Despite the external display, speakers, external webcam and wired network connection at my desk, I only need to plug in a single Thunderbolt cable when I sit down in my office chair to connect my MacBook Pro to all of those peripherals. That cable leads to my Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Pro dock. The dock has a grand total of 18 ports of connectivity, of which two thirds are usually empty. It can charge my laptop up to 98 watts, supports data transfer speeds of up to 40 Gb/s, a wired network connection up to 2.5 Gb/s, and dual 6K displays, which is more than enough for my needs.
More than any individual connection spec, the killer feature of the Thunderbolt 4 Pro dock for me is the convenience of the single cable. I like my desk neat and tidy, and since all of my peripherals are always connected to the dock, I can hide those cables away behind and below the desk, so the only cable that’s visible when I’m working is the one that leads to my laptop. As soon as I plug it in, all of my peripherals are up and running. It’s a small miracle of modern computer hardware.
