Best Thunderbolt docks: Extend your laptop’s capabilities

The short answer: Look at the laptop’s published specifications to be sure. A Thunderbolt port uses a USB-C connection, and it may look indistinguishable from a USB-C port. Put another way: all Thunderbolt ports are USB-C, but not all USB-C ports are Thunderbolt-equipped.

Thunderbolt ports are supposed to have a small lightning-bolt icon to identify them. But some laptop makers use a similar lightning-bolt icon to indicate that a USB-C port can be used for charging your phone, and not for Thunderbolt. Laptop makers sometimes don’t want to clutter the clean lines of their products by adding additional logos, it seems. Fortunately, most laptops now choose to highlight their Thunderbolt capabilities, so the ports should be well-marked.

In June 2024, Intel held a technical session talking about its Core Ultra 200 (Lunar Lake) processor. One of the big changes Intel is making is to force laptop makers to a) cluster all of the older USB-C ports on one side of the laptop, away from the Thunderbolt and b) require the ports (including Thunderbolt) to be clearly labeled. That’s a small but important win for users.

USB4 is Thunderbolt’s more generic competitor, and USB4 docks and Thunderbolt docks are often interchangeable. The USB Implementor’s Forum is going to ask laptop makers to add a separate, different USB4 logo to laptops as well. This strikes me as unnecessarily confusing.

Put simply, 40Gbps, for Thunderbolt 3 or 4.

Most USB-C ports are built on the second-generation USB 3.1 data-transfer standard, which transfers data at 10Gbps. Thunderbolt 3 and 4 ports, the most common standard, transfer data at up to 40Gbps. Thunderbolt 4 differs very slightly in that it supports a theoretical maximum of 32Gbps for external storage devices, but you probably won’t notice the difference.

Intel unveiled an 80Gbps version of Thunderbolt in 2024, called Thunderbolt 5, meaning that you’ll see Thunderbolt docks with even more capabilities. In certain scenarios, Thunderbolt 5 can reroute data to deliver 120Gbps in one direction. More laptops are arriving with a discrete Thunderbolt 5 chip inside, though they’re still somewhat rare and tend to land inside gaming laptops.

I’d recommend a Thunderbolt 4 dock. You can score a deal as retailers continue to clear out old Thunderbolt 3 inventory, but they’re being phased out. You can always future-proof your setup with a Thunderbolt 5 laptop and dock. but those aren’t essential quite yet.

Thunderbolt 5 is the 80Gbps version, which backwards compatible with both Thunderbolt 3 and 4. Thunderbolt 5 isn’t something to worry about quite yet. (I’ve even tested a Thunderbolt 5 setup, and didn’t like it. Even the Thunderbolt ecosystem doesn’t seem convinced that Thunderbolt 5 will become a thing for a couple of years.) However, I think it’s the fault of an early test laptop, and not the spec itself. Thunderbolt 5 will happen.

I’ll detail some of the differences between the specifications below. But if you’re new to this, let us reiterate: Thunderbolt 3 and 4 are basically the same, and Thunderbolt 5 won’t be an issue until after 2025.

Essentially, Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 allow up to 40Gbps maximum bandwidth, enough for two 4K/60 displays. “Up to” is the key phrase: Thunderbolt 3 is only required to support a 10Gbps connection, allowing for a single external 4K display (a 16Gbps PCIe connection, paired with USB 3.2). Most manufacturers go beyond this, however, and our recommended docks support the full 40Gbps specification (and two 4K displays) unless noted. Thunderbolt 3 also supports a slower (16Gbps) PCIe connection for connecting to external storage.

Thunderbolt 3 is also the only specification (not Thunderbolt 4) that we’ve seen connecting to external GPUs, in case you’d like to try that approach. Thunderbolt 5 adds that capability back, but I haven’t seen anything that really takes advantage of it.

Thunderbolt 4 doesn’t allow for any leeway—you’re getting a full-fledged 40Gbps connection (32Gbps PCIe + USB 3.2), no questions asked. For external storage, Thunderbolt 4 supports 32Gbps of data transfer—this really only matters for video, external GPU connections, or possibly games. Thunderbolt 4 supports “wake on sleep” from an external keyboard or mouse, which allows you to tap your external keyboard or wiggle your mouse to wake up your PC, which is handy. Thunderbolt 4 allows for longer cables and more Thunderbolt ports on laptops, too.

