Anker Prime TB5 Docking Station, 14-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Dock for Laptops

This Anker Prime TB5 Docking Station is easily the best dock I have used with my MacBook Pro. It feels like a true desktop replacement setup instead of just another USB-C hub. The biggest advantage is how much it handles through one connection. Monitors, accessories, storage, networking, charging, and other peripherals can all stay connected to the dock, so when I sit down at my desk I only have to plug one cable into my MacBook. Performance has been excellent. Transfers are extremely fast, everything connects reliably, and I have not had issues with devices randomly disconnecting or needing to constantly unplug and reconnect the dock. The Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth also gives this a lot more headroom than most docks I have used before. Build quality is fantastic as well. It feels substantial, premium, and made to stay on a desk rather than slide around every time you plug something in. It is definitely expensive, but if you use a MacBook Pro as your primary computer and have a full desk setup, I think this is one of those accessories that actually justifies the premium. Tons of ports, excellent performance, and an incredibly clean one-cable setup. Best dock I’ve owned so far.

This is a must have, I use it for a few different laptops I have (personal, work), the docking station works amazing, tooka bit of tinkering as there is only really one display port and i had to use one of the USB c ports on the back to connect a secon monitor up, but in the end once i did a bit of research and got the correct cable, it works amazing.

Works as advertised and great. I also have the UGreen and this dock is more reliable than it.

I was initially worried about dropping this much money on a dock that needs to work with two different Windows laptops (a Dell and an Alienware). I needed something that could power the Dell and drive video to two monitors, but also support peripherals. (For the Alienware, I didn’t care about power delivery.) I have to say, it was easy to set up and worked without a fuss. The only “fuss” was needing to find a USB-C to Displayport adapter since there is only one HDMI/DP output (and you have to choose), but I didn’t need to do any fiddling to get the USB webcam, mouse, two monitors, keyboard, and SSD connected to either laptop. Anker has pretty much cornered the market for me on peripherals, chargers, and power banks. I think if I were needing to connect more monitors, I would be very annoyed with the limited options, but as I knew what I was getting ahead of time and only need the two displays (plus the laptop screens), I don’t feel like it warrants knocking a star off for that. The build quality feels solid and looks stylish, which is par for the course for Anker, and i love the way it looks. A bit steep of a price, but it sure beats the pants off of the old Dell TB dock I was using and feels more premium, too. I haven’t had any issues with heat or noise, and while it’s a fairly chunky unit, it sits rather securely in the desk and doesn’t take up much real estate.

The best part about the Anker Prime TB5 dock is style. It looks really good on your desktop, unlike all the other docks you find which are just ugly. It also stays quite cool, although I don't use it to charge anything, just for data transfers. Function-wise, it has 2 downstream TB5 ports, meaning you can connect to up to 2 external drives or up to 2 external monitors via these TB 5 ports. It also has 2 USB-C 3.2 ports as well as 3 USB-A 3.2 ports, as well as 2.5Gbps Ethernet. Two video ports, one HDMI and one DP, are provided but you can only use ONE of the two at a time, not both simultaneously. The HDMI and DP one-or-the-other choice is one of the compromises Anker has made regarding this dock; the other compromise is more unforgiving given its price (unless the high price is explained by Trump's tariffs): the microSD (TF) and SDXC slots are only UHS-I with up to 104Mbps speed, which is 1/3 of what you get with fully compliant UHS-II SD slots. You can get a Mac-compatible strip hub with full UHS-II support for like 30 bucks, so it's unforgiving of Anker to include such lowly SD support in such an expensive dock. All in all, though, this is a worthy docking station because it looks pleasing! When you work hard in front of your Mac and multiple monitors, an eye-pleasing dock makes life more enjoyable. The LED light is more of a gimmick but maybe you're into these things so that's a plus in some way. The USB ports all perform as advertised, and the overall build quality is excellent, too. Comes with a very high-quality TB5 cable. BTW, it doesn't come with a manual but you can scan a QR code to get the manual online. It mostly deals with how to set up multiple monitors for Macs and other OSes. UPDATE (05.20.2025): Earlier this month I encounted, several times, an issue whereby after waking up from sleep, the SD and microSD slots are no longer functional; the dock needed to be turned off and back on to fix this (using the power button at the front). Originally I suspected it to be a bug with the docking station; later, when I restarted my MacBook, the problem went away and the SD slots have been working consistently since. So I'm bringing the rating back to the original 4 stars. Overall I'm happy with the performance of this dock -- save for its slow SD readers. As you can see from one of my attached photos, I actually use a Lexar UHS-II SD/microSD reader for my SD data transfer needs, as it's more than thrice (!) as fast as this dock's built-in reader.