I have had this dock for about three weeks, and it does everything it promises to do. The Thunderbolt 5 ports work exceptionally well. All of the charging ports provide their specified charging power. The audio port is exceptional. It's the first dock audio port that transmits high-quality sound. The 10 GbE Thunderbolt 5 Ethernet port is an exceptional value. The USB ports all perform as expected. The DP 2.1 DisplayPort will support nearly any level of monitor. This dock will easily support three 4k displays via the two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports, which are DisplayPort 2.1 compatible.

The downstream Thunderbolt 5 port will charge a laptop with 140W of power. Unlike any other dock, this one will charge everything you can connect to it at full power. It has two 36W USB-C charging ports. They charge my Samsung S24 Ultra very quickly. This dock has enough power to provide full charging capacity out of every single port even IF you have you are charging an accessory on every single port. There is NO other Thunderbolt dock on the market that will do that. ALL of the Thunderbolt 5 docks I have researched will not charge your computer at 140W if you're charging other accessories (like a phone, an iPad, a portable charging power bank, etc. This is the only dock on the market that doesn't have "dynamic charging." In other words, the more you plug into other docks, the slower everything charges, including your laptop. This dock charges EVERYTHING at full speed, no matter how many items you have plugged into it.

The two card readers are super fast. They are so fast that you could use a 1 TB CF card as storage.

I haven't had a single problem with this dock. Everything in this dock is state-of-the-art and cutting-edge, and ALL of its features work flawlessly. It's hands down the best dock on the market right now.

This actually stunned me when I got the dock and was testing every function. Because it is so expensive, if any major feature had been buggy or failed to perform as advertised I would have returned it. But everything worked amazingly well on the dock.

When you consider it includes a 10GbE Thunderbolt 5 ethernet port, which will provide LAN internet speeds of nearly 10 Gbps, it is an exceptional value. A separate Thunderbolt 5 10 GbE adapter would cost $200-$1000. This is the best dock you can buy right now, bar none.

CalDigit offers unparalleled quality and functionality. Yes this is expensive, but when you look at just the price of a 10G thunderbolt adapter, it becomes apparent that you get a lot of value with what this offers. One cable for dual studio displays, charging, USB devices, fast phone charging, and 10G ethernet. Speed test below is to a server running ZFS2 with 12x 7200 RPM drives over 100 feet of CAT6 cable. I could see this lasting at least two computer upgrades (10-14 years) if thunderbolt and USB C stay around. Very well built.

At first glance, this looks like the perfect product — well-designed and feature-rich. Unfortunately, real-world use tells a different story.

After running it for more than 24 hours, the connection to my MacBook Pro M5 Max drops intermittently for a few seconds. When this happens, the network interface goes down and does not recover on its own — the only fix is to physically disconnect and reconnect the cable. This is not a minor annoyance; it disrupts work entirely.

I contacted support, and they confirmed this is a known driver issue, which means it is not an isolated defect but a systemic problem affecting the product as a whole. That acknowledgment is appreciated, but it does not justify selling a device at this price point while the core functionality remains broken.

To make matters worse, the unit runs extremely hot during normal use — hot enough that you cannot comfortably hold your hand on the body for more than a few seconds. That raises legitimate questions about long-term reliability and safety.

Bottom line: Until the driver issue is resolved, this device is significantly overpriced and does not deliver the value it promises. Buyer beware.

This is awesome. I bought a few different hubs for my Mac Mini M4. Nothing worked as well as this. What I learned through this months long process is that the technology in the hub is the most important piece. Two examples. My external 8 TB SSD drive connected to this hub and then to the Mac is significantly faster than connecting the SSD directly to the Mac if you can believe that. This thing has better protocols than the Mac itself. I have some KEF speakers connected to my computer, and they are extremely touchy. They always require going in their own thunderbolt port and would refuse to work with any other hub. They work perfectly with this hub, which says a lot based on the huge headache they’ve given me for years. I’ve taken the severe power drain and strain off of my Mac, which is now running much cooler. I’m shocked at the cost of this thing, but it is worth every penny after dealing with all the other nightmare products. Always buy the hub with the greatest amount of ports you can afford. It’s always worth it.

I've been a Mac user forever, and someone who is happy to invest in my desk setup. But unlike most desk setup enthusiasts, I'm more of a minimalist. If it doesn't contribute to a beautiful, minimal aesthetic or have an essential function, I avoid in favor of "free space". So while I've always been an enjoyer of these CalDigit hubs from afar, there has never had a practical reason to justify one.

I recently got the new MBP with M5 Pro and a Studio Display XDR. I learned that Macs cut power to peripherals when they sleep, and this is not a setting you can modify. For 90% of peripherals, this is fine. For my keyboard, it means the settings reset and my nice soft/warm backlight reverts to a pulsating RGB light show. The power also seems to intermittently come and go while the computer is asleep, because when I come back the monitor is stuck in an endless loop of waking/sleeping because every key on the keyboard is sending signals on repeat. Given how expensive the apple display is, this freaks me out a little. So the work around is running my peripherals through a powered hub, so here we are. I'm a little bitter about spending $400 for something that SHOULD be fixable with a simple setting adjustment.

BUT, it instantly grew on me. The build is nicer than I expected in person. I also just recently upgraded my ISP/internet speed, and plan to run an ethernet cable (vs Wifi), so this helps with that too.

