This single-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 quad dock has no other version, but it is a major failure to build this new-gen Thunderbolt 5 spec. In CES 2023, the company is clearly indicating that it will be due to new specifications.
The TBT 4-UDZ features include the ability to support four 4K displays, which is a nuisance and yet not even possible with the current 40GBbps Thunderbolt 4 specification. Eventually, only two 4K displays consume about 30 gigabits per second, plus a little more depending on the refresh rate and complexity of the image. This dock can certainly power 4K displays simultaneously, especially because it’s built on the Intel Goshen Ridge chipset, which allows just 40Gbps per second.
But the next-generation Thunderbolt specification (like this – Lightning) will support up to 80Gbps. That allows four four-kamp displays, or a single-kamp display of 240 Hz, or combination of high resolution and high refresh rate. It isn’t here yet, but it looks like it’ll soon be alive in 2023.
If the TBT4-UDZ is the first official Thunderbolt 4 dock, there are some features we can expect from our list of the best Thunderbolt docks: a choice between HDMI and DisplayPort and a power use, with 100 Watt charging power. The TBT4 UDZ is a cousin of the TBT3 UDZ, a dock of our Editors Choice. The higher bandwidth, the more crowded the cable is, the more crowded it becomes. There are four USB-A ports (two 5Gbps and two 10Gbps) and a USB-A-USB-Chip-Spot.
The TBT4-UDZ is going to be released on Jan. 17 on Amazon for two hundred dollars.