged into it and having a single cable into my MBP removes a whole bunch of clutter on my desk.

Ok sounds good. Put in my pre-order, will be interesting to see how long it takes. I appreciate your feedback, I mean its the only one in town to be honest - none of the other docks come close to what this is offering (I believe).

 

[Sasha-1]

Hi from a newbie in the forum and also the mac world, just got one of this from ebay at a good price. Everything seems fine except for the hiss that appears as soon as I plug in/turn on the dock. Seems like this is one of the units from the early batch (mostly sent to reviewers and some of them reported this problem), as I don't have proper proof of purchase, OWC refused to provide warranty support for this. Anybody encountered this problem and have got a solution?

Thanks very much in advance,
Linh

They won't provide warranty support?

1. obviously, they made it.
2. obviously, it's less than two years old.

Why wouldn't they support it? That seems completely retarded to me. And I have purchased from OWC as well. Let us know if they fail to offer you support. That will shape my future purchases. If they don't want to support it, I'd need to hear what their reason for this is? They think it is a review unit sold on ebay perhaps? If that's the case, they should stick a plate on it saying it is an NFR and make it so obvious that these can't be sold on ebay without you knowing it is an NFR by looking at the picture. Otherwise these things can happen. And now you're stuck with a hissing unit that will drive you madd over time. And now how are you feeling about OWC? See in my opinion, they have everything to gain by helping you and very little to lose. Call it good karma for being stupid and not putting a plate on the product calling it an NFR if that's the reason in the first place.

 

[gskibum]

Hi from a newbie in the forum and also the mac world, just got one of this from ebay at a good price. Everything seems fine except for the hiss that appears as soon as I plug in/turn on the dock. Seems like this is one of the units from the early batch (mostly sent to reviewers and some of them reported this problem), as I don't have proper proof of purchase, OWC refused to provide warranty support for this. Anybody encountered this problem and have got a solution?

Thanks very much in advance,
Linh

I wouldn't buy a box of paper clips from ebay. Scammers abound. The thing was probably stolen.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I wouldn't buy a box of paper clips from ebay. Scammers abound. The thing was probably stolen.

Wow, talk about some serious bias against eBay.... It's a bit like saying everything at all garage sales or in the classifieds for sale in the local newspaper "are probably stolen."

 

[Msanii]

Last November, longtime Mac vendor OWC was among the first wave of companies to announce Thunderbolt 3 docks designed to expand the capabilities of the new MacBook Pro. It's taken a while to finalize the product design, testing, and manufacturing, but OWC's Thunderbolt 3 Dock is now just about ready to ship and we've had a chance to spend some time with a production-ready unit.

Priced at $299, OWC's Thunderbolt 3 Dock includes an array of 13 ports to allow you to connect a host of devices to your MacBook Pro. It all comes in a package measuring about 9 inches by 3.5 inches and an inch thick, with brushed aluminum around the sides and glossy black plastic on top and bottom.

The design is relatively unobtrusive, although the OWC logo and "Thunderbolt 3 Dock" text on the front are fairly prominent. The dock is powered through a decently large external power brick, which cuts down on the size of the dock itself but means there's one more piece of equipment to tuck away with all of your other cords.


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Article Link: Review: OWC's Thunderbolt 3 Dock Gives Your MacBook Pro 13 More Ports to Work With

After waiting for the this dock for so long I decided to get the 10 port thunderbolt3 version for my MacBookpro 15" usbc. Bad idea, it doesn't work anymore after only 2 days of use. Goodbye OWC, I hope the 13 port version will be better.

 

[NomadicTy]

i just got a new 15" mbp, and I am needing to connect it to some of my accessories soon. On the OWC site, it says it will be delivered on the 21st, which is 10 days from now. Has the posted date of shipment that close ever?

Also, when I look at the DC In port on the photos on the OWC site, it says "20V 6.75A". So I'm calculating that at 135 W. I do not see anywhere on the site where it says it only supplies 60 W. Surely a dock would not be using up more than half the wattage taken in, right?

 

[dipan]

I was late pre-ordering the OWC TB3 dock, but just got shipping confirmation for next week. Anyone who ordered this should have received it already or delivery should be in process. What a long wait for any of these TB3 device (pretty ridiculous really... Apple has gone through two model revisions of notebooks with TB3 already!?!).

Anyway, hopefully it will work well. This one seems to have the best combination of ports/options for me, especially the SD card reader, which seems uncommon/unique.

 

[44267547]

Larry,

I've been waiting for this dock for awhile, but it is riddled with logos and labels. For a high end product like this, it should be visually appealing and not distracting to look at. I'm now waiting for Belkins offering... although I think their dock is lacking in ports.

Is there a way to remove the logos and labels? I'm more than willing to buy the product if I can get rid of them somehow and not tarnish the anodizing.

