The Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock from El Gato: A Comprehensive Review

What's Up Guys Miles Here with 905 Mac and Today We're Gonna Be Checking Out Another Really Cool Accessory From El Gato This is The Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock And It's Got a Few Cool Hidden Surprises That Makes This A Really Solid Option For Those Looking For A Solid Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station

Before we get into the dock itself, let's just take a look at what you get inside of the box. The product comes with a 2.3 foot Thunderbolt 3 cable and a power supply.

The port selection on this dock is impressive. On the front, you've got a full-sized SD card slot, a microSD card slot, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack that also supports microphones, and two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports. On the back, you've got a DisplayPort engine, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, another pair of USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and yet another full-sized SD card slot.

All in all, it's clear that El Gato has put a lot of thought into the design of this dock, aiming to provide users with a healthy selection of ports for video, audio, and data transfer. Whether you're connecting an external hard drive, display, or keyboard, there's something for everyone here.

Now, let's talk about the capabilities of each port. The DisplayPort output on this dock can drive a display up to 4096 by 2160p at 60 Hertz, making it more than capable of handling even the most demanding gaming monitors. If you're driving dual displays, the maximum resolution for each display is still 4096 by 2160p at 60 Hertz.

It's also worth noting that this dock supports 4K 60 over HDMI 2.0 when using active adapters through either Thunderbolt 3 or DisplayPort. This means you can easily connect your dock to a 4K monitor and enjoy smooth, high-quality video playback.

In terms of connectivity, the two USB C ports on the back have speeds up to 10 gigabits per second with device power up to 15 watts. The two USB ports on the front support speeds up to five gigabits per second and also support USB charging 1.2.

Now, let's talk about one of the most interesting features of this dock: its 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. On the front of the dock, you've got a combo port that supports both headphones and microphones. This means you can easily plug in your favorite gaming headset or take hands-free calls while using your dock.

However, it's worth noting that the sound quality isn't quite on par with an actual DAC (digital-to-analog converter). While you can still drive your headphones in decent volume, the audio quality won't be as rich and immersive as what you'd expect from a high-end gaming headset.

Moving on to the SD card slots, both full-sized and microSD card slots support UHS 2 cards. This means you can take advantage of your high-speed memory cards with this dock, making it easy to transfer files between devices or store large media files.

However, we did notice that the speeds were a little lower than expected when testing SATA SSDs and USB 3.1 enclosures in disk speed tests. While the Thunderbolt port performed as expected, the overall speeds were a bit slower than we'd hoped for.

Overall, however, this dock is still an excellent choice for anyone looking to expand their connectivity options. The combination of ports and capabilities makes it easy to connect everything from external hard drives to 4K monitors, while the USB charging ports ensure you can keep your devices powered up on the go.

Who is this dock most suitable for? In our opinion, this dock is probably more useful for MacBook owners than desktop users. With a well-designed dock that takes care of most of the connectivity needs, it's easy to set up a dedicated workspace without breaking the bank. If you already have a laptop with an external display or peripherals, this dock would be an excellent addition to your setup.

If you're looking for a solid Thunderbolt 3 docking station with plenty of ports and capabilities, look no further than El Gato's Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock. With its impressive port selection, reliable performance, and sleek design, it's sure to become a staple in any home office or professional workspace.

