CalDigit TS4 - The Best Thunderbolt Dock

Nice details and breakdown...Now with all these ports, do they share bandwidth or are the all independent and each will get the full 10Gbit/s or 40Gbit/s. In other words, If I connect 2 TB4 cables will the ports share and now I am down to 20GBits/s? Thank you...

Can you please do a video comparing Caldigit TS4 versus Ivanky Fusion Dock?

BUYER BEWARE!!!
From Amazon review: CalDigit Thunderbolt Docking Stations & Hubs INCOMPATIBLE with new Apple M1, M2 & M3 Silicon Chips
Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2023
Verified Purchase
After an extremely frustrating experience with both CalDigit AND Apple Computer, Inc, Apple's senior engineering team has finally determined that CalDigit's Thunderbolt products are INCOMPATIBLE with new Apple M1, M2 & M3 Silicon Chip computers manufactured after Jan. 1, 2021.

CalDigit's claims of compatibility are false. Apple engineers have stated that CalDigit uses INCOMPATIBLE Intel chip-based emulation drivers & firmware in their Thunderbolt 4 docking stations and hubs. Apple DOES NOT SUPPORT Intel emulation drivers and firmware running on any peripherals when using new Apple M1, M2 & M3 Silicon Chip-base computers .

The issue is that CalDigit developed all of their Thunderbolt products using Apple computers using Intel-based chips (NOT Apple M1, M2 & M3 Silicon-based computers) and that the Intel-based chips are no longer used in current new computers . In order to "shoehorn" their products for their false claim that they work with the new Apple M1, M2 & M3 Silicon Chip computers, CalDigit wrote Intel emulation drivers & firmware that went through incomplete testing because CalDigit could not afford to buy newer silicon chip-based Macs to test on.

In addition, Apple has informed me that CalDigit has permanently closed their offices in the United States and no longer provides technical support nor sales support in the US, effective April 2023.

I would strongly urge all Amazon customers to NOT purchase ANY CalDigit products because of falsehoods they claim, regardless of what their website claims.

can you use this dock to link 2 monitors on an M2?

Guys if you have hard drive disconnect issues on your Mac with this TS4, you have to make sure that you have 39.1 firmware update first then turn your Mac sleep setting to 0 or off. This can be done on current Mac by going to settings, Display, advanced then make sure prevent automatic sleeping is turned on. This solved it for me and now this Dock rocks.

Is there some share switch available in the market in oder to connect this dock with 2 or more computers at once allowing quickly switching on will ?
If not, I think in the future models they should give an option to connect to 2 computers at once with a switch button to quickly switch between 2 connected computers (like it is in KVM switches).

I was seriously considering the TS4 up until I realised that it only has 2 thunderbolt ports in addition to the actual port connecting it to the Mac. The OWC Thunderbolt dock has 3 Thunderbolt ports in addition to the connection to the Mac. I needed 3 thunderbolt ports to run my display and 2 dedicated thunderbolt drives. In all other respects, the TS4 is certainly the more capable unit than the OWC but its also quite a bit more expensive so you certainly get what you pay for. Great video and keep up the great work!

What about the temperature of the device? Does it make some kind of noise? Does it have a start button? Thank you for your time.

I have 10 non powered external drives (for photo storage) and wish to know whether I can safely piggyback 1 or 2 hubs to the dock (when editing photo's) without impairing performance of the main dock.

dman this color sucks . but thank you

no hdmi :(

The wold does hot revolve around mac or apple. It does not even hdmi 2.0

I like to buy but this device is not available in Turkey :(

Great review! Technical question not found anywhere: connecting an LG 5K display supplies power to the MacBook. What happens if the TS4 is hooked up? I am afraid of frying the MacBook internal circuits 😳

Looks cool, but MSRP $450 is crazy especially when i can get a full ledge Mac Mini for $150 more

this is trash!!!!!! nothing but problems since having it.... hate it!!!!! there so called support is laughable. don't buy this crap!!!!!!!

if i have a m1/m2 max macbook pro which can supposedly handly 4 external displays, how does this dock help without having to resort to crappy software driven displaylink or plugging one or more monitors directly into the mac?

Does it support 5k Samsung g9 @120hz?

The TS3 Plus dock is good but longevity is an issue. Had mine for 2 years and it stopped working. Now looking for a replacement. Will not buy another Caldigit again. Too expensive for only 2 years of use.

Are you crazy 400$ it's half prize of my computer some one ...!!!!

Maybe I am wrong, but with the amount of negative review and problems that this device have on Amazon Canada and watch this video see how marketing deceive us. Why you not tell the thru about it.

I’m new to tech. I just want to buy a dock so I can leave my predator triton 300 closed and use it like a desktop for gaming, will this dock make my PC perform worse for gaming? Would this be able to handle a 4K Monitor with 240 hz and a second screen 1080p at 60hz?

