CalDigit TS5 Thunderbolt 5 Dock review: Top-end dock with just the right ports

Best Prices Today: CalDigit TS5 Thunderbolt 5 Dock

The CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 5 (TS5) is a bridge between the Olympian 20-port CalDigit TS5 Plus and the latest docking stations for mere mortals.

If you desire the ultimate in MacBook docking stations, the CalDigit TS5 Plus has just about everything you need—indeed probably more than you need. The plain TS5’s 15 ports should be enough for any but the more extreme pro-level users. The question is: are the TS5’s 15 ports the right mixture at the right price for you?

Specs and features

• One upstream Thunderbolt 5 port (80Gbps, 140W)
• Three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports (80Gbps, 15W)
• One USB-C port (10Gbps, 20W)
• Two USB-C ports (10Gbps, 7.5W)
• One USB-A port (10Gbps, 7.5W)
• One USB-A port (480MBps, 7.5W)
• Ethernet (2.5Gb)
• UHS-II SD card reader (312MBps)
• UHS-II microSD card reader (312MBps)
• 3.5mm combo audio jack (front)
• Two 3.5mm In/Out audio jacks (back)
• 240W power supply

All the ports are clearly labeled, which is appreciated.

That’s a great line-up of ports, even compared to its mighty 20-port TS5 Plus sibling. Indeed, the TS5 actually offers one more downstream Thunderbolt 5 port than the TS5 Plus, which sacrificed one of its TB5 ports for a DisplayPort.

The TS5’s lack of such a dedicated video port shouldn’t worry you. Any of the three downstream TB5 ports can be used to connect to a monitor. If the monitor supports a direct USB-C connection, then no adapter is required. If not, you’ll need a USB-C to DisplayPort or USB-C to HDMI adapter for the display connection.

Thunderbolt 5 doubles Thunderbolt 4’s data speeds from 40Gbps to bi-directional 80Gbps and up to 120Gbps in boost mode for higher display unidirectional bandwidth, resulting in significantly faster data transfers between devices and your Mac.

If you need to connect high performance SSDs or RAID devices Thunderbolt 5 rewards you with a PCIe performance that is doubled to 64Gbps PCIe 4.0, and the dock supports transfer speeds up to 6,200MBps.

The three USB-C ports are welcome, and the one at the front is rated at 20W, allowing for fast iPhone or iPad charging. Being something of a show-off the TS5 Plus boasted a 36W front-mounted USB-C port for even faster charging but 20W (just) exceeds Apple’s minimum 18W for speedy iPhone charging. Now we have 25W wireless charging it’s probably time for wired ports to offer that bit more.

The bigger TS5 Plus is armed with five USB-A ports, which we find excessive given that it’s aimed at professionals who surely would have ditched that annoying legacy port by now, although we acknowledge that some device makers persist with the non-reversible USB-A standard and it’s more common for portable memory sticks.

The TS5 dock trims the number of USB-A down to two, which we think is enough for any dock. One is rated at 10Gbps for data transfer and another for just 480MBps but both can output up to 7.5W to connected devices. The slower Type-A port can’t supply power when the dock is disconnected from the laptop, but the 10Gbps port and all the other power-giving ports do support offline charging.

Compact power station

Thunderbolt 5 has a required higher power delivery (to a connected laptop) of at least 140W (up from TB4’s minimum 100W) with support for up to 240W (vs TB4’s max 140W). The TS5 can therefore power a connected laptop at up to 140W, enough to fast-charge a top-end 16-inch MacBook Pro. To achieve this, make sure you use the included 1m TB5 cable that can handle such power.

The TS5 Plus comes equipped with a super-generous 330W power supply, but the TS5’s 240W max should be enough for the ports that might require it: 1x 140W TB5, 3x 15W TB5, 1x 20W USB-C, and 5x 7.5W USB. That adds up to 242.5W and the dock will require some juice itself, but it’s plenty of power on hand. Most other docks max out at 180W and therefore add the risk that the all-important wattage going into the laptop might occasionally fluctuate to accommodate other hungry devices when over-loaded.