Device maker Anker has a nice table of all of the technical features associated with Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, and USB4, if you really want to get into the fine distinctions (below). What’s USB4? We address that further down.

Yes, you can connect the dongle to a Thunderbolt port. But the 10Gbps dongle won’t magically transform into a 40Gbps Thunderbolt port, as there’s circuitry within the dock that allows it to work with your laptop’s high-speed Thunderbolt port. However, there’s nothing saying that you can’t connect the dongle to an available USB-C port on the Thunderbolt dock itself, either. If your laptop has two Thunderbolt ports, you can also attach a Thunderbolt dock to one port, and the dongle to the other.

That solution will add more clutter to your desk, but it might allow you to buy a cheaper, budget dock, too. It’s up to you!

Probably. USB4 ports typically appear on laptops with AMD Ryzen processors inside. USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 are compatible and functionally equivalent. (Though Thunderbolt is an open standard, Intel declines to certify non-Intel hardware. That means that Ryzen laptops end up with USB4 ports, and Intel Core laptops include Thunderbolt.)

USB4 is essentially a subset of Thunderbolt 4, mainly designed as an I/O specification.

As a subset of Thunderbolt 4, a USB4 device will run just fine plugged into a Thunderbolt 4 port. But dock makers tell us that a Thunderbolt 4 device may not work as expected when plugged into what is specifically a USB4 port. Instead, most hubs and docks are marketed as Thunderbolt 4, while most devices (like an external SSD) are designed around USB4. (We test Thunderbolt docks on Thunderbolt laptops.) There are USB4 docks, however, which you’ll find above in our list of best picks.

USB4 Version 2 is a standard that will propel USB4 to 80Gbps, just like Thunderbolt 5. I haven’t seen any docking stations marketed as USB v2 (also known as USB80Gbps), however.

Note that Thunderbolt 3 and 4 require at least 15W to power devices plugged into the Thunderbolt port, such as a bus-powered hard drive. USB4 requires just half that.

I did try to connect a Thunderbolt 5 dock to a USB4 laptop, and it didn’t work. It should! It may just be a driver issue.

The Thunderbolt 5 spec pushes I/O bandwidth from 40Gbps in Thunderbolt 4 to 80Gbps in Thunderbolt 5, and even to 120Gbps in some cases. Another good way to think of Thunderbolt 5 is in the context of what it can do. Thunderbolt 4 allows enough bandwidth for two 4K displays, running at 60Hz. Thunderbolt 5 will offer enough bandwidth to connect to three 4K displays, at 144Hz apiece. That helps make Thunderbolt 5 a gaming-class technology, rather than just for office work.

Thunderbolt 5 will also allow for 64Gbps of dedicated bandwidth for storage and external GPUs, double the 32Gbps on Thunderbolt 4.

Finally, there’s power. Thunderbolt 5 will provide up to 240W (140W required) of charging power for your laptop. Most laptops require 65W to 90W today, but gaming laptops require more. All this means is that a Thunderbolt 5 dock will potentially eliminate the need to carry a gaming laptop’s charger around. (It won’t be in all cases, but some.) Note that you’ll need a laptop that supports this power spec, however!

And that’s the problem. Thunderbolt 5 debuted in 2024, both in laptops as well as docks and devices. Although we saw a couple of early products at CES 2024, I only saw two TB5 laptops for several months:  a version of the Razer Blade and the Maingear ML-17. Both have discrete chips inside, rather than being directly integrated inside the processor. I tried a Thunderbolt 5 setup, and it stunk, though I think it’s the fault of Maingear’s laptop, and not the docks.

Why does that matter? If a function like Thunderbolt 5 isn’t built right into the processor, a laptop OEM must buy it separately. That takes time, money, and engineering, and most laptop makers think hard before spending extra. There are a few Thunderbolt 5 docks, but hardly any laptops that support it. At CES, I was told that it may take a couple of years for Thunderbolt 5 to really go mainstream — 2026 or maybe 2027.

