Review: Satechi's Thunderbolt 4 Dock Expands Mac Connectivity

[MacRumors]

Satechi's Thunderbolt 4 Dock provides a multitude of ports, including three Thunderbolt 4 ports, four USB-A ports, Gigabit Ethernet, a UHS-II card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack, to increase your Mac setup's versatility for a price of $299.

Thunderbolt allows data transfer from all of the ports to take place through a single cable connected to your host device. While not all Macs have a Thunderbolt 4 port, Thunderbolt 4 is backwards compatible, meaning that most Mac models since 2016 should work with Satechi's Thunderbolt 4 Dock, as well as the latest iPad Pro models. The dock comes with a U.S. power adapter and a short Thunderbolt 4 cable. Many competitors are still using Thunderbolt 3, so Satechi's Thunderbolt 4 dock is a great way to get the latest specification.

The dock features a compact, premium look with a sleek aluminum enclosure. It has a tapered design, with recesses on either side housing glossy black plastic with cutouts for the various ports. Though it's a minor concern, I did find the protective film on the glossy plastic difficult to remove since it is recessed so deeply inside the enclosure.

Rubber feet on the underside of the dock stop it from sliding around on surfaces and the overall design feels solid and sturdy. The anodized aluminum finish closely matches Apple's Space Gray, which is perfect for having a consistent-looking setup providing that is your Apple device color of choice, but I wish Satechi would offer a silver option too.

The Thunderbolt 4 Dock is a "plug and play" device, not requiring any additional software or drivers. It features a single Thunderbolt 4 host port that should be connected directly to your Mac or iPad Pro. Simply connect the dock to power and hook a Thunderbolt cable up from the host device Thunderbolt port to a port on your Mac, and you're ready to go.

In my experience, the dock is easiest to set up with a single, all-in-one Mac like a MacBook Pro or an iMac. When you want to use an external display, things have to be thought through a little more carefully. My LG UltraFine Thunderbolt display did not seem to work when connected to one of the three non-host Thunderbolt 4 ports, meaning I had to connect any displays I wanted to use directly to my Mac. Satechi claims that the dock supports dual 4K HDMI output up to 60Hz, so I believe this is just an issue with my LG UltraFine display, rather than a reflection on Satechi's dock.

You can connect up to three USB-C devices to the dock's Thunderbolt 4 ports, with support for 40 Gbps data transfer and 15W charging on each port. The three USB-A 3.2 data ports are ideal for fast data transfers and backups with transfer speeds up to 10 Gbps. When I maxed out the ports with devices like external hard drives, some accessories seemed to be drawing too much power and triggering a warning in macOS, but generally the dock seems to handle lots of devices very well. The single USB-A charging port can be used to power or charge a device with up to 7.5W of power, and there is also a Gigabit Ethernet port and a UHS-II card reader slot, all of which seem to work perfectly.

Overall, Satechi's Thunderbolt 4 Dock provides a great way to simplify cable management, particularly for MacBooks, and expand your Mac's selection of ports in more demanding setups and with a single, fast, reliable connection.

How to Buy

The Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Dock is available from Satechi's website. Note that it only comes with a U.S. power adapter.

• Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Dock – $299.99

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner of Satechi. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running. Satechi provided MacRumors with a Thunderbolt 4 Dock for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.

Article Link: Review: Satechi's Thunderbolt 4 Dock Expands Mac Connectivity

 

[joecomo]

I clearly don’t see the value of these things.

First of all Gigabit Ethernet doesn’t cut it these days for a desktop hub.

2nd - if you connect a decent Monitor - it can charge your device and gives you already an usb-c hub (and there is not so much bandwidth available after video anyhow - specially with a Pro Display XDR )

3rd - I have observed latency issue with these hubs and simple USB devices - like a simpel wireless mouse.

So you mess up your desk and drain your wallet for nothing …

 

[aajeevlin]

First of all Gigabit Ethernet doesn’t cut it these days for a desktop hub.

I’m not sure if I understand this statement? Care to say more?

 

[ikir]

It would be better to have 2,5/5/10 Gbit ethernet than so much USB at 10GB's speed that can be already achieved by Thunderbolt ports.

