CalDigit TS5 Plus Thunderbolt 5 Dock Review

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Build and Design

The CalDigit TS5 Plus is the flagship of CalDigit’s Thunderbolt Station line and the most port-dense Thunderbolt 5 dock on the market. It packs 20 ports into an aluminum block that stands upright or lies flat. The body is the heatsink; there is no fan.

There is one upstream Thunderbolt 5 port for the laptop and three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports for displays, drives, and daisy-chained devices. Five USB-A ports run at 10Gbps, and several USB-C ports add more data connections. A DisplayPort 2.1 output handles a standard monitor without an adapter. Networking is 10Gb Ethernet, which negotiates down to 2.5Gb and 1Gb. Card slots are SD and microSD, both UHS-II. Audio is separate headphone and microphone jacks.

Host charging is 140W over USB-C PD 3.1, the full rate a 16-inch MacBook Pro expects. The external power supply is large and needs a spot under the desk.

Performance and Daily Use

Thunderbolt 5 provides 80Gbps in each direction and can shift to 120Gbps toward displays. In daily use the dock never becomes the bottleneck. Two high-refresh 4K displays, a 10GbE transfer, and an NVMe SSD can all run at once.

On a Mac with an M4 Pro or M4 Max chip, the dock runs at full Thunderbolt 5 speed and supports dual 6K 60Hz displays, or up to three displays on M4 Max models. On Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 laptops it falls back to 40Gbps and still works as a good TB4 dock. Windows Thunderbolt 5 laptops drive up to three displays, GPU permitting.

Plug in one cable and the laptop sees every device, the network, and the charger. Wake from sleep is reliable, which is not true of every dock. CalDigit has a record of supporting older docks with firmware for years.

The price is around $499; check the current price. The standard TS5 launched around $100 less with fewer ports and 2.5GbE instead of 10GbE.

Who Should Buy It

Buy it if you run a 16-inch MacBook Pro or a workstation Windows laptop as a desktop replacement and need everything on one cable. Photographers and video editors get the UHS-II card slots and 10GbE for a NAS. Developers get enough USB-A ports for every peripheral without a hub. It is also the right buy for anyone planning to keep a dock through two or three laptop upgrades.

Who Should Skip It

Skip it if your laptop has Thunderbolt 4 and you will not upgrade soon. You are paying for bandwidth you cannot use. The CalDigit TS4 or Plugable TBT4-UDZ cost less and drive the same two 4K monitors.

Skip it if you have a MacBook Air, one monitor, and a few USB devices. A USB-C dock at a third of the price covers that.

Skip it if you will never use 10GbE or more than two Thunderbolt devices. The standard TS5 gives you the same charging and core experience for less.