Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock review: Affordable fast Thunderbolt plus handy power options

Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating

Pros

12 ports, including four Thunderbolt 5

2.5Gb Ethernet

30W USB-C at front

230W Power Delivery

Affordable

Cons

Upstream port at front

Four USB-A but no USB-C

Our Verdict
As a dual-display dock with a handy bunch of top-rated ports the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station is great value for money for 80Gbps speed and power.

Price When Reviewed
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The Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station is a full docking station with 12 ports, including a full four 80Gbps Thunderbolt 4 and 2.5Gb Ethernet, available at an affordable price. It features a decent rack of high-end ports, and looks fancy, too.

Even if your laptop has Thunderbolt 4 (TB4) rather than Thunderbolt 5 (TB5) connectivity, buying the newer faster standard will future proof your purchase. Backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 3 and 4, TB5 features the fastest 80Gbps bandwidth (up to 120Gbps Bandwidth Boost for unidirectional video) plus smart device daisy-chaining and super-fast storage connectivity.




Foundry

Specs and features

One upstream Thunderbolt 5 port (80Gbps, 140W)

Two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports (80Gbps, 15W)

One downstream Thunderbolt 5 port (80Gbps, 30W)

Four USB-A ports (10Gbps)

Ethernet (2.5Gb)

UHS-II SD Card reader (312MBps)

UHS-II MicroSD Card reader (312MBps)

3.5mm audio jack

230W power supply

As well as its upstream Thunderbolt 5 port that connects to your laptop, there are three downstream TB5 ports that connect to other devices such as monitors or storage drives: one is at the front with the upstream TB5 port, and two are at the back.




Simon Jary

Wavlink’s Thunderbolt 4 dock had just one downstream TB4 port as it sacrificed two possible Thunderbolt ports for dedicated HDMI 2.1 ports. With this new model, Wavlink ditches the video ports to give you the choice of which TB ports to use to connect to monitors either via a direct USB-C connection or using USB-C to DisplayPort or USB-C to HDMI adapter cables.

This gives you flexibility, and if connecting two screens we expect you’ll choose the two TB5 ports at the back.

The downstream TB5 port at the front can output at 30W, which is easily enough to fast charge an iPhone or iPad. The two TB5 ports at the back can handle 15W each.

The upstream TB5 port can output at 140W (PD 3.1), which is what you need to fast-charge the 16-inch MacBook Pro so is good for the whole range.

The external power supply can provide up to 230W of power, which is a welcome boost from the company’s rather puny 160W TB4 dock.

USB: Thunderbolt is backwards compatible with USB-C, which uses the same end connector, so any of the TB ports not being used to connect a monitor can be used for USB-C devices as well as speedy Thunderbolt. There are four speedy 10Gbps USB-A ports. USB-A has a place for legacy devices, but do we need four them at the expense of a spare USB-C or two?




Simon Jary

Ethernet: While WiFi is great for phone use, sometimes hooking up to the home or office wired network gives you faster and more stable downloads. Most local area networks (LANs) use 1Gb Ethernet, known as Gigabit Ethernet or 1GbE. Increasingly networks are moving to much faster 2.5GbE, 5GbE or even 10GbE. The Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock offers 2.5GbE, which is backwards compatible with 1GbE so even if you’re not yet on the faster network speed you’ll be ready for it when you do.




Simon Jary

Card readers: Although Apple’s MacBook Pro laptop includes a 250MBps card reader, having one on the dock is convenient. The Wavlink TB5 dock has two: one SD and one MicroSD, both at the fastest 312Mbps. These are nicely placed at the front for easy access.

Such cards offer very affordable and extremely portable storage. At the time of writing you could get a 512GB SD card for under $50, although faster cards are pricier.

Other ports: At the front there’s an anti-theft Kensington Security Slot (also called a K-Slot) and a combo 3.5mm In/Out audio jack.

Display capabilities

For most people the number one reason for buying a docking station is to easily add external screens to their laptop. Connect a cable from the dock to each monitor and you massively extend your screen real estate.

While the dock can support up to three displays for Windows laptops, limitations in Apple’s setup limits you to just two, unless you install third-party software such as DisplayLink that can give you access to up to five external displays. Five!

However, for three or more monitors the dock needs to support DisplayLink, and the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock isn’t one of those. See our reviews of the best DisplayLink docks for options, but note that at the time of writing there were no Thunderbolt 5 DisplayLink docks. Your only solution for TB5 plus three displays without DisplayLink is the iVanky FusionDock Max 2, which has a nifty dual-chip arrangement that uses two of the MacBook’s Thunderbolt ports.

The Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock supports up to two 6K at 60Hz displays for most M1/M2/M3 Pro/Max/ MacBooks or any M4/M5 models.

These MacBooks could opt for a single 8K/60Hz display instead.

Non-Pro/Max M1/M2/M3 MacBooks support single 4K or 6K monitors. DisplayLink is also useful if your MacBook is running one of those plain M1 or M2 processors as Apple further limits those laptops to a single display. That’s by the by as M1 MacBook owners are unlikely to be in the market for a Thunderbolt 5 dock, and it’s time we got back to the review.




Simon Jary

Design and build

The Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock is a smart aluminum build with some futuristic cooling vents at the top. Underneath are silicone pads that raise the dock off the desk surface for stability and further cooling.

I’m not a fan of having the upstream Thunderbolt port at the front of the dock as it’s the one cable you know will always be in use, so we prefer it hidden around the back. Ideally, given the choice I’d have all the Thunderbolt ports at the back and a spare USB-C port at the front for charging. But that’s not how Wavlink has laid out its ports. Still, having three downstream ports is more than some docking stations offer and we’re happy with that.

Wavlink has included an on/off button, which is appreciated. Although Apple has made the MacBook clever enough to manage its power in a sensible fashion, I still like to turn off power to the laptop’s battery as I don’t want it constantly kept filled to 100% when I’m not using it. A power button means I don’t have to yank the cable out to break the power between the dock and the laptop when I’ve finished working.

Price

At $299.99 or £239.99, the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock is priced below most Thunderbolt 5 docks. It shares the sub-$300 price point with the Plugable Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station, and has a similar array of ports, although it has one more and faster USB-A ports. The Wavlink also wins on a higher overall power supply: 230W vs 180W.

The Plugable can stand either vertically or lie flat like the Wavlink and sensibly places the upstream TB5 port at the back. The Wavlink’s 30W front TB5 port beats the Plugable’s 15W front TB5 port.

Otherwise, they are very similar In terms of tech specs.

See our roundups of the best Thunderbolt docks for Mac for other comparable solutions.

Should you buy the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station?

While its triple-monitor potential is muted on Macs—Apple’s limitation, not the dock’s—as a dual-display dock with a handy bunch of top-rated ports the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station is great value for money for 80Gbps speed and power.