Caldigit recently came up with TS5 Plus, which is designed to work with Apple’s Thunderbolt 5 Mac.
The TS5 Plus looks like the previous dock of the Caldigit, which features a common rectangular shape and an aluminum build, including some riding to the top, bottom and visual interest and heat loss.
It is a black aluminum color that matches the space black of the M4 MacBook Pro models and brings a huge 330W power brick. In fact, the power brick itself is longer than the dock, but it is flat and is fairly good at the bottom of a desk. The TS 5 Plus is six inches long, five inches width and 1.8 inches thick, when the power brick is seven inches tall, 3.5 inches wide and somewhat below inch thick.
After using anchor Thunderbolt 5 dock with built-in power supply, I am disappointed with the huge size of Caldigit Power Brick. A power supply contains cable that is connected to the power brick and then the power brick contains a cable that is plugged in the dock. Caldigit contains a high quality 3.3 feet Thunderbolt 5 with only a breakded design and a set of rubber feet.
Although I am complaining about Power Brick compared to the more compact design of anchor prime with the inclusive power supply, there are six more available ports, quick ethernet and accessory devices for Caldigit TS 5 Plus.
At the front of the dock, there is a 10GB/S USB port that can supply 7.5W to charge the airpods or supply two 10GB/S USB-C port with an Apple Watch, it provides a 7.5W and a second that provides 36W, which is enough to charge an iPhone or iPad quickly. The front has an SD card slot and a microSD card reader, as well as an audio combo jack and a small LED that allows you to know when the dock strength is. Card slots support UHS -2 transfer speed up to 312MB/s.
The rest of the ports are on the back and include the following:
- 3 10GB/S USB-C Data Ports that can supply 7.5W
- 4 10GB/S USB-Ports that can supply 7.5W
- 10GB Ethernet Port
- In audio
- Out of audio
- Display 2.1
- Two Down Stream 80GB/S Thunderbolt 5 ports that provide 36W
- A Uzan Thunderbolt 5 Port that provides 140W to the host machine (including TB 5 cable)
- A protection slot
- In DC
There are enough ports for connecting one ton of peripheral and multiple display, but it is not a dock that has HDMI port. If you need HDMI you can get a suitable display in HDMI adapter or simply use Mac’s HDMI port.
I like the port system. It is useful to have a 36W USB-C port front and center and the front SD card slot is convenient to transfer photos from my camera. If my MacBook is not connected, USB-C ports charge my devices, so the TS 5 works as a plus charging station.
Three 36W USB-C ports available in TS 5 Plus are useful because I charge my MacBook Pro and at the same time strengthening multiple exhibits, I can charge an iphone, iPad Pro, Apple Watch, Airpods and MAC MacBook at the same time. I got a completely fast charging for the 16-inch। MacBook Pro and did not leave the plugging power levels on more devices.
Inside the TS 5 Plus there is a dual USB controller (one for the front and one back), and at the same time there is no throtling with multiple devices plug in and transfer data. I tested Thunderbolt 5 SSD and two additional USB-C SSD and at the transfer speed I didn’t see any drop-off.
Since there is no fan inside, the TS 5 plus can be warm. It is not hot enough to burn, but in winter it will heat your hand and I don’t want to put a chocolate bar on top. The aluminum razes abolish the heat, but it will not be as cool as Ankara Prime. On the plus side, the operation is silent because it has no fan.
Thunderbolt supports 80GB/S speed with bandwidth boost up to 120 GB/S for Thunderbolt 5 displays, so it is twice as fast as Thunderbolt 4, which is most out of 40 GB/S. There are more bandwidth available for SSDs, which allow for quick data transfer.
Using TS5 Plus and Thunderbolt 5 envoy Ultra from OWWLUSI I was able to get the maximum speed 4,647 MB/S. Right and 5,154 MB/S Reid. Speeds were a bit slower from SSD to my MAC MacBook Pro directly from plugged in
Thunderbolt supports up to three shows in 5 pcs, but not in mac. On Mac, you are still going out most of the two displays above the single Thunderbolt 5 connection (running through a dock) due to GPU constraints. With TS 5 Plus you can use two 8K display at 60Hz, two 6K display at 60Hz, one 5K and a 6K display, 240Hz two 4K display and a number of other display combinations depending on any of your Mac.
With the M4 Pro or M4 Max you can actually run four display, but you need two Thunderbolt 5 dock for that setup, or you need to use other Thunderbolts and HDMI ports on your machine.
For higher resolution, M4 Pro simply supports a single 8K display, so you are limited to the dock. M4 MAX 60Hz can support two 8K display at 60Hz, two 6K display at 60Hz and four at 60Hz or four display at 60Hz or 60Hz. Caldigit says you can run two 8K display via TS 5 Plus, but if you have other devices like SSDs, you can check the bandwidth limit. You will probably get better performances plugging an 8K display in the dock and then the other 8K display connects to a different Thunderbolt 5 port or Mac’s HDMI port
I have no dual 6K or 8K dual display setup available, so I was not able to push the TS5 Plus to its limit. I usually use my MacBook Pro with only one 5K studio display attached to Thunderbolt but I added a 4K 144Hz Samsung display to test with TS5 Plus. Despite multiple SSDs and other peripherals, I did not have any problems with two display.
If you have a 5K display and a 4K display, or two 6K display, you are not going to get into a problem, as well as your bandwidth to upgrade to a higher resolution display because this type of technology comes down to price. The display contains some subtle-print restrictions that should be checked out of any possible buyer. You cannot exemplify Dual LG Ultrafine 5 for example. Dual 5K Monitors need to display Thunderbolt 4 or Apple Studios and 6 people need to have a Pro display XDR or Thunderbolt 4 display.
I initially tested the TS5 Plus with an M4 Pro -MacBook Pro, but it is also compatible with Thunderbolt 4 machines. I didn’t even have any problem using it with my M1 MAX -MacBook Pro and it worked innocently with M4 -MacBook Air. You can also connect to iPads that support Thunderbolt, such as M4 -iPad Pro
For old mac with base M1, M2, or M3 chips, you can simply use an external display with Caldigit dock. If you have M11 /M22/M3 max or pro chip, you can use double display without any problem.
Bottom line
If you have Thunderbolt 5 Mac and the fastest data transfer speed with the skill of operating high resolution shows you are not going to be wrong with TS5 Plus. It is one of the most capable Thunderbolt 5 dock in the market and the wide selection of its ports is about to work for almost any configuration.
Thunderbolt 5 docts are compatible with Thunderbolt 4 machines, so it is also appropriate to get 10GBE, or to choose the Multi-Divice charging energy that provides it for future proves for the future TS5 Plus. With three 36W USB-C port, you can probably charge all your devices with TS5 Plus, eliminating the requirements of multiple cables running from your desk to a power source.
If you are looking for the best Thunderbolt 5 performance it is Doc, and this is what I would recommend for any professional setup for use for high resolution display and fast transfer speed requirements. It is more expensive than some other dock, including $ 400 Caldigit TS 5 and 400 $ 400, but if you need 20 port flexibility it may be worth it.
How to buy
TS 5 Plus can be purchased from the Caldigit website or for $ 500 from Amazon.
Note: Caldigit provided macrumors to a TS 5 Plus for this review. No other compensation was found.
