OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock review: A Goldilocks docking station with just enough ports

Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating

Pros

11 ports, including four Thunderbolt 5

2.5Gb Ethernet

Cons

No extra USB-C ports

Our Verdict
This dock could be the sweet spot for business or home users who want to take advantage of the Mac’s new super-fast Thunderbolt 5 ports.

Price When Reviewed
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Thunderbolt 5 is a much bigger performance shift than Thunderbolt 4 was over Thunderbolt 3, which was just some Windows certification changes plus a few actual spec updates.

The latest Thunderbolt 5 (TB5) connection standard doubles the bandwidth from 40Gbps to bi-directional 80Gbps, with 120Gbps possible as enhanced Bandwith Boost for video. PCIe throughput increases from 32Gbps to 64Gbps, which is particularly beneficial for storage such as high-performance SSDs or RAID devices. Power delivery potential over Thunderbolt 5 goes up from 100W to 240W.

OWC is one of the major makers of docking stations, so we have been looking forward to testing its first Thunderbolt 5 dock. OWC also has a cut-down Thunderbolt 5 Hub, which we will be testing soon.

Aside from the new, faster connection standard there are a few differences to the company’s Thunderbolt 4 Dock.




Simon Jary

Design

The OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock is squatter than the TB4 dock but retains the aluminum shell with shiny black top. While the glossy top looks sleek it is prone to marks and scratches, so keep it tucked away on your desk—to be seen, for sure, but not fondled.

It measures 7 x 3.1 x 1.7 inches (17.8 x 7.8 x 4.2cm) and weighs 1.17lb (530g).

The ports are well situated with the upstream Thunderbolt 5 port that connects to your laptop at the back, rather than the front as was the case with the TB4 model. We prefer the laptop Thunderbolt cable to be hidden at the back, so this is a welcome change from OWC.

At the back are two of the downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports. Some dock makers, such as CalDigit, compromise with one fewer TB port to make way for a dedicated video port. They argue that dock users will be attaching at least one external display so would have to use one of the TB ports anyway and also require a video adapter cable.

However, placing an HDMI or DisplayPort means you either have to use that type of video connection or buy an adapter if your monitor uses the other video connector. And if your monitor connects via USB-C then you’d need to use one of the Thunderbolt ports and would leave the video port empty.

OWC’s choice to give you the flexibility to decide how you want to attach a monitor might mean you need to buy a USB-C to DisplayPort or HDMI adapter, but you won’t be wasting a valuable port if you connect via USB-C/Thunderbolt.

At the front are the two fast card readers, a 10Gbps USB-A port, the audio jack and a power button. A recent enhancement added a lip to the microSD slot to make it easier to get the card out of the dock. It’s not pretty but it works well.

Video options

While we’re talking video, the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock is a great solution if you want to connect up to two monitors.

Windows users can add up to three (up to three 8K displays at 60Hz, or two 8K displays at 120Hz) but Apple limits Thunderbolt docks to just two. This is the same for all docks with Macs—to connect more than two external displays between dock and Mac you’ll need a docking station that supports DisplayLink software or use the MacBook’s own Thunderbolt or HDMI port.

Refresh rate is, to some degree, determined by whether the connected display supports Display Stream Compression (DSC). Non-DSC displays offer lower refresh rates. Currently, MacBooks equipped with the top-end M4 Max support up to dual 8K at 60Hz with DSC, while all other Apple silicon models support up to dual 6K at 60Hz with DSC. See our list of the best displays for Mac.

In terms of refresh rates, all Apple silicon Macs can drive a single 4K display at 144Hz. Newer models, such as all M4 versions and M2 or M3 Pro and Max chips, can also support 4K at 240Hz. For dual high refresh rate displays, only M4 Pro and M4 Max models can handle dual 4K at 144Hz.

Looking beyond current Mac limitations, the dock itself can support up to three 8K displays at 60Hz with DSC for Windows users.




