Features:

  • [15 PORTS OF CONNECTIVITY]: 2x Thunderbolt 3 40Gb/s, DisplayPort 1.2, 5x USB-A & 1 USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gb/s), 1x USB-C 3.1 Gen2 (10Gb/s data only), Gigabit Ethernet, UHS-II SD Card Slot (SD 4.0), Optical Audio (S/PDIF), 3.5mm Stereo Audio In & Out. Vertical or horizontal orientation. Sturdy full aluminum construction with integrated heat sink without a fan.
  • [POWERFUL 85W LAPTOP CHARGING]: Provides up to 85W to charge your laptop and power all of your USB peripherals. The secondary Thunderbolt 3 port provides 15W of power for downstream devices.
  • [DUAL 4K EXTENDED DISPLAYS]: Connect up to two 4K@60Hz (4096 x 2160 30-bit color) monitors via DisplayPort and Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C port, OR a Single 5K@60Hz display can be supported via the Thunderbolt 3 port. (***DisplayPort to HDMI/DVI/VGA adapter / cable must be an ACTIVE type. Passive dongle/cable would not work.***)
  • [UHS-II SD 4.0 CARD SLOT]: Latest UHS-II SD card slot supports SD/SDHC/SDXC at up to 312 MB/s bus speed. Transfer full days of footage from your camera 3x faster than UHS-I counterpart!
  • [MAC & WINDOWS COMPATIBLE]: Ideal for 2016+ MacBook Pro, 2017+ iMac Pro, on Mac OS 10.12 or Windows 8/10 with a Thunderbolt 3 port. (Not compatible with 2015+ MacBook-Retina with USB-C port. Please use CalDigit USB-C Dock with MacBook-Retina)
Every port you ever wanted for your Mac

Top of the line all the way. Glad I waited for the "plus" model to come out because it has everything on my list and performs flawlessly with my 2016 MBP Pro. I was looking for something with a better camera memory slot, lots of USB for all these spare hard drives I swap around between Mac and Windows. Most importantly I needed great sound hooked up to my receiver. After Apple ditched the TOS headphone jack I have been looking for a replacement and while it is a bit pricey and I have a longer cord I already bought it has been well worth the wait.

This dock is everything!

This thing is pricey, but PERFECT. Please continue reading to get the full scoop. I'm a film student at Chapman and was recommended to get a MacBook Pro. I learned immediately that I needed a hub. I tried many of the USB-C hubs and they're equally terrible because only one to two of the ports will work. And nearly nothing is working if you are exporting 4K onto an editing monitor. From the $100+ to the $30 hubs the limitations are painful if you are importing your RAW photos or media and trying to use the display. I asked around and was told to find something that could fully utilize Thunderbolt 3. HUH? So USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are different, and what I needed for content creation was a Thunderbolt 3 dock. The Wirecutter recommended the CalDigit TS3 Plus, and since they're the Wirecutter they can't be wrong. CalDigit's TS3 Plus arrived in a few days from Amazon and I was ready to get some work done. My current setup is a Dell 27" 4K display, and a ton of storage. I have a SanDisk SATA SSD that is plugged into the Type-C port (really fast), and back things up again on an external Seagate 8TB (really slow, but this thing is a workhorse). I film and take photos with a Sony A7iii and use the SD card slot for end of the day dumps. That's a lot of stuff plugged into this thing, and all of it WORKS. Last night a classmate came by with an USB flash drive, and I just popped it in one of the rear ports. The Optical Audio allows me to set up a nice 5.1 sound system, but it proved even more important this morning when someone brought over their DAC. It has been only two days, and I already feel like this is one of the best investments I have made. My only gripe is that the power brick is kinda bulky, but I can live with that since it does the full 85watt charging to my MacBook. Which means I have a spare charger! You know they cost like $100 in the Apple store, right??

