Wavlink Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking Station review: Affordable dock for two displays

Price When Reviewed

189,99 Euro

The Wavlink Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking Station is a full docking station with 13 ports, including 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 and 2.5Gb Ethernet, available at a very affordable price.

It’s a great option for owners of Thunderbolt-equipped laptops, as the ports are fast and plentiful.

Even if your laptop has USB-C rather than Thunderbolt 4 (TB4) connectivity, buying the faster standard will future-proof your purchase unless you want to hang on for the very latest 80Gbps Thunderbolt 5 docks—and that could be quite a long wait.

Backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 3, TB4 features the fast 40Gbps bandwidth plus smart device daisy-chaining and super-fast storage connectivity. It also offers Intel VT-d DMA device protection that you don’t get with all older connectivity standards.

Specs and features

• One upstream Thunderbolt 4 port (40Gbps, 96W)
• One downstream Thunderbolt 4 port (40Gbps, 15W)
• Two HDMI 2.1 video ports (4K at 60Hz)
• One USB-C port (10Gbps, 30W)
• Two USB-A ports (10Gbps, 4.5W)
• Two USB-A ports (5Gbps, 4.5W)
• 2.5Gb Ethernet
• UHS-II SD Card reader (312MBps)
• UHS-II MicroSD Card reader (312MBps)
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 160W power supply

The Wavlink Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking ports has one upstream Thunderbolt 4 port to connect to your computer, and just one downstream Thunderbolt 4 port to connect other devices, including external displays.

Other docks, such as the Kensington SD5700T Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station, offer up to three fast downstream TB4 ports, but this Wavlink dock makes up for the fewer TB4 ports with its own treats.

The single downstream TB4 port is rated at 40Gbps and can charge devices at 15W each. The upstream port can charge a connected laptop at up to 96W, fast enough for most large laptops and a little more powerful than the Kensington dock.

Wavlink has sacrificed two of the Thunderbolt ports for dedicated HDMI 2.1 ports.

For Macs, the dock will support three 4K displays at 60Hz, but one of the two monitors connected via HDMI will only mirror the screen of the other while the other two will display extended screens. It’s therefore more likely to be used by Mac users for two external displays—one connected to the downstream Thunderbolt port and the other to one of the HDMI ports, leaving one of the HDMI ports spare unless you want a mirrored screen too.

That limitation is down to Apple rather than Wavlink. Windows TB4 laptops support three Extended Mode 4K 60Hz displays or one monitor at 8K 60Hz.

Note that Apple’s plain M1 and M2 MacBooks support only one external display—M1/2/3 Pro and Max MacBooks support multiple displays—although there are third-party software and hardware workarounds that allow M1/M2 Macs to connect to more than one external display. Plain M3 MacBooks do support multiple monitors but only if the laptop’s lid is closed. Read: How to connect two or more external displays to a MacBook.

Despite the lack of multiple downstream Thunderbolt ports, the Wavlink dock offers up five fast USB ports alongside the single TB4 port. There are four USB-A ports—two at 10Gbps and two at 5Gbps—and a front-located 10Gbps USB-C port that can output up to 30W, enough to fast-charge a phone.

The external power supply can provide up to 160W of power for laptop passthrough charging (96W) and connected devices, which isn’t the most powerful TB4 dock supply we’ve tested but should easily handle the load from the USB ports and TB4 port. See our roundups of the best Thunderbolt 4 docks and best Mac docking stations for comparable products.

While most docks feature standard Gigabit (1Gb) Ethernet for fast and stable wired Internet access, the Wavlink dock can support much faster 2.5Gb Ethernet networks if your network is the same. It’s also backwards compatible with Gigabit Ethernet.

On the front, alongside the upstream TB4 port and fast-charge USB-C port, are fast SD and MicroSD card readers (UHS-II, 312MBps) for portable storage, and a combo 4-pole audio jack.

Design and build

The Wavlink Thunderbolt 4 Dock is a smart aluminum build that looks classy. On the side, there’s a Kensington lock slot.

We appreciate the On/Off button that will relieve strain on your connected laptop’s battery, but would have much preferred the upstream TB4 port to have been situated out of the way at the back or side of the docking station.

Price

At $199.99 or £169.99, the Wavlink Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Dock is priced a little below most Thunderbolt 4 docks and is comfortably cheaper than those docks with equivalent fast ports such as 2.5Gb Ethernet.

The closest dock in terms of specs and price is the $199 Plugable USB4 Dual HDMI Docking Station (UD-4VPD) but it’s not recommended for Macs. The Kensington SD5700T Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station, with standard Gigabit Ethernet, costs $219. For 2.5Gb Ethernet the CalDigit TS4 is priced much higher at $399, with the 2.5Gb Sonnet Echo 20 Thunderbolt 4 SuperDock priced at $299.

Verdict

While its triple-monitor potential is muted on Macs with one of the three being mirrored, as a dual-display dock with a bunch of top-rated ports the Wavlink Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking Station is great value for money for speed and power.