 

[Artemis70]

I do get the need for a dock. I have a Lenovo dock that goes with my work provided Thinkpad. Having to connect just one connecter is great. Unfortunately, the Lenovo dock will mirror the two external displays when I connect my MacBook Pro. I would like a dock that works with both my Lenovo X1 Carbon and my MacBook Pro 14", that allows me to connect two 4K screens using HDMI. Reason for HDMI is that I am not ready to replace my two perfectly good displays that do not have thunderbolt nor USB-C.
Anyone know a dock that can do this? This Satechi can't.

 

[tmoerel]

I’m not sure if I understand this statement? Care to say more?

Yes, 2.5Gbit would be much better. Like some other thunderbolt stations have.

 

[aajeevlin]

Yes, 2.5Gbit would be much better. Like some other thunderbolt stations have.

Most of the pathetic US ISP can barely hit 300 (even that’s a big stretch to say). What’s the point of 2.5?

I don’t see the need as of this point. Maybe if all the ISP actually manage to offer 2Gbits internet then it might be useful.

Unless you are taking about additional use case that I’m not familiar with?

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Most of the pathetic US ISP can barely hit 300 (even that’s a big stretch to say). What’s the point of 2.5?

I don’t see the need as of this point. Maybe if all the ISP actually manage to offer 2Gbits internet then it might be useful.

Unless you are taking about a

Local networking can take advantage of it even if your ISP can’t. Internal file transfers are important as well.

 

[Wokis]

Seems based on the reference spec TB4 dock that most dockmakers have a model of. Differentiating feature seems to be having a USB 2.0 port in the front as well, which I like.

The main issue for me with all of these being the odd choice of front-facing I/O. The laptop-connecting port certainly didn't need to be in the front, instead I'd rather have more USB facing me.

 

[conigs]

Looks like exact same port configuration and features of the OWC Thunderbolt Dock, the Kensington Thunderbolt dock, and the Sonnet Thunderbolt dock…
I have the Sonnet and run into the same external display issues but with the Apple Studio Display. Sometimes the monitor is recognized when plugged into the dock, most of the time it’s not and I have to plug it directly into the computer.

As far as not seeing the use case for these docks… it’s great to have Ethernet, my Thunderbolt RAIDs, Wacom tablet, and occasional other external drives all with one cable to my MacBook Pro.

 

[DHagan4755]

I’m not sure if I understand this statement? Care to say more?

Not that it's obsolete but more recently even faster Ethernet has appeared. This helps with performance on things like network attached storage which usually connects on 10Gbps Ethernet. And Verizon & Comcast is starting offer service at 2Gbps in some parts of the country.

 

[jlc1978]

I clearly don’t see the value of these things.

It depends on your use case. I find one useful because I can:
1. Connect to my router via ethernet
2 Have my Time Machine drive connected
3. Attach a second monitor
4. Charge my iPhone
5. Charge my MBP

all via 1 cable attachment to the MBP.
YMMV

 

[aajeevlin]

Not that it's obsolete but more recently even faster Ethernet has appeared. This helps with performance on things like network attached storage which usually connects on 10Gbps Ethernet. And Verizon & Comcast is starting offer service at 2Gbps in some parts of the country.

I’ll give you the local NAS needing the speed.

But saying you need more than 1Gpbs because ISP offering 2 Gbps is a bit of s stretch. The ISP that offer higher speed is few and far in between. On top of that people have to know that their network equipment would have to have the ability to take advantage of the 2Gbps speed which I doubt most will.

 

[theluggage]

First of all Gigabit Ethernet doesn’t cut it these days for a desktop hub.

Yes, 2.5G would have been nicer even if 10G was too expensive. That would come under "future proofing" for most people, though since it's useless unless your switches, NASs and other computers support 2.5. I guess 1G satisfies the masses

2nd - if you connect a decent Monitor - it can charge your device and gives you already an usb-c hub

There are only a handful of true Thunderbolt displays with actual USB 3 downstream connectors. Most USB-C 4k displays can't support a USB 3 hub over a single upstream USB-C cable: 4k DisplayPort 1.2 uses all 4 high-speed data pairs in a USB-C cable, just leaving a single legacy USB 2 stream. So, on most displays, the USB hub - whatever connectors it features - only has 480Mbps of USB 2 bandwidth to share.

What you're missing about this dock is that it has 3 downstream Thunderbolt 4 connectors - up to 40Gbps (but obviously not all at once) - which is something that only became possible with TB4/USB4 and which you won't find with older hubs.