A well made dock, perfect for a Dell XPS13

I'm very impressed with the size and capability of this unit as I have it connected. All USB ports are occupied with a monitor connected to the DisplayPort connection and a soundbar hooked up with the optical connection. My XPS13 is working and charging perfectly. I have not had a single issue over the last week and like the quality, size and build of this dock. Beefy power supply. Highly recommended. 7/23: I had an issue where upon plugging in the dock, I would get the blue screen of death due to hardware conflicts. Trial and error (and some guidance from CalDigit as to where to start investigating) narrowed it down to a strange BIOS update that came via the support app. If anyone else with an XPS13 9370 is having issues since mid-June 2018 they should ensure their BIOS did not 'upgrade' to version 1.4.x. Current version is 1.1.3 (7/24/18) and once I had reflashed back, no issues. UPDATE: 01/15/2019 - This unit is working flawlessly still, and has happily recognized (and passed through) all peripheral devices I have connected. I must have at least 400+ hours with not a single issue, hiccup - nothing.

Sturdy. Period.

I have been through (easily) 6 USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 hubs and docs in the past year. I swap every morning and evning between two computers one provided by my employer and my own. They are both Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pros. Nothing has stacked up to meet my needs. Ive tried 'Side Car' style devices like HyperDrive and they cant handle a hard shell computer case like my personal laptop has not to mention the fact that the soldier joints on the connectors wear out over time. Ive tried unpowered dongle style devices like the devices branded by Lenovo, StarTech and Belkin but Some over heated after about 7hrs use (a work day is 8, then add any overtime or side project stuff), some had bad connectivity or detection problems, others had too few ports and eventually wore out their connectors. I realized quickly that HDMI output seemed to be what was causing my monitor detection/connection issues... So it became clear my needs were best thought of as follows: 1. Needs its own power (connection/detection should be faster + better drain for USB peripherals). 2. Needs a detachable Cable (replacing the cable as it gets worn is better than the whole device, both from a cost and waste perspective). 3. Needs to not overheat. 4. Should have TB Daisy chain capability. 5. Must work on Windows. Nice to have: 1. 'Silent' fan. 2. Visual Indicator (power light). 3. Audio In/Out. 4. SD Card Slot. This device meets every one of those requirements. It has its own AC/DC Input for Power, The cable is replaceable (though you MUST use a super high quality (not cheap) cable the MFG sells them but i found the normal Apple one from my AC/DC power brick worked just fine), It gets hot, but doesnt overheat and has a thunderbolt out on the back that seems to work full speed. While it doesn't have a 'silent fan' it surpasses that requirement by simply not needing one, the whole of the aluminum body is itself a heat guide and sync. It has a blue LED Power light as well as front audio ports and SD card slot. Last 'Must Have' that i took to highlight on its own: It works with Windows, as well as Mac and Linux. It utilizes standard protocols that makes drivers not necessary, but they are helpful. The utility programs for Mac and Windows allow some control over the device via software and are worth review even if they are 'extra'. On the price point whilst 300$ was a bit steep this was one of those cases where I feel the headaches i saved myself were well worth it, and in the end i spent far more than that on devices before i went this route. If i had one complaint, the 'spin up' (detection, connection, actualization) of devices is a touch slow, but that is only upon initial connection... and is maybe 20secs slower than the other devices I've used. Overall however that is a very small complaint that is hardly worth mentioning, but if your use-case requires almost instant actualization when you plug the device in, you might have to evaluate if this will work for your needs.

Your ThinkPad will thank you.

