Plugable 16-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Dock – Dual 4K Monitors for M4 MacBook Air/Pro, 100W Charging, 2X HDMI, 2X DisplayPort, 2.5G Ethernet, 7X USB, MicroSD/SD Card Reader, Audio, Windows & USB4 Compatible

Before I begin, this in an honest review, and I am receiving no compensation for it.So I found myself in need of a work-from-home setup. My employer issues laptops as a way to work remote using a VPN, but a laptop is not an ideal solution for someone that works with large spreadsheets, and I do. I wanted a dock that offers several display connections, ethernet, and USB. This dock also happens to have a card reader, but it's 2024 and the cloud is a thing. This dock delivers on all those things.If you don't have Thunderbolt 4 on your laptop, this dock probably isn't worth it. I would buy something that uses DisplayLink (Plugable makes every kind of dock, and they have a tool on their website that helps you decide which model to buy). Thunderbolt 3 doesn't support as many displays as T4, and I don't see any reason to spend $300 on a dock unless you need the displays to connect directly to the internal graphics card.I already had a gaming computer at home, so I needed this plus a KVM to be able to use the same desk space and peripherals.I connected a Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 2 to this thing. The product specs says it supports four displays, three external and the native laptop screen. I was able to close the lid and use four external.This computer doesn't belong to me and I don't have administrative privileges. This usually doesn't matter because Plugable offers drivers through windows update (no admin rights required). In my situation, our IT department uses WSUS / SCCM windows update. This kept the laptop from installing the Thunderbolt - Ethernet driver, so I had to get IT to install it while the computer was connected to the dock. Plugable doesn’t have the Ethernet driver easily accessible from their website. I get it…..almost nobody needs it there. Easiest way to find it online is to search the hardware id from device manager. I didn’t see anyone else with this issue in the Amazon reviews or any reviews from external sources.Let me address some of the issues I read in other Amazon reviews.Yes....this thing is expensive. I managed to pick it up at a discount during the Amazon spring sale. It is definitely on the pricier side of Thunderbolt / USB C docks, but I would argue that it is better quality for your money compared to the docks offered by the big computer retailers (Lenovo, Dell, HP). More connectivity and better reviews, for around the same price.Two reviewers complained this dock would not support four displays. One of them was more specific and said that the DisplayPort connections was the issue. I plugged in my VGA to DP adapter, and it worked. I then plugged in an HDMI to DP adapter (StarTech brand, I think). It did not work. After further research, I discovered that I needed an active adapter to go to HDMI. Plugable makes one. If you intend on using the DisplayPorts and your monitor only has HDMI……go to the Plugable website and find the DP to HDMI active adapter. There is a link there to buy on Amazon (15ish dollars, and worth every penny). I am now running four displays (with the laptop lid closed).In conclusion, this is a high end dock that does exactly what the product description says. I highly recommend it for those looking for a work-from-home solution. I currently have four displays, mouse, keyboard, Ethernet, printer, and the Thunderbolt 4 cable connected without issue. I can’t speak for those who do high end video stuff, but it’s a gem for any accountant in the market for a laptop dock.

I bought this to dock a new gaming notebook to the two monitors, keyboard, mouse, speakers, mic, webcam, and other assorted odds and ends at my working desk. All of that is shared with a work notebook which has its own company-supplied "meh" quality off-brand Thunderbolt 3 dock, with both docks switching through a modern KVM so that I can jump back and forth as desired.As the new computer has a Thunderbolt 4 port, I wanted to go with a TB4 dock to allow for the possibility of higher resolution & higher refresh monitors and maybe even more of them at some point. This Plugable dock looked to be the best balance between price and features -- for the features, there just aren't that many docks at this price. A lot of the docks around this range don't even have DisplayPort, just capability for USB monitors. A lot of the ones at this price also tend to supply less power, which aren't enough for this computer. This one also seemed to make the top X on quite a few of the "best Thunderbolt 4 docks" lists.So nothing much to report in the functionality -- plug stuff in, stuff works. I had no issue with the computer locking onto the dock or the dock addressing any of the peripherals. Everything happens pretty much instantaneously. You get a nice green solid light to show successful TB connection with the computer, or white if no connection. The dock supplies 98W of power, which is enough to actively charge my power-hungry Lenovo Legion 5 Pro notebook which needs something close to that to charge while using. It's almost the 100W max for this computer for USB charging. Anyway, that certainly works.I had one hiccup -- toward the end of the first full day of use, it just stopped working at all, unable to ever establish a connection to any computer plugged into it. Swapped cable, same deal. I contacted tech support (after hours) via email and immediately got a human response acknowledging the problem, letting me know the real techs were going to be back in office first thing in the morning and would get with me, and as promised, they did, the very next day.Josh from Plugable, probably one of the most polite and pleasant people I've ever dealt with from a tech support team, was quick to ask for a bit more info, followed by acknowledgement that it appears that the dock is bad, and an offer to send out another immediately in exchange for promise of return from me using the shipping label that was to be included. Each interaction was very quick -- no long waits between emails. The package did arrive in just a couple of days and the replacement so far is working great. He mentioned really being eager to get that other one back with all of the original stuff (i.e., "please use only the new stuff [power supply, cable, etc] because we don't know which part of the old unit is the point of failure") so that they can diagnose the cause of the problem, presumably to know whether there are manufacturing or design issues to address. It's what I like to hear.Anyway, highly recommend this product. If you need it, the tech support is unbeatable. Hopefully you won't need it, and you'll have a really solid and frankly very attractive dock that looks good sitting on my desktop where my old mid-tower system used to be, along with easy access to USB ports and SD-card slots and a headphone jack.

I was replacing a Plugable TBT3-UDZ with this newer TBT4-UDZ. The TBT3 was always hot and would shut off. This model runs much cooler and working great. I had a problem initially where the ethernet connection would drop. Worked for a few minutes but then went offline. Figured out I needed to install the driver from the Plugable website. It's supposed to automatically do it but guessing it failed because of the ethernet issue or it thought the TBT3 driver was correct. Once I installed that, it's working great now. One minor gripe is the connection to the laptop is on the front of the dock. I would prefer it to be in the back like the TBT3 model. However this model has a power button which was missing on the older model.

Great for the home office or the office-office. Suitable number of ports for all of the needs, and supplies power to my M3 MBPro. More a misgiving- I wish most MBP docks could serve up more than 2 monitors- I still need to use an external cable to plug in a third monitor. That said, it beats out my Caldigit in other locations.