Anker PowerExpand 5-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Mini Dock, Max 85W Charging for Laptop, Max 15W Charging for Phone, Single 8K@30Hz or Dual 4K@60Hz Display, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Port, for MacBook Pro/Air, and More

Used to expand Thunderbolt / USB-C ports on a MacBook Air, running Big Sur (it doesn't work on Catalina or earlier).I love it. At last I can have more than the miserable two ports Apple provided. Seems to work extremely well - the Mac runs fast even with the operating system on an external SSD.The power supply is very large, but I have measured its energy use and - even with the Dock added to my previous configuration - it uses less energy than the standard Mac power supply. It has a much better power factor too. So its greater size seems to reflect good engineering.What is more, when you turn it off at the mains, everything can stay plugged-in (together with all the peripherals) without draining the MacBook's battery at all. Previously I had to unplug everything or the battery would be nearly empty the next morning.The push-push power switch is a slight problem, being close to the ports. So it can get pressed inadvertently. I would have preferred a slider switch or a switch on the side of the unit.

Used with my new MacBook Pro 14'' 2021. Using it to drive 2x 4K 60Hz screens, 1 external USB SSD and gigabit ethernet (via USB-C Ethernet adapter).Have tried several other docks, including the Anker 13-in-1 Thunderbolt 3, and the CalDigit TS3 and nether worked reliably (either the disks would disconnect, or one of the screens wouldn't connect, would overheat or if connected one of the screen wasn't in 4K resolution).This has been plugged in for > 3 weeks without issue .. both screens always appear with full 3840x2160 (4K) @ 60Hz and don't rearrange etc, the disk has never unplugged etc.Buy this if you want a reliable solution for a docked Thunderbolt 3/4 machine.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this hub. I did get in a bit of fix with it for a little while, though, because I attached two external screens and a 2nd camera and only two out of the three would work at once. It turns out that the hub only supports two screens, plus something which is only using the third Thunderbolt socket for power. With a bit of switching around with the MacBook's three remaining Thunderbolt slots, all was resolved. A nice piece of kit, I would recommend it.

Does everything that’s needed and at a fair price.

Comes with a big heavy PSU brick so the whole deal's not as compact as I'd hoped. Maybe I'm missing something but given the relatively small size of 100W GaN wall chargers (including Anker's own) I'd hoped for better. The headline specs are impressive but I can't comment on performance because I didn't test it. Returned for refund.

I have some spare ports now, so no longer have to keep unmounting hard drives or run without charging.I like the power supply as it is large and over-engineered by todays standards, and runs exceptionally cool 27.8c as does the port itself at 33.6c. Room temp at 23c Tested when my MacBook needed charging.The only slight downside is that my apple super dvd drive will not work from the ports on the dock.UPDATEThe thunderbolt ports work using the following adapters in series; thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2, thunderbolt 2 to FireWire, FireWire 9 pin to 4 pin cable to Sony digital 8 trv325e camera, so I can save my 25 year old analog and digital 8mm tapes to hard drive (also connected to a thunderbolt port). Software I use is QuickTime to download from camera, then edit with iMovie and burn to dvd. Finally for completeness QuickTime will convert analog to digital before processing in iMovie. 8mm Digital tape can go direct from camera to iMovie if preferred. That’s what I bought everything for and it does it’s job just so!

Quite simple and easy to set up the dock but it's not fit for my purpose. I normally have the original MBP charger connected and two USB-C to HDMI cables - this method wakes up the MBP once I start smashing buttons on my bluetooth keyboard.I planned on using this dock to be able to have one cable to connect to two of my monitors while also charging. Unfortunately, my Intel i9 16-inch MBP (clamshell mode) doesn't properly wake up from sleep when connected to the dock. I can hear the chime the MBP makes when it's charging but there's no connection to the external monitors.In order to use it for my use-case, I have to turn the MBP on with the lid open and then connect the TB4 cable to the dock, and then close the lid. Shutting down the MBP and putting it to sleep will sometimes wake it up from sleep (in clamshell mode) to be able to connect just one monitor, meaning the second monitor is not detected. Sometimes, both monitors aren't detected.I've tried many different ways to make things work but it's not been reliable. It's quite an expensive item but I was happy to pay the price to have an additional charger that came with the option to connect to monitors. It just doesn't work for me. Maybe it's a limitation of MacOS 12.1 or I'm too dumb to get it to work.

This hub can connect display via type c!!