I’m new to tech. I just want to buy a dock so I can leave my predator triton 300 closed and use it like a desktop for gaming, will this dock make my PC perform worse for gaming? Would this be able to handle a 4K Monitor with 240 hz and a second screen 1080p at 60hz?

I just purchased (October 15 2022) this product for use on my MacBook pro M1 Max which is also new. The TS4 came with version 38.1 firmware, which has known issues concerning sleep/wake with apple chip sets. After a sleep, I lose my drive and display connections and a reboot is required. Caldigit has a firmware upgrade to version 39.1 which was released in July 2022. The problem is that the firmware upgrade supplied by Caldigit only runs on windows OS and must run on hardware with thunderbolt or USB C. I am not a windows user but I tried applying the update via VM windows and an old windows box and was not successful.

If you are purchasing this product for your MAC, I advisie waiting until Caldigit produces a native Mac firmware upgrade utility. Why they would release a fix without this in the first place is indicative of the support provided to Mac users.

I have this dock and man it gets hot!

This would be the perfect dock for me but if your Mac is M1 silicon based then it has a fatal flaw. When the Mac comes out of sleep mode the drives and other devices are potentially unmounted. Caldigit recommends doing a reboot of the Mac or disabling sleep mode. They are working on a fix but there is no indication of a date yet.

The best thing about a PC with thunderbolt 4 now... If you run internal graphics, you can:
- add up to 4 or 5 Nvme drives per 16 x expansion slot with things like the Asus Hyper card and DeLock has one for five, but I trust the Asus
- have at least 4 SATA ports, but some motherboards have 6 or 8 and have many USB 10 Gb/s ports
... And then extend the Thunderbolt 4 with this dock - and still run DisplayPort or USB-c out of it to connect monitors. Along with the HDMI on the system.

I like that you call it a Thunderbolt Dock.

It is useful for any device with thunderbolt, wether laptop or desktop, wether it runs Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS or Linux.
Yes, Linux supports Thunderbolt 3 under the latest kernels. And those Linux enthusiast can figure out how to use Thunderbolt 4 :-)

Save your money and check out other solutions - at least if you're a M1 MBP-User. I bought it to extend SDD space through external ssd drives... to bad that they are randomly disconnected... The Dock does not awake from sleep, their "solution" is: "Option #1: Turn off Sleep Mode in macOS:". Maybe it works with Windows, but don't buy it if your on MacOS.

Ive been a happy macbook 16" Max user. I do heavy colorgrading in Davinci Resolve that really stresses the Macbook to its limits...but even so, i can easily charge the Mac with 60W USB-Power all the time without ever dropping the battery... it seems that even under heavy load, the Macbook Pro almost never actually draws more than 60w unless you do a Benchmark that specifically uses EVERYTHING at the same time (Which imo is rarely the case in practical day to day use...)

Have they resolved the sleep kernel panics yet ?

Excellent review!

WowWow NO HDMI?????? WEAK

at almost $400 and no CFAST port?

Can I use dual montior on my m1 air with this ?

If you use this docking station with devices that only have Thunderbolt 3 (like the MB Air 2020 or an external monitor) would this affect the device's connectivity, make it get heated or run slower?

Why a Display Port which is so so rare and not sure any newer monitors have. And not an HDMI instead? What’s the advantage of this. Please enlighten me. I also wish Ethernet was 10gbit

Does the SD card slot heat up your cards fairly quickly? My TS3 has done that from the start—so hot/fast that I opt for a plain old USB 3 card reader. The heat is generates on my cards isn't enough to burn, but it's enough to be concerning. Hoping that's not the case with the TS4.

Anyone know when it will be available I live in Canada and I can't seem to locate want to purchase.?

It's ironic watching this today as I'm still using my Caldigit TS2 dock with my late 2013 MacBook Pro!!! I've used it everyday since late 2013 and it works perfectly... even after it fell off my desk today (for the first time) while I was reconfiguring my cables around my desk. Still works perfect! I plan to get this new TS4 with an M1 mobile MacBook purchase later in 2022. Thanks for posting this informative review.

I want this, but i already have the TS3, just need additional TB ports, or i could just use the additional ports on my Macbook, but i like having one cable only 😅.

Yooo is this an HDR video?! It looks incredible, well done!

Too bad it doesn't come with an HDMI port, which means using the display port doesn't transmit the audio to the display device! Also, it doesn't turn onto idle mode when the source computer is not plugged in! So I am not sure how could someone call this the best Thunderbolt Dock!!

Nice dock, I would buy it for $35.

The best dock you can’t buy*

I appreciate 9to5 reporting; BUT, you think we’re made of MONEYSSSSSS? Review more low cost options. How about testing Dell, Levino, HP thunderbolt docks? 400.00 CalDigit vs a used 30.00 Dell dock….I’M INTRIGUED

Is anyone going to mention how the design looks outdated?

Does it work with usb 3.0 capture cards?!