Kensington SD5500T Thunderbolt 3 Dock review: Cloning greatness

Finest Costs Immediately: Kensington SD5500T Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C Docking Station

$247.00

Free

If you happen to’ve learn our overview of the IOGear Quantum Twin Mode Thunderbolt 3 Dock Professional, you’ve learn our overview of the Kensington SD5500T Thunderbolt Dock as nicely. They’re an identical in look and performance, although the Kensington dock is just barely dearer for some cause.

Each are superb for what they’re: a compact Thunderbolt 3 dock that gives a really targeted variety of ports, in a configuration that gained’t take up a lot of your desk. There are actually solely two issues that may flip off a purchaser: the considerably restricted 60W of energy the dock supplies, and its use of a pair of DisplayPort connections, an no HDMI ports.

There’s additionally no choice to face the dock vertically, for space-saving. However Kensington does promote a $20 mounting bracket, which might connect the dock to the again of a monitor. We haven’t tried out that choice, however it actually feels like a novel and helpful resolution.

The dock is compact (6.6 x 3.1 x 1.1 inches, 2.7 kilos) with small rubber toes to maintain it stably planted in your desk. The included Thunderbolt 3 cable measures over two toes, providing you with loads of room to connect the cable to your laptop computer. It connects to the entrance of the dock, subsequent to a 10Gbps USB-A port and a headphone jack.

Be aware: This overview is a part of our roundup of finest Thunderbolt docks. Go there for extra details about competing merchandise and our purchasing suggestions.

Mark Hachman / IDG

On the rear of the dock is a gigabit ethernet port, a pair of 5Gbps USB-A ports for a keyboard and mouse, and two 10Gbps USB-C ports. (Kudos to Kensington, by the best way, for utilizing the devoted 10Gbps USB brand to establish the quicker ports.) There are additionally a pair of older DisplayPort 1.2 ports for a pair of shows; notice that the dock powers a pair of 4K shows at 60Hz if related through Thunderbolt. In any other case, the dock will energy two 1080p shows at 30Hz, in line with the guide, in case your laptop computer simply has USB-C. (If you happen to do exactly have a USB-C connection, don’t purchase this dock and buy a USB-C dongle as an alternative.)

Another docks, just like the pricier Plugable TBT-UDZ, provide the choice of utilizing both DisplayPort or HDMI cables to connect with your show. Kensington’s method is okay, provided that many 4K shows ship with with each HDMI and DisplayPort choices. Simply ensure you personal the proper cables. The dock carried out as anticipated, taking part in again protected content material on Netflix and never dropping a single body whereas streaming 4K video whereas related to ethernet.

Whereas the built-in USB-C and USB-A ports are rated to supply 5V/1.5A per port (for 7.5W charging of smartphones), they equipped 4.8V/1.37A to our USB energy tester, for a complete of 6.61W. That was sufficient to cost, however not quick cost, a Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphone. The dock by no means will get too sizzling, even below load.

This dock comes with a three-year guarantee.

Between IOGear’s dock and this one, we’d select IOGear: It’s slightly cheaper proper now at present costs. In any other case, they’re each strong choices for a Thunderbolt dock.