Anker has introduced its first Thunderbolt 5 dock. At roughly 5.2 inches huge and three.4 inches tall, the Anker Prime TB5 Docking Station just isn’t as compact as some opponents, like CalDigit’s Element 5 Hub. But inside its aluminum alloy housing is an built-in GaN energy provide delivering as much as 232W of mixed energy output, so that you gained’t must cope with a chunky energy brick or a cumbersome adapter.
The Prime TB5 Docking Station has 14 ports, in accordance with Anker, together with the SD and microSD reminiscence card slots on the aspect. Along with these you get two 10Gbps USB-C ports, three 10Gbps USB-A ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, a 2.5Gbps ethernet port, a headphone jack, two downstream USB-C Thunderbolt 5 ports providing as much as 120Gbps speeds with a Bandwidth Boost possibility, and an upstream USB-C Thunderbolt 5 port that may ship as much as 140W of energy to a bunch laptop.
For comparability, CalDigit’s TS5 Plus, the reigning champ of Thunderbolt 5 port choices, has 20 ports, together with three Thunderbolt 5, 5 USB-C, and 5 USB-A. The Element 5 Hub has 15.
The Anker Prime dock can join as much as two 8K shows, though Anker says resolutions and refresh charges could also be restricted by the host system’s capabilities. The firm hasn’t stated whether or not triple-display setups are doable; Cable Matters says its Thunderbolt 5 dock might be linked to a few shows working at 8K/60Hz or 4K/144Hz.
Available beginning right now via Anker’s on-line retailer and different retailers for $399.99, the TB5 Docking Station additionally incorporates a ring of adjustable ambient LED lighting across the high and a U-shaped air duct with a cooling fan that makes use of an “clever temperature algorithm” to forestall overheating and efficiency loss. Its firmware may also be up to date remotely utilizing Anker’s Dock Manager software program, making software program upkeep simpler in amenities with a number of in use.