I was really on the fence with this dock. I've used the genuine Lenovo Thunderbolt dock, the Lenovo Graphics Dock, an HP Omen Graphics Accelerator, and the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 dock on my Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga X1 (3rd generation), and each dock seemed to have some kind of quirk. Whether it was the strange freezing that docks with graphics cards seem to suffer from, not charging properly, or ports not being recognized. This dock is an absolute dream. Plug it in, tell Windows 10 that it's authorized, and you're off. No freezing. No performance hit. No USB devices dropping and reconnecting. No rebooting. No crashing when plugged / unplugged. It charges, it doesn't get very warm, and it has gobs of ports, so I don't even need to keep my USB hub around anymore. Even the DAC is pretty decent. I'm not ready to give up my beloved Dragonfly Red, but it drives my Shure 1540's just fine. Yeah, this dock costs a bit more than other Thunderbolt 3 docks, but the pure ease of use makes it so worth the money. Not to mention, the construction is absolutely top-notch, and the dock itself is so small, it easily tucks away under my laptop stand. If you have a laptop with Thunderbolt 3, this is the dock you've been looking for.

The Port-Less MacBook Pro is now Tolerable

This dock has been issue free for a month. I arrive at work plug in a single Thunderbolt cable into my MacBook Pro on a VESA floating arm and all of my peripherals including my 24" 4K display come to life. I have Ethernet from my work network, USB, Headphones, display, power and even an SD slot all coming to life without any hiccups. When its' time to go to a meeting, I can unplug and 3-5 seconds later the MacBook Pro is ready to sit in a meeting with me for a few hours for note-taking. I've never had to power-cycle this dock or re-seat connections. It just works every single day for 8+ hours a day without fail. Of course, I wish it was smaller to come with me on trips but this will live-on at my desk and I hope for many years of benefits from this dock.

Fantastic Docking Solution for my Lenovo X1 Carbon

Only 24 hours in, but what a wonderful little device! The TS3+ *pretty much* simply worked, right out of the box, with a bunch of cables connected to it. Here's what I did: 1) Unbox it, and figure out cable routing 2) Plug in a) Displayport cable to Dell 1080p P2214H monitor; b) USBC-to-Displayport cable to 2nd Dell 1080p P2214H monitor; c) Logitech wireless mouse/keyboard dongle to one of the back USB connectors; d) stereo plug into the front jack; e) GPS receiver into a back USB connector; f) USB cable (back) to my weather station; g) USB cable (back) to one of the Dell monitor USB Hub connectors; h) CAT6 cable into the ethernet jack to my router. 3) Plug the TS3+ power connectors in (it didn't light up, seemed dead) 4) Plug the included SHORT USBC cable into the TS3+, and then my brand new Lenovo Carbon X1 laptop Immediately the TS3+ LED came on, and both monitors lit up mirroring my laptop screen! I was easily able to change this to be 3 extended screens, which then needed reordering in Windows (rather than move them), and then it was perfect. But...nothing else worked. I pondered this for a bit, then had something else to do for the evening. Came back later and randomly clicked on the Windows Notification button (lower right), and found a notification (which had never popped up) that said something like "new thunderbolt device detected, click here to enable". So I did. Over the course of 5 seconds and much popping up and dinging sounds, ALL the devices came to life. Just like that! Everything was perfect. Almost. I quickly noticed that the mouse was sluggish, sometimes. Experimentally moving the wireless dongle to laptop USB jack, it worked. Put it back, didn't work. I think it's interference (CalDigit has a wiki post saying exactly this, it turns out, they should put this on a little piece of paper in the box!). Moving the dongle to the back of the Dell monitor USB hub fixed things perfectly, away from the TS3+ and actually closer to the mouse and keyboard too. This is a wonderful product. Highly recommended! My only complaints (if you are listening CalDigit) are: * This thing just costs way to much for what it is * Really stupid that the only audio out jack is on the front of the product, so I must permanently have an ugly cable plugged into the front going to the back. Most people will want this connected to their speakers, and most speakers will have a headphone jack. Dumb. I spend a lot of time researching the best way to dock my new Lenovo, and it's looking like the effort paid off. I will update if things go differently.

I've tried 'em all - this is the one.