Simon Jary

Specs and features

One upstream Thunderbolt 5 port (80Gbps, 140W)

Three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports (80Gbps, 15W)

Two USB-A ports (10Gbps, 7.5W)

One USB-A port (5Gbps, 7.5W)

Ethernet (2.5Gb)

UHS-II SD card reader (312MBps)

UHS-II microSD card reader (312MBps)

3.5mm combo audio jack (front)

180W power supply

11 ports is about average for a docking station. There are docks with more—the CalDigit TS5 Plus has a staggering 20 including ten USB—but the OWC roster should be fine for most users.

There are three legacy USB-A ports, two at 10GBps and one at 5Gbps. Although Thunderbolt can be used as USB-C, we would have liked to see at least one extra USB-C port at 20W or over to allow for iPhone fast charging. The TB ports support 15W power but Apple’s recommended minimum for fast charging is 18W. Some other docks offer a front-facing USB-C port with 20W or more output potential for this purpose.

The upstream Thunderbolt 5 port can supply 140W of power to the laptop, which is enough to fast-charge even the top-end 16-inch MacBook Pro.

With the three other TB ports rated at 15W and three USB-A at 7.5W, the 180W power supply will not be able to cope with all the ports outputting at their maximum. The same is true for many other docks, including the Sonnet Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 Dock, and to be fair 180W is higher than you get from some docks and should be enough for most users.

The USB-A ports can output up to 7.5W if you install the OWC Dock Ejector software; otherwise, they are limited to 4.5W.  Dock Ejector allows users to quickly unmount storage connected to the dock. The macOS version contains an optional driver to enable the old but still widely used Apple SuperDrive DVD writer.

If you need more power from your dock, you’ll have to pay a premium for the CalDigit TS5 Plus that maxes at 330W, which is the highest we’ve seen.

The two card readers are both rated at SD 4.0 UHS-II so can handle 312MBps transfer speeds, faster than the 250MBps SDXC card slot built into Apple’s MacBook Pro. Using these tiny storage cards is an inexpensive way of boosting your MacBook‘s storage. At the time of writing a 1TB microSD card was priced at under $100, although that is at 104MBps UHS-I speed. Faster cards will cost you more.




Simon Jary

Network speeds

The majority of home networks are still rated at the standard 1Gb (Gigabit) Ethernet, but more modern office networks are much faster at 2.5Gb, 5Gb or even 10Gb speeds.

The latest professional docks including a 2.5 gigabit Ethernet (2.5GbE) port as standard, and the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock is one of them. If your network isn’t up to this speed yet, don’t worry, as the faster Ethernet is backwards compatible and future-proofs you for when your network is upgraded.

Price

The OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock is priced at $329.99 and sometimes at a discount at Amazon, which is cheaper than the CalDigit TS5 ($369) and TS5 Plus ($499) but with fewer ports and the Sonnet Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 Dock (from $439) but without the built-in SSD storage.

Its main competition is the Plugable Thunderbolt 5 Dock (TBT-UDT3) that is priced at $299.99. This has an almost identical line up of ports and power, although the OWC dock boasts slightly more powerful USB-A ports.

A cheaper Thunderbolt 5 option is to consider a hub rather than a full dock. OWC offers its own, unsurprisingly called the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub, and priced at $189.99. That gets you the same number of Thunderbolt 5 but just one 10Gbps USB-A port. It’s a solid option if you don’t need the fast Ethernet or card readers offered by the full dock.




OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub top, and Dock bottom, showing back ports.Simon Jary




OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub top, and Dock bottom, showing front portsSimon Jary

Check out our full recommendations of the best Thunderbolt docks for MacBook.

Should you buy the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock?

This is a dock that doesn’t splash around too many ports or push the boat out for even faster Ethernet and max the power output. While studio pros may opt to spend a lot more for a dock that does, the OWC dock could be the sweet spot for business or home users who want to take advantage of the Mac’s new super-fast Thunderbolt 5 ports.