One reason that the TS5 Plus needs so much more power is the fact that its two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports can each output up to 36W of power compared to the TS%’s three downstream ports sticking with the regulation 15W maximum output.

Video options

Top of laptop users’ docking station priorities is connecting to one or probably two external displays without using up all the MacBook’s own ports.

Where CalDigit sacrificed the third downstream Thunderbolt port for a top-end DisplayPort 2.1 video connection on the TS5 Plus, there’s no such dedicated video port on the plain TS5 so you need to use one or more of the three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports for this purpose—possibly with a DisplayPort or HDMI adapter if the monitor demands one. The non-Thunderbolt USB-C ports of the TS5 won’t work as connectors to monitors.

Thunderbolt is based on DisplayPort so can handle superior refresh rates to HDMI that is pegged back at a maximum 75Hz.

Mac users on base M4, M1/M2/M3/M4 Pro, M1/M2/M3/M4 Max and M1/M2/M3 Ultra processors can natively connect up to two displays. Depending on the display capabilities of your MacBook, the maximum resolution is 8K at a 60Hz refresh rate (on an M4 Max), with a possible refresh rate of 240Hz for 4K or 500Hz for 1080p HD on all others. As mentioned, the above resolutions will depend on the host computer’s capabilities. For example, dual 8K 60Hz is only compatible on the M4 Max MacBook Pro right now.

With the TS5’s TB5 ports Mac users can connect up to two external 4K displays at 240Hz. Windows users are more blessed here due to that operating system’s use of Multi-Stream Transport (MST) that enables up to three displays on supported host computers.

(Base M1/M2/M3 based Macs are limited to just one external monitor due to Apple’s own imposed Thunderbolt limitations. To get around this limitation you need a specialized DisplayLink dock, and the TS5 doesn’t support this—see how to connect more than one monitor to an M1/M2 Mac for more details.)

Mac users after three or more displays will again need to consider a high-end DisplayLink dock such as the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station (TBT-6950PD) or Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station with DisplayLink.

If you are hooking the dock up to an iPad Pro you’ll be able to run a 6K display at 60Hz. And iPhone 15/16/17 will support a 4K 60Hz display via the TS5. See the chart above for all the configurations for Mac, iPad and iPhone, and even Windows if you must.

Storage

Some docking stations—such as the Sonnet Echo 13 Dock—address the MacBook’s expensive internal storage by including SSD storage integrated into the dock itself that is operated like a very fast external disk drive.

Neither the TS5 nor the TS5 Plus offers a built-in SSD but both do offer both SD and microSD card readers at the front for you to slip in and out your own portable storage cards.

This is an inexpensive way of boosting MacBook storage. At the time of writing a 1TB microSD card was priced at under $100, although that was a 160MBps UHS-I speed card and the TS5’s readers support up to 312MBps UHS-II. That’s faster than the 250MBps SDXC card slot built into Apple’s current MacBook Pro.

A faster UHS-II SD card of 1TB capacity will cost about $200, which is still considerably cheaper than what Apple charges you for internal storage at the point of purchase.

Network speeds

Most home and office networks are still rated at the standard 1Gb (Gigabit) Ethernet, but more modern networks are much faster at 2.5Gb, 5Gb or even 10Gb speeds.

Recent pro docks include a 2.5 gigabit Ethernet (2.5GbE) port as the new base, and the CalDigit TS5 joins them at this speedier Ethernet standard. 2.5GbE is backwards compatible all the way back to Gigabit Ethernet. The brawnier TS5 Plus goes all the way to 10GbE.

Design

The CalDigit TS5 sticks with the tried and trusted iconic aluminum chassis with vented sides and top that has been a favorite for over a decade starting with the company’s TS3 and carried on by the TS4.