A few gripes: The color is closer to the old "space grey" from M1-M2 macs. Would be nice if this matched the "silver" color of the TB5 M5 macs, since it's clearly made for people with these machines. And the cable is 1m, which limits how far it can be from my macbook—so yes, they will be nearby. A 2m long cable would make it so I can move my macbook off my desk and hidden on the shelf next to it, which would be nice since this hub eliminates the need to access it for any reason while sitting. CalDigit sells a 2m cable that is, unfortunately, ridiculously expensive.

What I like: For one, unlike multiple other hubs I've tried in the past... it just works. The build is top tier. The bandwidth of every port is as advertised. The lighter color and smaller size (versus the PLUS model) are nicer for me. Get this one unless you have internet faster than 2.5Gbps.

The docking station meets its technical specifications as far as I was able to test - two 5K monitors, an external Jabra speaker, 5-gigabit ethernet internet (getting all 5 gigabits) and constant switching of all this between two MacBooks (it switches well and quickly, I often switch between my work and personal laptop, so I check this every day). A couple of downsides — it heats up more than it should, and the quality control seems mediocre. You can read more details about the defective units below in my story of hassle with returning one unit, getting another, updating the firmware, coil whine and so on. If you’re interested in the bottom line, overall it works well, but it gets hot.

MY STORY OF HASSLE:

It gets quite hot — tolerable. I have a 5Gbit Ethernet network, and it easily delivers all 5 gigabits without any issues, but… occasionally it either squeaks or whistles, not loudly, but just enough to be annoying! I’ll give it another chance — if this whistling becomes constant, I’ll return it.

Update 1:

After two weeks of use the noise hasn’t gone away. Now I think it’s coil whine. I lowered my rating from 4 to 3. Such a device is impossible to use with that noise. I only have two monitors and a speaker connected. What kind of super-duper powerful device is it if it starts squealing and whining with just two monitors and one speaker connected? I tried disconnecting the Ethernet, the speaker, and another monitor. Even with only one monitor it still squeals. So I assume it squeals regardless of how many devices are connected. It’s infuriating. I’m returning it and buying another. I still haven’t given up hope that it’s just a defective unit. I like the idea of the dock station with a 10-gigabit Ethernet port, Thunderbolt 5, and so many other ports. I’ll give it another chance. If the other (new) unit is just as noisy, I’ll return it too and stick with my CalDigit TS4 Pro, which didn’t make the slightest noise with the same connected devices. Its only drawback is the 2.5-gigabit Ethernet. I’ll wait for other updates—maybe someone else will release a good device with a 10-gigabit Ethernet port. I’m not willing to put up with this noise.

Update 2:

Updated the firmware to the latest version 61.1, coil whine is the same, very noticeable and annoying. A new bug appeared—when switching between two MacBooks, the dock just froze, the power LED started blinking and nothing connects, I had to restart the dock (unplugged and plugged the power back in). This never happened with the TS4 Pro, and this is exactly how I use the dock—I have two MacBooks, work and personal, and I connect them to the dock one after the other. This bug completely makes the TS5 Plus unusable for me. Waiting for a new unit, hopefully this is just a defective dock. Minus one star.

Update 3:

Got a new unit, connected it, immediately updated the firmware to the latest version 61.1, no noise. Absolutely no noise. Even in absolute silence, in the middle of the night, zero noise. If I press my ear right against the dock’s body, I can hear a barely perceptible sound. I don’t know if it will get worse in the future, but after 1 month of using the dock, I haven’t heard any noise detectable by the human ear without pressing the ear to the dock. So, from the noise perspective, it’s absolutely what I expect from it. The freezing during switching between laptops has completely disappeared. I switch between two MacBooks, work and personal, and the switching is smooth, just like with the CalDigit TS4 Pro. It heats up a lot! That’s the only factor that bothers me quite a bit. Because the heating isn’t just warm, it’s even a bit hot, like a good radiator in the winter, but we don’t have winter in Florida, this radiator won’t help me. Despite this heating, I’m updating my review to 4 stars. -1 star for heating and poor quality assurance/control, since I had to go through all this hassle. And I’m keeping this dock for myself.

I bought this to hook up my three Apple Studio displays and get 10-gig Ethernet for my MacBook Pro M5 with Thunderbolt 5. And out of the box, everything is working absolutely perfectly. I haven't had any issues, glitches, or problems, period. I was worried because I read so many reviews for all the different docks, and the ratings are a little spotty, but this dock by CalDigit has been fantastic. It was easy to use just plug and play. I connected two Apple displays to the dock and the third to my MacBook to get triple display as these docks only add one additional TB5 port.

I have no complaints so far and my worries fortunately were unfounded. This has been a great dock and has done everything I hoped it would.

It’s expensive but will outlast the computer you connect it too. So many ports and the power delivery is great.

Very compact, sleek stackable design, plenty of Thunderbolt plugs, powers PC or MAC laptops that require more than 100W. Stays cool with the heat grooves built into the casing.

Excelente producto

Great looking and high performance device!!

Junto con el TS5 Plus es lo mejor que vas a encontrar en cuanto a Thunderbolt 5. Lo instalé en Windows y lo conecté al puerto TB5 de mi PC. Reconoce los 80Gbps sin problemas y puedo transmitir hasta en 3 monitores. Actualmente lo estoy usando para dos monitores y en uno a 4K@144Hz. También lo tengo conectado a un enclosure para NVMe y me arroja velocidades cercanas a los 6,000MB/s

Works with M4 Max as expected. the packedge does not give you premium feeling, however when you unpack the device has solid alu casing and all ports works as expected. i love that on front panel there is only usb-c, without usb-a.