Review: Anker Prime Thunderbolt 5 Dock Pairs Compact Design With 14 Ports

Apple added Thunderbolt 5 connectivity to its latest M4 Pro and M4 Max machines, and companies are starting to motorboat Thunderbolt 5 docks compatible with Apple's Thunderbolt 5 Macs. Earlier this year, Anker came retired with the Anker Prime TB5 Docking Station, a 14-port dock with a unsocial plan and a high-end diagnostic set.


Docks are utile due to the fact that they grow the disposable fig of ports that you tin usage astatine 1 time, and adhd bequest ports similar USB-A that Apple has discontinued. Thunderbolt 5 provides 80Gb/s symmetric data, which is treble that of Thunderbolt 4, positive determination is simply a bandwidth boost enactment up to 120Gb/s erstwhile displays are connected. You're capable to link much without moving into bandwidth limits.

Design

The Anker Prime TB5 Docking Station is astir apt my favourite dock I've utilized to day acknowledgment to the design. It's amazingly compact for a 14-port dock, with a quadrate signifier that spreads the ports crossed 3 of the sides.


The champion portion astir the Anker Prime is the deficiency of a bulky outer powerfulness supply. The 232W powerfulness proviso is successful the cube, truthful there's conscionable a slim cablegram that needs to beryllium plugged into an outlet, and past a cablegram to link the dock to a Mac. The dock comes with some of the cables, and I bash person a insignificant cablegram complaint. At $400, I privation the cables that came on with the dock were nicer, possibly with a braided design.

I similar the quadrate signifier origin due to the fact that it doesn't instrumentality up overmuch abstraction connected my desk, and it's bully not to person to woody with positioning a bulky powerfulness supply. I tuck my cables wrong boxes that support them retired of show and retired of my cat's mouth, and it's ever a hassle trying to get a powerfulness proviso and aggregate cables to fit.

The Anker Prime has a powerfulness fastener connected the front, a mates of casual entree USB-C and USB-A ports for charging devices, and a headphone jack. Other ports are connected the backmost and the sides, and I deliberation the larboard layout is good designed. The ports I request to entree often are astatine the beforehand oregon the side, portion things I don't request arsenic frequently, similar Ethernet oregon HDMI, are astatine the back. I bash privation astatine slightest 1 of the downstream TB5 ports was astatine the beforehand though.

The enclosure includes a fan, and it's made from aluminum for vigor dissipation. I tin perceive the fan, but it's a subtle dependable that I'm not definite would registry with different noises successful the room. I'm dependable delicate and it does fuss maine due to the fact that the dock is close by my displays, but I can't perceive it listening to music, wearing AirPods, watching TV, oregon erstwhile the AC is on. A decibel measuring app suggests that it is astir 32 decibels, which would beryllium astir susurration level.

Size-wise, the Anker Prime is 4.6 by 4.6, and it's 3 inches tall. If you person a Mac mini, it's astir that size, but not rather arsenic wide, and it's astir an inch taller. The colour is simply a grey aluminum. It's not arsenic acheronian arsenic the Space Black aluminum of the M4 MacBook Pro models, nor is it arsenic airy arsenic the metallic aluminum, truthful it's benignant of an in-between shade.

There's bluish LED lighting astir the apical of the dock erstwhile it's powered connected and successful use. The airy isn't agleam capable to beryllium bothersome, and it tin beryllium turned disconnected by pressing the powerfulness button.


With the fan, the enclosure doesn't get hot. It hardly feels lukewarm astatine all, which is simply a departure from docks that trust connected vigor dissipation without progressive instrumentality cooling. I'd beryllium amazed if the Anker Prime could overheat, fixed however chill it runs with aggregate peripherals plugged in. Compared to different docks similar the CalDigit TS5 Plus, it's importantly cooler.

Ports

At the beforehand of the dock, there's a headphone jack, 2 USB-C ports, and a USB-A port. The USB-C ports connection a combined 45W of powerfulness for charging different devices. 45W is capable to complaint a MacBook Air, oregon an iPad and an iPhone astatine afloat speed. One larboard volition get the afloat 45W erstwhile conscionable 1 instrumentality is plugged in. With 2 ports successful use, the divided is 30W to the archetypal larboard and 15W to the 2nd port.


The 2 beforehand USB-C ports besides enactment information transfer, but displays request to beryllium connected astatine the back. The beforehand ports connection powerfulness to accessories adjacent erstwhile a Mac isn't plugged in, which is convenient.

There are nary ports connected the close side, but determination is simply a "Prime" logo. The near broadside has an SD paper slot and a microSD paper slot (labeled TF). The paper slots are UHS-1 and constricted to 104MB/s, truthful photographers won't get UHS-II transportation speeds.


The bulk of the ports are astatine the back. There's an AC-in for the plug, an upstream Thunderbolt 5 larboard for connecting the Anker Prime to a Mac (with up to 140W charging), and 2 downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports with 15W autobus powerfulness for SSDs and different Thunderbolt/USB-C accessories. Earlier Macs were constricted to 100W charging unless MagSafe was used, but that is not a regulation connected Thunderbolt 5 Macs.