Its vertical or horizontal format bucks the trend of most laptop docking stations that sit either one way or the other. We prefer to keep the TS5 vertical so that every one of those heat-dissipating vents can help keep the dock’s innards cool. CalDigit doesn’t include a fan as some users—especially in creative studios—demand total silence from their devices.

CalDigit includes two rubber feet strips if you do want to lay it flat on the desk, so the dock is raised to allow some cooling to occur on all sides.

Standing vertically, it measures 5.55 inches (14.1cm) high, 4.46 inches (11.3cm) deep, and 1.65 inches (4.2cm) wide. It weighs 1.41lbs (0.64kg).

This compares to its 20-port bruiser sibling that packs more punches but still measures a reasonably diminutive 6.1 x 5 x 1.85 inches (15.5 x 12.8 x 4.7cm) wide and weighs in at 2lbs (0.9kg).

The ports placements are well considered. The upstream Thunderbolt 5 port that connects to your laptop is away at the back, keeping cable mess out of sight. The two card readers as well as two USB-C ports (including one rated at 20W USB-C) and one of the dock’s three audio ports are within easy reach up front.

The other two audio ports, one In and one Out, are at the back of the dock, as is a security slot on the far end.

As with all CalDigit docks and hubs there’s no On/Off power button on the TS5. The dock might not let you decide when and where power is delivered but rest assured that the dock gives power when required and none if not.

CalDigit TS5 or TS5 Plus

For an extra $100/£70 you could buy the slightly larger and more multi-ported CalDigit TS5 Plus. For that, as detailed above, you get more USB-A ports, which might be overkill, but the extra two USB-C ports will be useful. The Plus offers a decent step up in terms of the 10Gb Ethernet and 36W of power not just from the front USB-C port but from each of the Thunderbolt 5 ports too—as well as 330W of maximum power. The power to your laptop is the same at 140W but the ability to charge more devices may be the nudge you need for the upgrade.

The Plus won’t run more monitors or improve the refresh rate, although its DisplayPort gives you a more direct link to compatible monitors, where the plain TS5 might require an adapter unless the display also offers USB-C as a connection.

If you prefer the flexibility of three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports compared to the TS5 Plus’s two TB5 and one DisplayPort, the plain TS5 may win you over.

Read our CalDigit TS5 Plus review for more details.

Price

CalDigit’s TS5 Plus has more ports and at a higher spec than any other docking station and commands a premium $499.99 price as a result. The cut-down but still impressive plain TS5 comes in at a more affordable $399.99 price point. See Amazon for its latest prices on each of the CalDigit Thunderbolt 5 docks. In the U.K. the TS5 costs £399.99, and it’s priced at €385,85 in Europe.

In comparison, the Sonnet Echo 13 Dock (with integrated 1TB SSD) costs from $439 although is usually found online at around $370. The OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock is cheaper at $329, but the best value Thunderbolt 5 dock is the $299 Plugable Thunderbolt 5 Dock that carries the same four TB5 ports, three USB-A, 2.5GbE, UHS-II card readers, audio jack, and a 180W power supply, so may well be all you need. It too can either stand vertical or lie horizontally.

Another option is you can do without the Ethernet port and card readers is CalDigit’s Element 5 Thunderbolt 5 Hub ($299) that boasts as many TB5 ports as the TS5, one more USB-A and one fewer USB-C port.

Read all our reviews of the best Thunderbolt docks for Mac for more comparisons, but you can rest assured that the CalDigit TS5 ranks very highly for all the reasons given in this review.

Should you buy an CalDigit TS5 dock?

If the mighty CalDigit TS5 Plus is too expensive and/or has more ports than you really need, the TS5 Thunderbolt 5 docking station brings a high-power, top-notch set of ports in a form you can trust to keep up with the latest devices you might want to connect to your MacBook.

Best Prices Today: CalDigit TS5 Thunderbolt 5 Dock