Also, in theory the USB 3.2 A ports (together with the TB4 ports used in USB mode) on a Thunderbolt dock should have a lot more bandwidth to share than a regular USB-C hub, where all the ports share a single USB 3.1 stream. On TB 2/3 the hub would contain additional PCIe-to-USB controllers. Not sure what happens on TB4/USB4 (which supports USB tunnelling). It's really frustrating that none of these "reviews" (or the makers own tech specs) never properly check this out or provide detailed specs.

Thing is, each of the 3 TB4 ports on (say) the MacBook Pro has it's own controller capable of (in theory) 40Gbps bandwidth - but there are very few single devices that actually need a whole 40Gbps to themselves - so hubs/docks like this are needed to allow each of those ports to drive multiple 1Gbps/5Gbps/10Gbps etc. devices. (Well, you can daisy-chain "true" thunderbolt peripherals if they've got a second TB port for that purpose - and a lot of small/portable TB devices skimp on that).

...also, each downstream TB4 port has to support 15W, but the host ports on Macs only supply a single 15W, so TB4 hubs are stuck with external power bricks, even if you don't want to use them for charging.

 

[danieldk]

First of all Gigabit Ethernet doesn’t cut it these days for a desktop hub.

Even worse, looking at the vendor ID, this appears to be a Realtek RTL8153 ethernet NIC. Often these only reach 750MBit/s to 900MBit/s in practice and put a lot of load on a CPU core, because they use the ancient USB CDC-ECM class.

To add to the fun, docks with RTL8153 are known to take down routers/switches when they are attached to the network without a computer attached.

Unfortunately, many reviews of docks fail to mention such issues, since they do not test the docks for prolonged times under different circumstances (e.g. CDC-ECM CPU load is not going to be an issue if you are on 50MBit/s upstream).

At any rate, always buy a Thunderbolt Dock with e.g. an Intel I210/I225 attached to the PCIe express bus (which is tunneled through Thunderbolt). Not only will you have a proper NIC with offloading that doesn't peg a CPU core and will reach 1Gbit without issues. If the vendor was too cheap to use a proper PCIe NIC, then usually the other functionality of the dock also uses subpar components.

 

[ruka.snow]

Remove the SD and USB-A ports then swap out the pitiful 1Gbps Ethernet for at least 2.5 Gbps and it’ll start to look like a good product. Sometimes less is more, shoving in lots of cheep antiquated ports doesn’t add value.

 

[jlc1978]

Remove the SD and USB-A ports

I suspect, given many have USB-A cables they're still useful for a significant percentage of the market for the device.
A SD slot is greta for creating a backup drive that you can take with you in case yours fails while traveling away from the TM backup.

swap out the pitiful 1Gbps Ethernet for at least 2.5 Gbps and it’ll start to look like a good product. Sometimes less is more, shoving in lots of cheep antiquated ports doesn’t add value.

I suspect most users would not see any difference between 1 and 2.5, or even 10 Gbps for how they would use their network. Most work from home users probably don't even get 1GBps; I have a 1 Gbps fiber service but am lucky if my actual speeds are .6Gbps.

If adding 2.5/10 Gbps Ethernet adds to the costs I can see skipping it to hit a price point.

 

[theluggage]

But saying you need more than 1Gpbs because ISP offering 2 Gbps is a bit of s stretch. The ISP that offer higher speed is few and far in between.

Well, on that argument we'd still all be using 10BASE-T ethernet because that was so much faster than the dial-up modems we used at the time.

There are uses for fast "local" networking beyond internet access and it's really frustrating that affordable Ethernet has been stuck on 1Gbps for so long. 10Gb NAS, switches etc. are still pricey* (although Apple is pushing it in the Mini and Studio) but 2.5Gb stuff is more affordable (that's the whole point of 2.5G and 5G being released after 10G) and it should be starting to turn up in products like this by now.

Probably not Satechi's fault as such, since they're inevitably just re-packaging one of a small number of white label TB4 hub products.

(* not so much over-priced, but only really available in enterprise-grade products)

 

[error]

I've got the OWC TB3 hub and it's excellent. Everything I need (display, network, power, eyetv, external drives, charging cables plus optical audio out directly to my Denon amp) using one USB-C port. This new Satechi TB4 hub looks good, especially for those with just two USB-C ports.

