Testing the Anker Prime 14-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Dock ($399) reminded me of Three Dog Night's old hit One is the Loneliest Number. The song warned that while one is the loneliest number, two can be lonely as one. If you bought a new MacBook Air this year you know this feeling because your computer has only two very lonely Thunderbolt ports, and no SD Card reader. Even if you got a Mac Mini Pro or Ultra with three Thunderbolt 5 ports and two Thunderbolt 4 ports, add one or two external drives, a digital card reader, and a monitor or two and you can suddenly find yourself in a port-deficit situation.
That is where devices like the Anker Prime 14-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Dock come in, drastically giving you all the ports you need, and maybe a few you don't. Docking stations have existed for a long while, but the advent of Thunderbolt 5 makes them so powerful, that they are fast (pun intended) becoming indispensible.
Boasting radically faster transfer speeds that (theoretically) double the previous version’s, there is a lot to love about Thunderbolt 5. In coming years Thunderbolt 5 may become as ubiquitous as USB is today, but for now some Apples come with Thunderbolt 4, others with both 4 and 5.
Fortunately, there is backward compatibility, so while a computer with only Thunderbolt 4 ports can’t run any faster when attached to a Thunderbolt 5 device (or docking station) that same docking station will still work, and then work even faster when you upgrade to a Thunderbolt 5 equipped computer later on, futureproofing your investment.
So, who needs this kind of docking station? The obvious answer is anyone who needs to plug more devices into their computer than it can currently handle. It is perfect for road-warriors who want to connect all their desktop devices (printers, scanners, external hard drives, monitors) to the dock and then have them connect to the laptop via a single cable.
The array of ports that can connect via that single cable is impressive:
First, that one cable can deliver 140W, enough to fast-charge the latest and greatest MacBook Pro, while providing 80Gbps data transfer. Meanwhile, the dock can be used to connect to one monitor by HDMI 2.1 or DP 2.1 connection. There are two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports rated at 80 Gbps, 15w. A 2.5 GbE ethernet connector is also provided.
Additionally, there are three USB-A ports (two in back, one in front), and two USB-C ports. A 3.4mm combo audio jack on the front is a useful addition.
However, the SD and microSD card readers on the side are slower than those found on top-end laptops and the external readers many photography mavens use. I wonder what the price difference would have been had Anker chosen to go with a faster reader. It isn’t that the one included doesn’t work, but at this price point and end of the market, it is a bit unseemly to have cheaped out on the port and then called it out as a feature. Further, the placement of the reader on the side of the unit is a bit awkward. I would have preferred it on the front for easier access.
A typical use for this kind of device is to expand the number of monitors that can be connected to the computer. There are a number of limitations here. First, MacBooks with Intel processors are not supported and you must be using macOS 15 or greater. M1, M2, or M3 Standard chips support only one extra monitor up to 4k.
The entire unit is powered by a 232w power supply. No external power brick is needed.
At 4.6 x 4.6 x 3.0 inches, it is slightly smaller (and an inch taller than the Mac Mini. Rather than Apple’s aluminum finish, the look here is a more Darth Vader-esque steely grey. Blue LEDs outline the top. It is a look that compliments, but never apes, Apple’s design.
Something many Macs need even more than more ports is more storage. Unfortunately, this device doesn't have any slots storage. Adding m.2 SSDs via Thunderbolt 5 has already proved to be nearly as fast as using the internal drive, so it seems a natural fit to have the relatively slim storage in an external deck of this kind. Perhaps it will come in later models… Time will tell. In the meantime, you could hook up something like the ACASIS 80Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure to get the storage you need, but it costs as much as the Anker dock!
The single most important feature on a dock is reliability. A dropped connection between computer and port can endanger the integrity of the data and even lead to data loss. In my testing the unit was rock solid. I had no data loss or corruption. It just worked. It wasn't flashy (except for the led mood strip, I suppose) but it just got the job done. That is as it should be for a device like this: it is unobtrusive and trustworthy.
The Anker Prime TB5 Docking Station is a remarkably powerful accessory for computer users finding themselves without enough ports. It is solidly built, worked flawlessly, and added needed expandability and function to my system. The unprecedented power of Thunderbolt 5 means that there will surely be many other competitors coming to the field, but for now, this is the best Thunderbolt 5 dock I've tested.
