Kensington SD5800T Thunderbolt 4 Dock review: Top price in all systems

Most productive Costs As of late: Kensington Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Quad Video Docking Situation (SD5800T)

The Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Situation (SD5800T) feels reasonably like but every other verse in a neatly-known song: A brand new dock arrives, loaded to the gills with ports; alternatively, all of that flexibility arrives with a steep imprint top class, too.

Kensington and Plugable seem on the stop of our fresh checklist of the most efficient Thunderbolt docks. This is our first opportunity to envision Kensington’s ultra-top class 16-in-1 SD5800T Thunderbolt 4 dock, which looks in relation to related to the Plugable TBT4-UDZ — which we’ve written about but haven’t but formally reviewed. Given the capability of an eventual head-to-head shootout, it’s price noting that the SD5800T’s MSRP is technically $379, but that Amazon lists it as $299, the identical as Plugable’s dock. (And at press time, Amazon has the price of the SD5800T prick assist to staunch $229.)

In any event, that is Kensington’s dock to buy in the event you would possibly want to always own all the pieces: four 4K shows (two DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1), plus a boatload of USB-A and USB-C ports. Obviously, you’re no longer obligated to join four shows; you will want the selection to establish two shows as a replace, articulate in the records that you simply will want the selection to desire irrespective of cable (HDMI or DisplayPort) you will want.

A few of the basics need explaining. Nearly all Thunderbolt 4 docks will join to USB4 ports with out a hitch. Kensington’s lengthy, formal product name spells this out. As a consequence of Intel refuses to certify non-Intel (be taught: AMD Ryzen) laptops for Thunderbolt, Ryzen notebooks recount USB4 ports as a replace. They’re if truth be told identical.

Kensington accomplishes a quad-display cloak orientation by technique of a mixture of the 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 port plus a skills known as Demonstrate Stream Compression (DSC), which makes recount of an industry-unusual compression skills to eke out more bandwidth. DSC is expounded to DisplayLink, a compression skills designed by Synaptics, and the basis of a complete class of improbable DisplayLink docks, which we embody in our simplest Thunderbolt dock roundup. DSC doesn’t require the diagram driver that DisplayLink does, but DSC would possibly likely be a limited bit iffy on any computer that makes recount of a 12th-gen Core processor or older.

Kensington’s SD5800T sits atop the top class Thunderbolt dock market with solid steadiness, a boatload of ports, and the energy to join to four shows straight away. It’s a improbable dock, but feels reasonably overpriced at its default imprint.

The backside line is that a Thunderbolt dock turned into designed for a pair of 4K, 60Hz shows, and DSC or DisplayLink will enhance that to four 4K shows as a replace. At the same time as you adore more than one shows, that’s no doubt chilly.

Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Situation (SD5800T): The ports

On the entrance of the SD5800T there’s a microSD and SD card slot for photographers (SD 4.0, UHS-II) alongside a 10Gbps USB-A port and a 480Mbps USB-A port, clearly marked for charging a smartphone at a rated 1.5A. There’s also a energy button, a headphone jack, and a 3.25-foot Thunderbolt 4 cord that presents a rated 98W to your computer. On the rear, Kensington involves a Kensington nano- and full-sized security slot (natch), the energy port, the four display cloak ports, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, a 10Gbps USB-C charging port rated at 1.5A, plus four USB-A ports evenly slit up between 10Gbps and 5Gbps.

Kensington’s SD5800T sits atop the top class Thunderbolt dock market with solid steadiness, a boatload of ports, and the energy to join to four shows straight away.

That’s loads, and the produce hides about a execs and cons. For one, did I mention that the dock will likely be mounted vertically? Kensington’s SD5800T measures 7.68 x 4.09 x 1.42 inches (and 1.34 kilos, if it matters) but will likely be propped vertically on a stand to attach dilemma. (The dock has rubber toes for mounting flat, alternatively.) Even with cords sprouting from more than one ports, it sat fully progressively on my desk. The ports are properly-spaced, as properly.

What I don’t like regarding the produce is the map in which it places the USB-C charging port on the assist; in the event you’re a stickler for group, you’ll need it on the entrance, closer to you. I don’t like the shortage of an LED-lit energy button, both.

Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Situation (SD5800T): Performance

The query I always query of a quad-display cloak dock like the Kensington SD5800T: Does it narrate what it promises? The answer is: Successfully, it depends. Thanks to the vagaries of diverse hardware, you will want the selection to potentially establish a query to diverse capabilities searching on how new your computer is. As always, the more moderen the hardware, the higher.

Here’s a synopsis of how the Kensington SD5800T performed on assorted laptops, staunch for instance the variations. It’s principal to level to, alternatively, that though the shows took about a seconds to join, I never experienced any system defects or disconnects. It’s also principal to level to that the handbook states that the dock can narrate “as a lot as 4K @ 60Hz” performance true by technique of four shows. (Emphasis mine.) Kensington also promises that the dock can energy a single 8K display cloak at 60Hz, but we lack the hardware to envision that.

• Asus ZenBook 14 OLED (14th-gen Core Extremely): Supreme. 4K, 60Hz true by technique of four 4K shows (4K60).
• Samsung Galaxy E book 3 Pro 360 (Thirteenth-gen Intel Core): 4K60 true by technique of three shows. The fourth would finest light up at 4K30, 1440p59, or 1080p60.
• Acer Swift Edge 16 (AMD Ryzen 7000): Identical as above
• Microsoft Flooring Laptop Studio 2 (Thirteenth-gen Intel Core): Identical as above
• Microsoft Flooring Laptop Studio (11th-gen Intel Core): Two shows at 4K60, two shows at 1080p

The dock’s USB-C charging port delivered 7.45W, adequate to snappy-charge a smartphone. However the entrance-mounted USB-A charging port delivered staunch 0.5A (or 2.4W), which doesn’t advance in terms of the promised 1.5A. The 2 entrance-mounted ports narrate an identical quantity of energy, even supposing one claims to be a charging port! The SD800T delivered a height output of 94W to the computer, which is close adequate to the rated output to be acceptable.

Streaming and records switch performance turned into acceptable. Thunderbolt docks always narrate reasonably less records throughput than DisplayLink; the 130.74MBps turned into about on par with diverse Thunderbolt 4 docks that I’ve tested, such because the Anker 777. The dock dropped 7 out of 10,000 frames while streaming. A test wherein I reproduction a folder containing gigabytes of recordsdata from an SSD down by technique of to the dock to the desktop performed in 1 minute, 8 seconds, which is amongst the slower performers. The SD card slots labored as anticipated, and there had been no pops or dropouts from the headphone jack.

Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 docks are inclined to present identical performance; Thunderbolt 4 docks are reasonably more valid, which is why you peer a mixture of Thunderbolt 3 and 4 docks amongst our simplest picks.

At the same time as you occur to buy the Kensington SD5800T?

At $299, the SD5800T is a worrying sell. At $379, I’d skip it altogether. At $229, your ears must soundless perk up. I love the flexibleness of the SD5800T bigger than our existing simplest pick, the Kensington SD5780T, which is why the bountiful Plugable TBT3-UDZ is soundless amongst our preferred Thunderbolt docks. I don’t like the SD5800T’s mislabeled charging port, alternatively, and our review is muddied by the map in which it interacts with assorted hardware.

However, the Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Situation (SD5800T) is soundless a properly-designed Thunderbolt 4 dock with some runt blemishes. Employ the obtainable imprint to recordsdata your attempting for resolution.

Most productive Costs As of late: Kensington Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Quad Video Docking Situation (SD5800T)

Author: Stamp Hachman, Senior Editor