In conclusion, this dock checks all the right boxes when it comes to connectivity options, performance, and design. Whether you're looking for a simple way to expand your laptop's capabilities or a dedicated docking station for your desktop computer, this is an excellent choice that's sure to meet your needs.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys miles here with 905 Mac and today we're gonna be checking out another really cool accessory from El Gato this is the Thunderbolt 3 Pro dock and it's got a few cool hidden surprises that makes this a really solid option for those looking for a solid Thunderbolt 3 docking station before we get into the dock itself let's just take a look at what you get inside of the box the product comes with a 2.3 foot Thunderbolt 3 cable and a power supply so just going over the port selection here we've got a full sized and micro SD card slots a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and two USB 3.1 gen2 on ports on the front on the back we've got a display port engine 1.2 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports two USB 3.1 gen2 ports a headphone jack and a Gigabit Ethernet port that's overall a pretty healthy selection of port so you've now got more than one port for every category essentially those categories including video audio and data transfer when going over the display configuration it's possible with these ports on the product you'll really find that this thing is pretty capable the DisplayPort output can drive a displayed up to 4096 by 2160p at 60 Hertz the Thunderbolt 3 output can drive a display it up to 50 120 by 28 ATP at 60 Hertz so you'd have no trouble hooking this guy up to an ultra fine 5k and if you're driving dual displays the max resolution for each display is 4096 by 2160p at 60 Hertz in 4k 60 over HDMI 2.0 is possible when using active adapters when you're adapting through either Thunderbolt 3 or DisplayPort the thunderbolt port also has a max output of 40 gigabits per second so you're not going to be getting to thunderbolt speeds which is good to see in a typical thunderbolt fashion you can charge a computer with this port at up to 85 watts in the two USB C ports on the back have speeds with up to 10 gigabits per second with device power up to 15 watts the two USB ports on the front and support speeds up to five gigabits per second and support USB charging 1.2 as well where things get really interesting for me is with the 3.5 milimeter ports on this dock the headphone jack on the front is actually a combo port and supports microphones as well but along with the headphone jack on the back this port is actually amplified so you can plug in - headphones I tested it out with my beyerdynamic 1899 these which are 250 ohm hi-fi headphones and I was able to drive them in a decent volume it doesn't quite compare it to an actual DAC as far as sound quality but you can definitely get the job done when addressing the SD card slots both of them support UHS 2 cards so you can take advantage of your high speed memory cards when using them with this back so I ran some disk speed test with the devices connected to the usb a ports the first device I tested was a SATA SSD and a USB 3.1 enclosure the speeds were honestly a little lower than I expected and I'm not quite sure what the cause for these low speeds are but it's safe to say that I won't be running any games or anything like that off of these ports I tested a sandesh USB 3.1 Drive as well got the same pretty low speeds the thunderbolt port performed as expected when I plug it up to the Thunderbolt i3 SSD so it's good to see that performing as expected but I'm a little disappointed in the overall speeds I saw will be SATA SSD in Sand s 3.1 Drive overall I definitely say that this is a good docking station for the price but this is probably more useful to macbook owners than mac the desktop owners if you got something like a macbook and ultra fine display set up the stock extension takes care of all the other ports you need so it's definitely something I'd recommend I'll leave links down below to check this dock out but that's pretty much it for this video make sure to subscribe if you enjoyed and give a thumbs up and comment if you have any feedback thanks for watching and I'll talk to you guys in the next onewhat's up guys miles here with 905 Mac and today we're gonna be checking out another really cool accessory from El Gato this is the Thunderbolt 3 Pro dock and it's got a few cool hidden surprises that makes this a really solid option for those looking for a solid Thunderbolt 3 docking station before we get into the dock itself let's just take a look at what you get inside of the box the product comes with a 2.3 foot Thunderbolt 3 cable and a power supply so just going over the port selection here we've got a full sized and micro SD card slots a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and two USB 3.1 gen2 on ports on the front on the back we've got a display port engine 1.2 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports two USB 3.1 gen2 ports a headphone jack and a Gigabit Ethernet port that's overall a pretty healthy selection of port so you've now got more than one port for every category essentially those categories including video audio and data transfer when going over the display configuration it's possible with these ports on the product you'll really find that this thing is pretty capable the DisplayPort output can drive a displayed up to 4096 by 2160p at 60 Hertz the Thunderbolt 3 output can drive a display it up to 50 120 by 28 ATP at 60 Hertz so you'd have no trouble hooking this guy up to an ultra fine 5k and if you're driving dual displays the max resolution for each display is 4096 by 2160p at 60 Hertz in 4k 60 over HDMI 2.0 is possible when using active adapters when you're adapting through either Thunderbolt 3 or DisplayPort the thunderbolt port also has a max output of 40 gigabits per second so you're not going to be getting to thunderbolt speeds which is good to see in a typical thunderbolt fashion you can charge a computer with this port at up to 85 watts in the two USB C ports on the back have speeds with up to 10 gigabits per second with device power up to 15 watts the two USB ports on the front and support speeds up to five gigabits per second and support USB charging 1.2 as well where things get really interesting for me is with the 3.5 milimeter ports on this dock the headphone jack on the front is actually a combo port and supports microphones as well but along with the headphone jack on the back this port is actually amplified so you can plug in - headphones I tested it out with my beyerdynamic 1899 these which are 250 ohm hi-fi headphones and I was able to drive them in a decent volume it doesn't quite compare it to an actual DAC as far as sound quality but you can definitely get the job done when addressing the SD card slots both of them support UHS 2 cards so you can take advantage of your high speed memory cards when using them with this back so I ran some disk speed test with the devices connected to the usb a ports the first device I tested was a SATA SSD and a USB 3.1 enclosure the speeds were honestly a little lower than I expected and I'm not quite sure what the cause for these low speeds are but it's safe to say that I won't be running any games or anything like that off of these ports I tested a sandesh USB 3.1 Drive as well got the same pretty low speeds the thunderbolt port performed as expected when I plug it up to the Thunderbolt i3 SSD so it's good to see that performing as expected but I'm a little disappointed in the overall speeds I saw will be SATA SSD in Sand s 3.1 Drive overall I definitely say that this is a good docking station for the price but this is probably more useful to macbook owners than mac the desktop owners if you got something like a macbook and ultra fine display set up the stock extension takes care of all the other ports you need so it's definitely something I'd recommend I'll leave links down below to check this dock out but that's pretty much it for this video make sure to subscribe if you enjoyed and give a thumbs up and comment if you have any feedback thanks for watching and I'll talk to you guys in the next one\n"