The Belkin Pro Thunderbolt 4 Dock is a gorgeous-looking but pricey laptop docking station, boasting 12 ports including two HDMI for Windows users to quickly add up to three external displays. Mac users, however, should stay away.
It sullies its Pro title, however, with a couple of the ports being rather average, and the power supply could do with being higher, but it is otherwise well equipped.
Belkin has included two HDMI ports as most users want to connect a couple of external displays to get past the limitations of their laptop screen space. However, that means that there is just one downstream Thunderbolt 4 port. If you want more flexibility, look for a dock with less dedicated display connections and more TB4 ports.
Windows users can add up to three displays, using the two HDMI and one Thunderbolt 4 port. The TB4 port can attach directly to a USB-C monitor or you can buy a USB-C adapter to connect to a DisplayPort or HDMI display. One 8K display can run at 30Hz, or you can have two 4K at 60Hz. Video resolution for up to three displays is dependent on your laptop’s capabilities.
The lack of port flexibility is worse for Mac users, as they can’t use both HDMI due to the way Macs handle video.
• One upstream Thunderbolt 4 port (40Gbps, 90W)
• One downstream Thunderbolt 4 port (40Gbps, 15W)
• Two HDMI 2.0 video ports (4K at 60Hz)
• Two USB-A ports (10Gbps, 4.5W)
• Two USB-A ports (480MBps, 2.5W)
• One USB-C port (10Gbps, 18W)
• Gigabit Ethernet
• UHS-II SD card reader (312MBps)
• 3.5mm combo audio jack (front)
• 120W power supply
