Elgato introduced the new Thunderbolt 3 Dock at CES today, enabling Thunderbolt 3-equipped Macs (and of course, Windows machines) to connect to a variety of ports and be charged with just one cable. The $299.95 dock is expected to ship this quarter.
There are a number of ports available:
- 2x Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) with support for Thunderbolt (40 Gb/s), Computer Charging (up to 85 W), Device Power (up to 15 W), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gb/s), DisplayPort (up to 4K at 60 Hz)
- 1x DisplayPort with support for DisplayPort 1.2 (up to 4K at 60 Hz) and HDMI 1.4b (up to 4K at 30 Hz)
- 1x RJ45 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet
- 3x USB 3.0 (5 Gb/s, 1.5 A, USB Battery Charging 1.2 & UASP)
- 1x 3.5 mm Headphone Output (amplified analog stereo)
- 1x 3.5 mm Microphone Input (mono)1x Power Input (DC 20 V, 8.5 A)
For those who want the ability to drive multiple displays from a new MacBook Pro, the Thunderbolt 3 Dock provides a lot of options:
- DisplayPort output: up to 4096 x 2160 pixels at 60 Hz
- Thunderbolt 3 output: up to 5120 x 2880 pixels at 60 Hz
- Dual displays: up to 4096 x 2160 pixels at 60 Hz each
- 4K60 over HDMI 2.0 supported using active adapters (not included) via USB-C and DisplayPort
Seeing these new options available for MacBook Pro expansion is certainly interesting, although spending another $300 to get features that could have just as easily been built into the MBP is ridiculous.