 

[DHagan4755]

But saying you need more than 1Gpbs because ISP offering 2 Gbps is a bit of s stretch. The ISP that offer higher speed is few and far in between

That's a little short sighted. 5 or so years ago I didn't I think we'd ever get consumer gigabit Internet - yet I have FiOS gigabit Internet now. And FiOS is synchronous unlike Comcast which means you get the same upload speed as you get for downloads. The caveat to that right now is there is TCP overhead right now so it's not the full 1000 Mbps (it's 940/880) but with offerings of 2Gbps in some areas, those are only temporary barriers. If you're working from home making money on projects which require a lot of uploading/downloading, that 2 Gbps connection saves time. Someone buying this dock is probably the person who might be uploading/downloading video/photos on a 2 Gbps Internet connection.

 

[aajeevlin]

That's a little short sighted. 5 or so years ago I didn't I think we'd ever get consumer gigabit Internet - yet I have FiOS gigabit Internet now. And FiOS is synchronous unlike Comcast which means you get the same upload speed as you get for downloads. The caveat to that right now is there is TCP overhead right now so it's not the full 1000 Mbps (it's 940/880) but with offerings of 2Gbps in some areas, those are only temporary barriers. If you're working from home making money on projects which require a lot of uploading/downloading, that 2 Gbps connection saves time. Someone buying this dock is probably the person who might be uploading/downloading video/photos on a 2 Gbps Internet connection.

So that was 5 years ago and FiOS and most of Gig internet still only apply to such small population.

Then you are looking at 2Gig, the necessary home network (router, switch, ethernet cable most only support up to 1000) that need to support this as well as any of the platform that you are "uploading to" that would also have to be able to sustain the 2Gig speed. To me that is someone that REALLY wants and know that they can use the full 2Ggig speed for sure.

I'm not saying there is no need for > 1 Gig network device. If I was buying any dedicated card these days I would totally buy something that's 2.5Gig, but on a hub device like this? I think it's too much to ask for.

 

[ruka.snow]

I suspect most users would not see any difference between 1 and 2.5, or even 10 Gbps for how they would use their network. Most work from home users probably don't even get 1GBps; I have a 1 Gbps fiber service but am lucky if my actual speeds are .6Gbps.

If adding 2.5/10 Gbps Ethernet adds to the costs I can see skipping it to hit a price point.

The internet isn’t the only use for Ethernet. The users that don’t need 2.5 or 10 Gbps also likely don’t need Ethernet at all.

 

[BGPL]

For $300, I would expect 10Gbps Ethernet. Also, it needs to have HDMI and DP.

Some of us out there still transfer very large files to/from other computers or to a network area storage system.

 

[JPIndustrie]

There are so many other options for TB docks its crazy. The one I have has less ports but actually has a built in NVME drive that I use as both a dock AND a Time machine disk.

 

[Trey M]

I had this Satechi TB4 dock and recently returned it primarily due to 2 issues:

1) The dock lacked consistency waking my 14” MBP and connected accessories. Sometimes it’d work fine, other times the MacBook would not be able to be woken without physically disconnecting and reconnecting the TB4 port. The only workaround for this was to change settings when connected to a power adapter to disallow the computer sleeping, which is a big waste of power and an ugly workaround. One of the big theoretical improvements from TB3 > TB4 was supposed to be around this sleep/wake behavior inconsistency, but it seems it remains unresolved with this Satechi unit and possibly others using the same reference design.

2) The front facing host TB4 port. I obviously knew about this going in but it bothered me more than I imagined when it was deployed on my desk

I instead opted for the pricier Caldigit TS4 and I’m VERY pleased with my decision to go with Caldigit. More ports, 2.5GB Ethernet for future proofing, dedicated DisplayPort, rear host TB4 and sleeker design all highlight the experience. For full disclosure, early units of the TS4 suffered from similar sleep/wake issues similar to the the Satechi issues mentioned above, however the Caldigit unit I received was released in the latest batch and includes a firmware update which did rectify this errant behavior. I never personally experienced this issue since it was resolved in firmware by the time I received the unit.

In several weeks working from home, I haven’t encountered any sleep or other related issues with the TS4. It just works and I have the unit fairly maxed out (all 3 TB ports utilized, Ethernet connected, etc). I’ve tested the dock via SpeedTest app and it consistently clocks around 850-950mbps download on a 1G Att fiber subscription. Many other docks seem to cap around 700-800 even though it’s a 1G port. There is some truth to the post above about the Realtek RTL8153 NIC; it and similar NICs have a ton of complaints online.