Kensington SD5800T Thunderbolt 4 Dock review

The Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T) feels a bit like one other verse in a well-recognized track: A brand new dock arrives, loaded to the gills with ports; nonetheless, all of that flexibility arrives with a steep worth premium, too.

Kensington and Plugable seem on the high of our present record of the very best Thunderbolt docks. That is our first alternative to evaluation Kensington’s ultra-premium 16-in-1 SD5800T Thunderbolt 4 dock, which seems to be just about equivalent to the Plugable TBT4-UDZ.

Given the potential for an eventual head-to-head shootout, it’s price noting that the SD5800T’s MSRP/RRP is technically $379, however that Amazon lists it as $299, the identical as Plugable’s dock.

And at press time, Amazon has the price of the SD5800T cut to just $229. These within the U.Ok. can discover it on Amazon for £233.

In any occasion, that is Kensington’s dock to purchase if you need the whole lot: 4 4K shows (two DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1), plus a boatload of USB-A and USB-C ports. In fact, you’re not obligated to attach 4 shows; you may select two shows as a substitute, content material within the information you can favor no matter cable (HDMI or DisplayPort) you want.

A number of the fundamentals want explaining. Just about all Thunderbolt 4 docks will hook up with USB4 ports with no hitch. Kensington’s prolonged, formal product title spells this out. As a result of Intel refuses to certify non-Intel (learn: AMD Ryzen) laptops for Thunderbolt, Ryzen notebooks use USB4 ports as a substitute. They’re basically equivalent.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Kensington accomplishes a quad-display orientation (for Home windows, not Mac) by way of a mixture of the 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 port plus a know-how referred to as Show Stream Compression (DSC), which makes use of an industry-standard compression know-how to eke out extra bandwidth. DSC is just like DisplayLink, a compression know-how designed by Synaptics, and the muse of a complete class of very good DisplayLink docks, which we embody in our greatest Thunderbolt dock roundup. DSC doesn’t require the software program driver that DisplayLink does, however DSC could be a little iffy on any laptop computer that makes use of a Twelfth-gen Core processor or older.

Kensington’s SD5800T sits atop the premium Thunderbolt dock market with stable stability, a boatload of ports, and the ability to connect with 4 shows directly. It’s an excellent dock, however feels a bit overpriced at its default worth.

The underside line is {that a} Thunderbolt dock was designed for a pair of 4K/60Hz shows, and DSC or DisplayLink will increase that to 4 4K shows as a substitute. If you happen to love a number of displays, that’s actually cool.

The dock helps simply two 6K/60Hz exterior shows when related to a Mac.

Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T): Specs and options

• One upstream USB4 port (40Gbps, 100W)
• Two HDMI 2.1 video ports
• Two DisplayPort 1.4 video ports
• Three USB-A ports (10Gbps)
• Two USB-A ports (5Gbps)
• One USB-A ports (480Mbps)
• One USB-C port (10Gbps)
• 2.5Gb Gigabit Ethernet
• UHS-II SD card reader (312MBps)
• 3.5mm combo audio jack (entrance)
• 170W energy provide

On the entrance of the SD5800T there’s a microSD and SD card slot for photographers (SD 4.0, UHS-II) alongside a 10Gbps USB-A port and a 480Mbps USB-A port, clearly marked for charging a smartphone at a rated 1.5A. There’s additionally an influence button, a headphone jack, and a 3.25-foot Thunderbolt 4 wire that provides a rated 98W to your laptop computer. On the rear, Kensington features a Kensington nano- and full-sized safety slot (natch), the ability port, the 4 show ports, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, a 10Gbps USB-C charging port rated at 7.5W, plus 4 USB-A ports evenly cut up between 10Gbps and 5Gbps.

