At a explore
Educated’s Ranking
Consultants
- Rugged, effectively-engineered
- Can take a seat vertically on its stand to attach keep
- Yes, it works: Four 4K shows are that you can well presumably trust
- A surplus of ports
Cons
- MSRP is admittedly too costly
- Mislabeled USB-A charging port doesn’t ship
- Common storage efficiency
Our Verdict
The Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T) delivers ports aplenty, nevertheless can also be too costly at some stores. In another case, it’s beautiful.
Mark When Reviewed
379.99
Easiest Costs Recently: Kensington Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Quad Video Docking Station (SD5800T)
$229.99
The Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T) feels a runt cherish one more verse in a smartly-recognized song: A brand unique dock arrives, loaded to the gills with ports; nonetheless, all of that flexibility arrives with a steep imprint top rate, too.
Kensington and Plugable seem at the head of our present list of potentially the most attention-grabbing Thunderbolt docks. Here is our first more than a few to study about Kensington’s ultra-top rate 16-in-1 SD5800T Thunderbolt 4 dock, which looks to be like almost same to the Plugable TBT4-UDZ — which we’ve written about nevertheless haven’t yet formally reviewed. Given the aptitude for an eventual head-to-head shootout, it’s price noting that the SD5800T’s MSRP is technically $379, nevertheless that Amazon lists it as $299, the same as Plugable’s dock. (And at press time, Amazon has the price of the SD5800T carve to correct $229.)
In any match, this is Kensington’s dock to bewitch in the occasion you is most most certainly looking out to possess everything: four 4K shows (two DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1), plus a boatload of USB-A and USB-C ports. For optimistic, you’re not obligated to join four shows; you can well presumably buy two shows as an more than a few, impart material in the determining that you can well presumably prefer whatever cable (HDMI or DisplayPort) you wish.
A pair of of the fundamentals need explaining. In terms of all Thunderbolt 4 docks will join to USB4 ports with no hitch. Kensington’s prolonged, formal product title spells this out. On tale of Intel refuses to certify non-Intel (read: AMD Ryzen) laptops for Thunderbolt, Ryzen notebooks declare USB4 ports as an more than a few. They’re if truth be told same.
Price Hachman / IDG
Kensington accomplishes a quad-repeat orientation via a aggregate of the 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 port plus a expertise known as Justify Drag Compression (DSC), which makes declare of an industry-customary compression expertise to eke out extra bandwidth. DSC is same to DisplayLink, a compression expertise designed by Synaptics, and the basis of a whole class of improbable DisplayLink docks, which we consist of in our simplest Thunderbolt dock roundup. DSC doesn’t require the application driver that DisplayLink does, nevertheless DSC can also be a runt iffy on any laptop that makes declare of a 12th-gen Core processor or older.
Kensington’s SD5800T sits atop the pinnacle rate Thunderbolt dock market with trusty balance, a boatload of ports, and the energy to join to four shows straight away. It’s a improbable dock, nevertheless feels a runt overpriced at its default imprint.
The bottom line is that a Thunderbolt dock used to be designed for a pair of 4K, 60Hz shows, and DSC or DisplayLink increases that to four 4K shows as an more than a few. If you occur to admire multiple monitors, that’s in actuality chilly.
Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T): The ports
On the front 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 additionally a energy button, a headphone jack, and a 3.25-foot Thunderbolt 4 wire that gives a rated 98W to your laptop. On the rear, Kensington involves a Kensington nano- and beefy-sized security slot (natch), the energy port, the four repeat ports, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, a 10Gbps USB-C charging port rated at 1.5A, plus four USB-A ports evenly split between 10Gbps and 5Gbps.
Kensington’s SD5800T sits atop the pinnacle rate Thunderbolt dock market with trusty balance, a boatload of ports, and the energy to join to four shows straight away.