Thunderbolt 5 isn’t integrated into Intel’s Lunar Lake mobile processor, and it’s not in the desktop or mobile versions of Arrow Lake, either. Maybe Panther Lake? However, the first Thunderbolt 5 cable debuted recently, though some of the cable lengths are probably too short to be practical.

Thunderbolt Share is a new way of connecting two PCs via a Thunderbolt cable. Plug one end of the cable into one Thunderbolt port, and the other into a Thunderbolt port on another laptop, and voila! They’re connected. Thunderbolt Share allows you to use one PC to control another, sync files, share files, and more, all at Thunderbolt speeds. I explain Thunderbolt Share and test it, here.

It sounds simple, easy, and powerful, but it’s more complicated than that. Both PCs have to run Intel’s Thunderbolt Share software, and you’ll only be able to get that from a licensed PC or Thunderbolt dock. Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 5 will run Thunderbolt Share, but not Thunderbolt 3 — well, officially. The same goes for USB 4; it might work, and it might not. Intel isn’t saying.

Thunderbolt Share will be supported by a handful of PC makers as well as dock makers like Belkin, Plugable, and more. But you know what? That announcement kind of came and went. I’m not betting on Thunderbolt Share being more than a gimmick right now. I didn’t really see it make an appearance at CES 2025, either.

Virtually every Thunderbolt dock will ship with its own cable. We recommend that you use Thunderbolt 3 cables with Thunderbolt 3 products, and Thunderbolt 4 cables with Thunderbolt 4 products. Ditto for the first Thunderbolt 5 cables, when the technology ships.

You’ll need a special USB-C to HDMI cable, rated for Thunderbolt speeds. I recommend and have purchased this Uni Thunderbolt to HDMI cable from Amazon, which is about $16. You can find cheaper options, but make sure they’re rated for either Thunderbolt or a 4K@60Hz display.

A DisplayLink USB-C docking station is a new category of docking station. They’re often marketed just as a USB-C docking station, unfortunately, though the DisplayLink logo features prominently on the box. The key here is that the DisplayLink technology (now owned by Synaptics) uses data compression between your PC and the dock to approximate a Thunderbolt experience (a pair of 4K displays at 60Hz, plus additional peripherals) across the narrower, slower USB-C bus. You’ll need to install a software driver for your PC to communicate with the DisplayLink chip built into the dock.

The advantage here is twofold. First, DisplayLink allows you to “cheat” and get a Thunderbolt dock experience on an older laptop. Alternatively, even if you do own a laptop with a Thunderbolt port, you may be able to find a DisplayLink USB-C dock for a cheaper price than Thunderbolt. This is a viable solution, especially if you don’t mind not playing PC games.

Our separate story on DisplayLink docks has more. For a while, DisplayLink offered a consistently cheaper option than Thunderbolt. Older Thunderbolt technologies and tariffs have now muddled those waters that the distinction isn’t as clear-cut.

We’re starting to see some USB-C docking stations take advantage of another technology: HBR3 (High Bit Rate 3) with DSC (Display Stream Compression). Think of it as the industry-standard, manufacturer-agnostic version of DisplayLink. It works over the USB-C port, and again provides a dual 4K60 display experience.

The problem? It’s wonky. I’ve found that support for the technology was very iffy in 11th-gen hardware, and really seems to work consistently in 12th-gen or 13th-gen Core laptops (and above, when they ship). It’s becoming more common, however, and works more stably in the most recent Intel Core laptops.

With Thunderbolt 3? Yes, you can. Certain manufacturers (Razer is one, though there are others) have built enclosures that can house a standard desktop graphics card, connected to your laptop via a Thunderbolt cable. Although a mobile gaming laptop with an external GPU does a good job enabling mobile gaming, a desktop GPU does even better. Thunderbolt simply connects the two.

External GPU support sort of skipped Thunderbolt 4, however, and I would recommend using a Thunderbolt 3 dock instead, or wait until Thunderbolt 5. How can you hook up an external GPU to your laptop via Thunderbolt? Our story has more.

According to a representative for Razer, the differences between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 were too small. “When we release any product, we only do so when there can be a material advantage over the previous generation,” we were told.

Since Thunderbolt 4 was backwards compatible and functionally equivalent to Thunderbolt 3, Razer simply declined to invest in the production and testing of a Thunderbolt 4 eGPU. I presume other manufacturers followed suit.