Mark Hachman / IDG

That’s so much, and the design hides a couple of execs and cons. For one, did I point out that the dock could be mounted vertically? Kensington’s SD5800T measures 7.68 x 4.09 x 1.42 inches (and 1.34 kilos, if it issues) however could be propped vertically on a stand to avoid wasting area. (The dock has rubber toes for mounting flat, nonetheless.) Even with cords sprouting from a number of ports, it sat completely steadily on my desk. The ports are well-spaced, as effectively.

What I don’t like concerning the design is the way it places the USB-C charging port on the again; if you happen to’re a stickler for group, you’ll need it on the entrance, nearer to you. I don’t like the shortage of an LED-lit energy button, both.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T): Efficiency

The query I all the time ask of a quad-display dock just like the Kensington SD5800T: Does it ship what it guarantees? The reply is: Properly, it relies upon. Due to the vagaries of various {hardware}, you may most likely count on totally different capabilities relying on how new your laptop computer is. As all the time, the newer the {hardware}, the higher.

Right here’s a synopsis of how the Kensington SD5800T carried out on varied laptops, simply as an instance the variations. It’s necessary to notice, nonetheless, that although the shows took a couple of seconds to attach, I by no means skilled any glitches or disconnects. It’s additionally necessary to notice that the handbook states that the dock can ship “as much as 4K @ 60Hz” efficiency throughout 4 shows. (Emphasis mine.) Kensington additionally guarantees that the dock can energy a single 8K show at 60Hz, however we lack the {hardware} to check that.

• Asus ZenBook 14 OLED (14th-gen Core Extremely): Good. 4K, 60Hz throughout 4 4K shows (4K60).
• Samsung Galaxy Ebook 3 Professional 360 (Thirteenth-gen Intel Core): 4K60 throughout three shows. The fourth would solely gentle up at 4K30, 1440p59, or 1080p60.
• Acer Swift Edge 16 (AMD Ryzen 7000): Identical as above
• Microsoft Floor Laptop computer Studio 2 (Thirteenth-gen Intel Core): Identical as above
• Microsoft Floor Laptop computer Studio (Eleventh-gen Intel Core): Two shows at 4K60, two shows at 1080p

The dock’s USB-C charging port delivered 7.45W, sufficient to cost a smartphone. However the front-mounted USB-A charging port delivered simply 0.5A (or 2.4W), which doesn’t come near the promised 1.5A. The 2 front-mounted ports ship the identical quantity of energy, although one claims to be a charging port! The SD800T delivered a peak output of 94W to the laptop computer, which is shut sufficient to the rated output to be acceptable.

Streaming and knowledge switch efficiency was acceptable. Thunderbolt docks all the time ship a bit much less knowledge throughput than DisplayLink; the 130.74MBps was about on par with different Thunderbolt 4 docks that I’ve examined, such because the Anker 777. The dock dropped 7 out of 10,000 frames whereas streaming. A take a look at during which I copy a folder containing gigabytes of knowledge from an SSD down via to the dock to the desktop accomplished in 1 minute, 8 seconds, which is among the many slower performers. The SD card slots labored as anticipated, and there have been no pops or dropouts from the headphone jack.

Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 docks have a tendency to supply comparable efficiency; Thunderbolt 4 docks are a bit extra secure, which is why you see a mixture of Thunderbolt 3 and 4 docks amongst our greatest picks.

Do you have to purchase the Kensington SD5800T?

At $299, the SD5800T is a tricky promote. On the full $379 (we will’t discover an official UK RRP), I’d skip it altogether. At £230/$229, your ears ought to perk up.

I like the flexibleness of the SD5800T greater than our present greatest choose, the Kensington SD5780T (or comparable SD5700T within the UK), which is why the bountiful Plugable TBT3-UDZ continues to be amongst our most well-liked Thunderbolt docks. I don’t just like the SD5800T’s mislabeled charging port, nonetheless, and our evaluation is muddied by the way it interacts with varied {hardware}.

However, the Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T) continues to be a well-designed Thunderbolt 4 dock with some slight blemishes. Use the out there worth to information your shopping for resolution.

This evaluation initially appeared on PCWorld.