Price Hachman / IDG
That’s a lot, and the build hides a pair of consultants and cons. For one, did I mention that the dock would possibly also additionally be mounted vertically? Kensington’s SD5800T measures 7.68 x 4.09 x 1.42 inches (and 1.34 kilos, if it matters) nevertheless would possibly also additionally be propped vertically on a stand to attach keep. (The dock has rubber toes for mounting flat, nonetheless.) Even with cords sprouting from multiple ports, it sat completely gradually on my desk. The ports are effectively-spaced, as effectively.
What I don’t cherish concerning the build is how it puts the USB-C charging port on the help; in the occasion you’re a stickler for group, you’ll desire it on the front, nearer to you. I don’t cherish the shortcoming of an LED-lit energy button, both.
Price Hachman / IDG
Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T): Efficiency
The quiz I consistently keep a matter to of a quad-repeat dock cherish the Kensington SD5800T: Does it ship what it guarantees? The respond is: Smartly, it depends upon. Attributable to the vagaries of numerous hardware, you can well presumably potentially quiz numerous capabilities looking out on how unique your laptop is. As consistently, the extra fresh the hardware, the greater.
Here’s a synopsis of how the Kensington SD5800T performed on varied laptops, correct to illustrate the diversifications. It’s crucial to level to, nonetheless, that though the shows took a pair of seconds to join, I by no methodology experienced any system defects or disconnects. It’s additionally crucial to level to that the handbook states that the dock can ship “as a lot as 4K @ 60Hz” efficiency across four shows. (Emphasis mine.) Kensington additionally guarantees that the dock can energy a single 8K repeat at 60Hz, nevertheless we lack the hardware to take a look at that.
- Asus ZenBook 14 OLED (14th-gen Core Extremely): Good. 4K, 60Hz across four 4K shows (4K60).
- Samsung Galaxy E-book 3 Professional 360 (13th-gen Intel Core): 4K60 across three shows. The fourth would handiest illuminate at 4K30, 1440p59, or 1080p60.
- Acer Swift Edge 16 (AMD Ryzen 7000): Similar as above
- Microsoft Ground Notebook computer Studio 2 (13th-gen Intel Core): Similar as above
- Microsoft Ground Notebook computer Studio (11th-gen Intel Core): Two shows at 4K60, two shows at 1080p
The dock’s USB-C charging port delivered 7.45W, sufficient to fleet-imprint a smartphone. But the front-mounted USB-A charging port delivered correct 0.5A (or 2.4W), which doesn’t come cease to the promised 1.5A. The two front-mounted ports ship the same quantity of energy, although one claims to be a charging port! The SD800T delivered a peak output of 94W to the laptop, which is cease sufficient to the rated output to be acceptable.
Streaming and knowledge switch efficiency used to be acceptable. Thunderbolt docks consistently ship a runt less knowledge throughput than DisplayLink; the 130.74MBps used to be about on par with other Thunderbolt 4 docks that I’ve tested, such because the Anker 777. The dock dropped 7 out of 10,000 frames while streaming. A take a look at whereby I copy a folder containing gigabytes of recordsdata from an SSD down through to the dock to the desktop done in 1 minute, 8 seconds, which is amongst the slower performers. The SD card slots worked as anticipated, and there possess been no pops or dropouts from the headphone jack.
Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 docks are susceptible to present same efficiency; Thunderbolt 4 docks are a runt extra trusty, which is why you seek a mixture of Thunderbolt 3 and 4 docks amongst our simplest picks.
Can also simply serene you resolve the Kensington SD5800T?
At $299, the SD5800T is a disturbing promote. At $379, I’d skip it altogether. At $229, your ears would possibly also serene perk up. I cherish the flexibleness of the SD5800T extra than our present simplest resolve, the Kensington SD5780T, which is why the bountiful Plugable TBT3-UDZ is serene amongst our most smartly-preferred Thunderbolt docks. I don’t cherish the SD5800T’s mislabeled charging port, nonetheless, and our review is muddied by how it interacts with varied hardware.
Nonetheless, the Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T) is serene a effectively-designed Thunderbolt 4 dock with some slight blemishes. Employ the available imprint to knowledge your procuring choice.