Best,
George

George,

Why would it matter about deleting the logos and labels off a product? It's frivolous in nature. But I'm sure you would do the same to your iPhone given the chance. Let me guess, your response is going to be that You don't care. Am I right?

 

[brainsnorkel]

Good thought. I have tried two DP -> mDP cables. Both would be a 12-18 months old and appear to be from different manufacturers. They both exhibit the same problem with the dock and work fine with a 13" Mid-2011 MBP (<4k), 13" late 2013 MBPR (4k), and the USB-C/DP dongle (4k).

I'll see if I can borrow some other cables to test. Maybe they're marginal quality.

Following up on this post. The dock must have been defective. I was shipped a replacement that works fine with a directly connected mini-DP cable to a 4k 60Hz monitor. No glitching.

 

[gman36]

George,

Why would it matter about deleting the logos and labels off a product? It's frivolous in nature. But I'm sure you would do the same to your iPhone given the chance. Let me guess, your response is going to be that You don't care. Am I right?

Frankly, I think the logos and labels make a premium product look cheap. I would say the same if Apple put usb-c labels on the 2016+ MacBooks... but they don’t.

But then again, if you need a label to distinguish the difference between an HDMI vs a USB type A, do you think you’d be in the market for this product?

 

[Derek5]

The vast majority of the delay has truly been beyond our control. You may or may not notice the plethora of EFI updates rolled in with each of the 10.12.x OS updates over the last 5 months. The good news is it is about making sure all is good and right. It's frustrating for all - and we get close and then we are back waiting... but now that's in the rearview.

While I would agree - we're already later than it should have been, we truly are in the home stretch. I personally flew to oversee final details on the production line and been interfacing with the powers that be to keep hiccups off. I share what I can, when I can...

I sincerely appreciate the patience - the Dock rocks (and we'll reach out on any noise as that's not to be expected, these are quiet) - and the wait is nearly over. I hate that it's taken this long and, again, can't say enough thank you's for the patience.

Thank you.

I waited and waited and kept my fingers crossed... I am glad you guys finally got something out the door. I was worried when a couple of your competitors delivered a few months earlier. But, I really wished you hadn't dropped the power output to 60W. With the power requirements of the 15" MBP at 85W, it seems like this dock lost half of its customers right out of the gate. Any future plans to release a version 2 with more power?

 

[bartvk]

With the power requirements of the 15" MBP at 85W

It doesn't work like that. Apple added a 85W brick to the laptop because the USB-C ports all can deliver 15W of power. If you don't usually charge high-wattage devices off of the ports, the laptop doesn't need 85W.

So what does it need at its minimum? Well, I've run Handbrake, which maxes all four cores and power usage was limited to 60W. But I get through the days on 45W chargers easily.

 

[carestudio]

It depends on how you use your macbook pro and what laptops you have. 15" MBP usually requires 85W to do the normal speed charge. If you use bus powered USB devices such as SSD, or external hard disks a lot or plug in thunderbolt bus powered devices such as 10G Ethernet adapter or anything that would draw power from laptop, you will find 60W charging from dock is not adequate since those 60W will be supporting your laptop, and any external devices plugged in to your laptop. The worst case would be down to 22W to charge your laptop only instead of 60W, and you will find your laptop slowly discharged until you stop using external bus powered devices, or till your laptop battery drains and you will need to plug in Apple's 85W charger.

 

[paulfarr0w]

But, I really wished you hadn't dropped the power output to 60W. With the power requirements of the 15" MBP at 85W, it seems like this dock lost half of its customers right out of the gate.

I have been running my OWC thunderbolt 3 dock for a month or so now and its BRILLIANT. You don't even notice the low power output as its adequate. I run a cell phone and ipad on the usb sockets daily. The laptop charges from empty np at the same time as cell and ipad. I have NOT had any issues with charging from this dock.

The only thing I wish is that you could control the optical out from software ie on or off because once you connect the optical out up to something you can't turn off the audio going that way and you might want to plug headphones with microphone up to it for skpe and the likes without unplugging the optical point. I did contact OWC for help on this and they weren't very helpful !

But other than that optical out issue, I love this dock. Ok its a tad expensive but it works well.

 

[bartvk]

If you use bus powered USB devices such as SSD, or external hard disks a lot or plug in thunderbolt bus powered devices such as 10G Ethernet adapter or anything that would draw power from laptop, you will find 60W charging from dock is not adequate

These each use maybe 2 or 3 W, really not all that much. When connected to an external screen, the laptop itself uses 15-20 W when mailing, browsing, et cetera. It'll still charge.

The only usage situation where it'll slowly discharge the laptop, is when you charge multiple high-powered devices off the laptop, up to the maximum each (15W), plus continuously use Handbrake.