Elgato's $300 Thunderbolt 3 Dock With Dual 4K Display Support Launches June 6

Wednesday May 24, 2017 9:03 AM PDT by Juli Clover
Elgato today announced that its upcoming Thunderbolt 3 Dock, which was first introduced in January at CES, will be available starting on Tuesday, June 6 for $299.95.


Elgato's Thunderbolt 3 Dock, designed to work with the new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models Apple introduced back in October, features three USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, one DisplayPort with DisplayPort 1.2 support, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 3.5mm microphone input jack.


The dock is able to provide up to 85 watts of power and can charge a MacBook Pro while also offering multiple ports for connecting displays and accessories. It can drive one 5K display at 60Hz through the Thunderbolt 3 port or two 4K displays simultaneously at 60Hz using the DisplayPort and a Thunderbolt 3 port.

- DisplayPort output: up to 4096 x 2160 pixels at 60 Hz

- Thunderbolt 3 output: up to 5120 x 2880 pixels at 60 Hz

- Dual displays: up to 4096 x 2160 pixels at 60 Hz each

- 4K60 over HDMI 2.0 supported using active adapters (not included) via USB-C and DisplayPort
USB-C accessories are powered with up to 15 watts and the dock's USB-A ports can charge an iPhone or iPad at full speed. Elgato's dock is priced similarly to other Thunderbolt 3 docks on the market, with a 1.6ft Thunderbolt 3 cable included in the $299.95 price tag.

It can be purchased in the U.S., Europe, and Australia starting on June 6 from the Elgato website.

Tags: Elgato, Thunderbolt 3
27 comments


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theluggage
16 months ago

A 300$ port replicator?


Thing is, it's not a port replicator. It's a box with a TB3 controller, an internal PCIe bus driving USB and Ethernet controllers, and prbably a fair bit of gubbins to split off a DisplayPort signal.

Problem is, people are seeing it as an essential solution to the lack of regular ports on the MBP where, previously, they would have got a $50 USB hub. Unfortunately, Apple have built themselves a little echo chamber full of people who think USB-A, DisplayPort and HDMI are somehow obsolete.

As per my previous post: if you just want some USB ports and a HDMI port, get a USB-C dock for a lot less - only get TB3 if you need the bandwidth and dual display capability.
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My main issue is my logitech mouse and keyboard dongles interfere with each other so need to be spaced


Doesn't your Logitech stuff support their "unifying receiver" technology so you can use the same dongle for both?
Rating: 3 Votes
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theluggage
16 months ago


Look at all that wasted space.

...a couple more USB-A ports (even if they're only 2.0) on the front would have been nice... however, its also nice to be able to fit USB sticks/dongles etc. side-by-side into the ports.


What this and every Super-Dongle is missing is at least one more Thunderbolt (2 or 3) port. Having only two is worthless when one of the ports is simply for attaching the device to your Mac.


Unfortunately, thunderbolt doesn't work like that - its a "bus" system rather than a "star" system - i.e. you can chain multiple TB devices in the line but you can't have "branches". So you'll always have, at most, one TB "in" and one TB "out" per device.

They could, potentially, add another USB-C (non-TB3*) out, and the Henge dock that has already been mentioned offers one (but isn't yet available).

However, I think the current reality is that peoples' #1 priority is getting their legacy ports back - not gaining extra USB-C or Thunderbolt connectors. Also, as per my previous post, by the time you've hung a 4k display and some USB 3 devices off a dock like this you'll probably want to add any further TB3 devices direct to the Mac to get the full bandwidth.

...and for anything that doesn't need the full bandwidth you're probably better off staying with USB3 (whether its over an A- or a C- connector).

[*We need a name for a USB-C port that isn't a TB3 port since, technically, TB3 ports are USB-C ports...]
Rating: 2 Votes
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emm386
16 months ago
A 300$ port replicator? I beg your pardon?! This thing shouldn't even be necessary in the first place!

Looking at the MacBook's price, the port selection it offers is abominable... no idea how people can get serious work done on these in a rough, heterogeneous enterprise environment.

Yet again, Apple created a market for niche solutions (that should not exist) by patronizing its customers my omitting industry standards.
Rating: 2 Votes
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OldSchoolMacGuy
16 months ago
Far too high priced when compared to other offerings on the market that offer the same ports or more for far less.
Rating: 2 Votes
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Mobster1983
16 months ago
Very nice. I have been waiting for the Henge Dock, but this one is tempting.

My main issue is my logitech mouse and keyboard dongles interfere with each other so need to be spaced out a bit. Would prefer to put both on the back, but one on the front may work. Has all the other ports I need, the none wasted.
Rating: 2 Votes
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foobarbaz
16 months ago

That said, I'm not sure why you'd buy this when Caldigit offers the same thing with two eSata ports.


eSATA used to be a great thing. But at this point, I'm not sure why I'd even bother ... It's too slow for good SSDs, and USB is fast enough for spinning disks. You lose flexibility, because you can plug it in almost nowhere. And you need another power brick, because it's unpowered.

So I'll get whichever I can find cheaper/on sale. (Though this one looks much nicer, IMHO.)

But I can't believe neither includes an SD card reader ... Such an obvious omission. There's probably 100 times more people needing that compared to eSATA.
Rating: 2 Votes
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ziggie216
16 months ago

Bring eSATA ports.

http://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-3-dock/thunderbolt-station-3/
Rating: 2 Votes
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sudo1996
16 months ago

A few weeks ago, we had a big meeting at our studio and the whole crew went in to the posh conference room to hook up to the studio's built in equipment and look at a video the Producer wanted us to see. We all sat down, and a moment later the Producer walked in with her shiny new Mac Book Pro and started to hook up to the built-in equipment to show us all the video. After fumbling around for a few minutes, she gave us a funny look and stepped away from the computer. She paused for a moment, then apologized to the whole crew, saying "Damn- sorry- I can't hook up- I'm missing an adapter. I guess we're done."

She muttered "f****in' Mac" and about 25 people laughed (we all got the joke) and we all left and went back to work.

They should have an Apple TV or something for streaming the screen. Gets rid of this problem permanently, plus it's easier. Macs always have had the weirdest display outputs, except for the rMBP when it finally had a frickin regular HDMI port like it should. And adaptors never work 100% of the time, even when you have the right ones.
Rating: 1 Votes
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sudo1996
16 months ago
If I'm going to pay $300 for ports, there had better be some Thunderbolt-specific benefit like an external GPU inside. My rMBP sometimes struggles just with one external 2K or 4K monitor, which is the only time the experience isn't smooth, and I hate it when the laptop gets hot. A cheap desktop GPU inside a docking station would easily handle it. Then it can truly be a laptop-becomes-desktop solution since mobile CPU and RAM are already powerful enough nowadays.
Rating: 1 Votes
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sudo1996
16 months ago

BTW, I tried a 2016 MBP again yesterday. The keyboards still feel like crap.

Yep, this is half the reason I chose to avoid them. Input seemed inconsistent unless I mashed the keys hard. Even my 2015 model has a noticeably worse keyboard than the 2012 model I used to use (which I would have kept using had it not completely died), but in a different way: It feels like the key caps themselves are cheaper quality on the 2015 model, and they jiggle like they're loose. Sad.
Rating: 1 Votes
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