I rarely write product reviews - but this product deserves one. My setup Dell U3417 monitor with built in kvm & dell display manager, this dock, a samsung notebook 9 for side gig dev work, & a lenovo t470 for my 9-5 job, and a personal desktop. I have the mouse & keyboard plugged into the monitor's usb and use a ctrl + alt + z to switch between the docked laptop and the desktop I have tried and failed so far with these docks: Pluggable tb3 Kensington sd5000t Kensington sd5200t dell tb16 owc 12 port They all had one problem or another - such as not charging one system or the other, repetitive keystrokes (you type "a" and it stutters with "aaaaaaa"), either one or the other laptops would not recognize the dock, the dock would not recognize the monitor's usb port, etc. I was able to make do with the kensington 4600p usb-c dock which did everything well except deliver tb3 speed through the usb (which was expected from the get go) This one solves everything, with more ports to boot. Thanks guys for finally making a dock that just works. I was so hesitant to get back into the try and return cycle and dig all the wires & crap out from my desk cabinet, but i'm so happy i did. I will try to remember to update in a year or so with longevity. The form factor is a lot nicer on this dock as well...very condensed with a little heft (but could probably use a bit more so as to not move around). Most of these are not tested with many systems, but i can tell you on this dock samsung notebook 9 & lenovo t470 are a go.

Fantastic port replicator, lets you do ANYTHING, compensates for poor Macbook Pro design

Apple really screwed up the Macbook Pro 13" design by providing only two Thunderbolt ports and no other ports at all. That's fine if you use your Macbook as a toy but if you are using it for work, you need monitors and peripherals and while "anything" can be plugged in to the Thunderbolt ports, that can only be two at a time. If you have two external monitors you can't even plug in the charger! I did a lot of research on port replicators for this laptop and there are very very few available that do a proper job. I wish I stuck with Dell. But I digress. In the end I chose this Caltech dock and I'm very happy. I can just plug in one Thunderbolt cable to my laptop, and I instantly have access to two external 1900x1600 Dell monitors, one of them turned sideways (the dock supports up to 4k with two monitors), my wonderful Cherry MX USB keyboard, my teleconferencing headset, a charging cable for the magic mouse and a bunch of other USB nicknacks. The dock has its own power pack and supplies power to the laptop so I can keep the laptop's own charger at a different location. Most important though is 2 monitors + power. None of the cheaper docks allow you to do this with the 13" Macbook Pro (unless you have the more expensive Macbook with 4 Thunderbolt ports). This dock is expensive, but not more expensive than the very few comparable ones and it seems to be the best one. With this dock I was able to re-use most of my existing cables and only had to buy one expensive special cable. The dock came with the dock-to-laptop cable. I could use my existing DP-to-DP cable for one of the monitors. For the other one I had to buy a Thunderbolt-to-DP cable. The dock has separate microphone and headphone jacks, which happens to be what my headset needs as opposed to the cellphone-style 4-tip single socket that the Macbook has. The dock has LOTS of USB ports, which made me very happy. I do not need any external USB hub. It's such a nice dock, I wish I could buy another one for the other location I use my laptop. But I only have one monitor there, so there are much cheaper alternatives. The high price is the only thing I don't like about this dock. FYI Apple does not do NEARLY as nice a job as Windows at remembering hardware configurations. Every time I re-dock I have to re-configure the monitor arrangement and re-select the Caltech audio device. That's not Caltech's fault, it just does not seem Apple was meant for serious work users.

THIS DOCK IS AMAZING

This is mother of all docks. It's simply amazing. It has tons of ports. It has incredible compatibility. It drives my dual external monitors, my USB webcam, an external USB hard drive, an USB hub, ethernet, audio, SD card reader, and CHARGED MY LAPTOP at the same time. That's killer. You could spend $79 on a charger, $19 on a USB-C charging cable, $69 on a USB-C AV adapter, $19 on at least one USB-C to USB adapter, $35 on a USB-C to ethernet adapter, and then you'd be at $221 and you still wouldn't have SD card reader, optical audio, or a bunch of extra USB ports. This is a no brainer.

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