There are 2 further 10Gb/s USB-A ports, a 2.5Gb/s Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a DisplayPort 2.1 port. With the HDMI and DisplayPort, lone 1 tin beryllium utilized astatine a time, truthful support that successful caput erstwhile you're dock shopping.

I don't usage an Ethernet port, but it is disappointing that the Anker Prime doesn't person a 10Gb Ethernet larboard for those who request oregon privation that connectivity.

Displays

Anker says that the Anker Prime supports up to 2 6K displays astatine 60Hz, truthful you tin tally 2 Pro Display XDR displays, 2 Studio Displays, oregon immoderate different operation of 6K/5K/4K displays, depending connected the solution (only 1 4K show astatine 240Hz is supported connected the Mac). On PCs, the Anker Prime supports 3 full displays, but Macs person a 2 show bounds implicit a azygous Thunderbolt 5 port.


The M4 Max spot supports up to 2 8K displays astatine 60Hz, according to Apple, portion the M4 Pro supports 1 8K show astatine 60Hz. Anker does not database 8K show enactment for the Mac and I don't person 8K displays to test, but it should work.

Anker says that the HDMI and DisplayPort ports can't beryllium utilized together, which means 2 displays tin beryllium connected done the Thunderbolt 5 ports, oregon 1 tin beryllium connected utilizing TB5 and the different tin beryllium connected via HDMI oregon DisplayPort, leaving a Thunderbolt larboard escaped for an SSD oregon different accessory.

I utilized an M4 Pro MacBook Pro with the Anker Prime, and I tested it with the 5K Studio Display implicit Thunderbolt and a 4K 144Hz show from Samsung that I connected via DisplayPort. I had nary problems with connectivity implicit respective days of investigating and with assorted combinations of accessories plugged in. The displays and the ports worked arsenic intended.

Though this is simply a Thunderbolt 5 dock, it is backwards compatible with earlier versions of Thunderbolt, which means it is compatible with older Macs. M1, M2, and M3 Pro and Max machines and each modular M4 machines with Thunderbolt 4 chips enactment dual 6K 60Hz displays erstwhile paired with the Anker Prime.

The aforementioned 2 show setup besides ran good connected an M1 Max ‌MacBook Pro‌. Compared to Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 5 has much full bandwidth for displays and accessories, truthful you'll request a Thunderbolt 5 instrumentality for the champion show and to max retired the capabilities of the dock.

There is immoderate good people with the Anker Prime, which you're going to privation to work if you person a 5K Thunderbolt 3 display. Dual 5K Thunderbolt 3 displays oregon a operation of a 5K show and Thunderbolt 4 show won't enactment with surface mirroring mode.

SSD Speed Tests

I utilized a Thunderbolt 5 SSD from OWC with the M4 Pro ‌MacBook Pro‌ and the Anker Prime. The SSD promises 6,000MB/s speeds, but I didn't rather deed that. Write speeds with the Anker Prime maxed retired astatine astir 4,675MB/s, portion work speeds were astir 5,140MB/s. When plugged straight into the Thunderbolt 5 larboard of the M4 Pro ‌MacBook Pro‌, the SSD's constitute speeds were up to 5,250MB/s and work speeds were astatine 5,350MB/s. Real satellite speeds tin alteration based connected the load a Mac is under, truthful existent transportation speeds vary.

Write speeds were consistently somewhat lower, but Thunderbolt 5 transportation speeds are speedy capable that it didn't fuss maine successful day-to-day use. Transferring 50GB of photos took astir 20 seconds, which is speedy capable for my use.

Software

Anker has Dock Manager bundle that tin beryllium utilized to present firmware updates to the Anker Prime, oregon to tweak dock settings similar disabling the light.

Bottom Line

The Anker Prime is 1 of the much affordable Thunderbolt 5 docks connected the market, and its compact design, larboard array, and features marque it perfect for the mean user. If you person a Thunderbolt 5 Mac and privation to get a dock that'll fto you tally displays, plug successful SSDs, and usage different peripherals, I don't deliberation you'll regret the Anker Prime.

If you don't person a Thunderbolt 5 Mac, it mightiness inactive beryllium worthy picking up. It's compatible with Thunderbolt 4, and it operates the aforesaid mode a Thunderbolt 4 dock would, but you besides person the aboriginal proofing for Thunderbolt 5 erstwhile it's clip to upgrade.

While I deliberation the dock has the close ports for astir people, this isn't the dock I'd urge for nonrecreational usage oregon for those who privation the champion show and connectivity. It's constricted to 2.5GbE, determination isn't UHS-II support, and determination are lone 2 USB-C ports successful summation to the 2 Thunderbolt ports, which mightiness not beryllium capable for immoderate users.

How to Buy

The Anker Prime TB5 Docking Station tin beryllium purchased from the Anker website oregon from Amazon for $400.

Note: Anker provided MacRumors with an Anker Prime for the intent of this review. No different compensation was received.
This article, "Review: Anker Prime Thunderbolt 5 Dock Pairs Compact Design With 14 Ports" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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