CalDigit TS5 Plus - Thunderbolt 5 Dock - 20 Port,10GbE, 140W Dedicated Host Charging, Thunderbolt 5 x3, USB 10Gb/s x10, Dual USB Controllers, Up to Dual 8K 60Hz Displays, 1.0m Braided Cable, 330W PSU

I have had this dock for about three weeks, and it does everything it promises to do. The Thunderbolt 5 ports work exceptionally well. All of the charging ports provide their specified charging power. The audio port is exceptional. It's the first dock audio port that transmits high-quality sound. The 10 GbE Thunderbolt 5 Ethernet port is an exceptional value. The USB ports all perform as expected. The DP 2.1 DisplayPort will support nearly any level of monitor. This dock will easily support three 4k displays via the two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports, which are DisplayPort 2.1 compatible. The downstream Thunderbolt 5 port will charge a laptop with 140W of power. Unlike any other dock, this one will charge everything you can connect to it at full power. It has two 36W USB-C charging ports. They charge my Samsung S24 Ultra very quickly. This dock has enough power to provide full charging capacity out of every single port even IF you have you are charging an accessory on every single port. There is NO other Thunderbolt dock on the market that will do that. ALL of the Thunderbolt 5 docks I have researched will not charge your computer at 140W if you're charging other accessories (like a phone, an iPad, a portable charging power bank, etc. This is the only dock on the market that doesn't have "dynamic charging." In other words, the more you plug into other docks, the slower everything charges, including your laptop. This dock charges EVERYTHING at full speed, no matter how many items you have plugged into it. The two card readers are super fast. They are so fast that you could use a 1 TB CF card as storage. I haven't had a single problem with this dock. Everything in this dock is state-of-the-art and cutting-edge, and ALL of its features work flawlessly. It's hands down the best dock on the market right now. This actually stunned me when I got the dock and was testing every function. Because it is so expensive, if any major feature had been buggy or failed to perform as advertised I would have returned it. But everything worked amazingly well on the dock. When you consider it includes a 10GbE Thunderbolt 5 ethernet port, which will provide LAN internet speeds of nearly 10 Gbps, it is an exceptional value. A separate Thunderbolt 5 10 GbE adapter would cost $200-$1000. This is the best dock you can buy right now, bar none.

Unboxed and had weird negotiation issues... Sometimes 5g, sometimes 2.5g, once even 1g.... Asked AI and it said to update the firmware. Did so and all issues went away -- consistently at 10g. I've had the T3 Plus for years with zero issues. Looking forward to another 10 with this one.

Does not work with Windows Thunderbolt 4 laptop. Known issue that's being complained about on Reddit. Works fine for Mac, but need it for both.

CalDigit offers unparalleled quality and functionality. Yes this is expensive, but when you look at just the price of a 10G thunderbolt adapter, it becomes apparent that you get a lot of value with what this offers. One cable for dual studio displays, charging, USB devices, fast phone charging, and 10G ethernet. Speed test below is to a server running ZFS2 with 12x 7200 RPM drives over 100 feet of CAT6 cable. I could see this lasting at least two computer upgrades (10-14 years) if thunderbolt and USB C stay around. Very well built.

This is a solid upgrade from the TS4. The DisplayPort has changed from 1.4 to 2.1. Ethernet moving to 10Gb is very nice, although they went cheap on the 10Gb controller this time – it's an Aquantia AQC113 – connected through PCIe via Thunderbolt at least, not a USB-attached solution. (The TS4 used a PCIe-attached Intel I226V for 2.5Gb.) I'm able to get very close to the theoretical max speed over the 10GbE using iperf3 to another 10Gb device on my home network (through a Cisco Cat3850 switch). First picture is "iperf3 -c [server] -Z -P 4" from the Mac (client sends traffic); second pic is "iperf3 -c [server] -Z -P 4 -R" from the Mac ("reverse" mode, where server does the transmission). The laptop is just displaying some static webpages and running Slack/etc during the test, nothing should be chewing bandwidth. Note that I'm not quite hitting the expected 9.4Gbps when the Mac is sending, but I do when the server sends. I actually have two very similar "servers," both running Linux and with Intel C3758 CPUs (with Intel X540/X553 NICs onboard), and the results are nearly identical with both servers. I thought this might be due to the Atom CPU on the systems, but I would expect lower performance if the server was *sending*, but I see the inverse. When the Mac transmits is where it's topping off at 8.7Gbps, the only explanation I have is maybe macOS is performing QoS or "reserving" bandwidth for something, or the AQC driver is flaky, maybe a Thunderbolt bottleneck (my Mac is only TB4, not TB5), or possibly something with the ethernet cabling involved (it's only Cat5E, but it's relatively short and it links at 10Gb and there are no errors on the switch). 🤷‍♂️ My monitors/displays have worked perfectly. I have a pair of Dell U3223QE (4K/60), and I connect one to the DisplayPort output, and use a USB-C connection (which is DP over USB-C) for the other. Both are detected correctly by macOS and are running at 60Hz. My Mac is an "M1 Pro" CPU which supports two external displays through the dock, plus the laptop's screen. Like the TS4, both front and rear output jacks are *variable* (software controlled); there is no fixed "line out." I have speakers with their own volume knob, and I dislike attaching a variable device to a variable source and having multiple ways to change volume. To work around this, I have my speakers connected to one of my displays (which have fixed audio-out jacks) - both the DP2.1 and the DP-over-USB-C monitors have functional audio outputs when connected to the TS5+ (they are displayed as output sinks in macOS). I was having some problems with the TS5 Plus's audio jacks today which spurred me to write this review - they simply weren't showing up in macOS when I attached headphones to them, both the front and rear output jacks. While troubleshooting I realized there was yet another firmware update for the dock - I've now installed two (shipped with 60.1 -> 61.1 -> 62.1) in the 3 weeks I've owned it! After updating the firmware, along with the separate "USB-PD firmware", the TS5+'s audio-out jacks started working. I have no clue if one of the two firmwares fixed the problem, or if it was simply power-cycling the dock alone (part of the update process). The main/Thunderbolt firmware update process is mildly annoying as it does not provide any status about what is going on, and it may shut off the USB-A ports on the dock while it's happening (my wired keyboard got shut off). Contrary to what the firmware instructions tell you, I had no problems updating firmware in macOS with both of my monitors attached, but neither of them are Thunderbolt devices (maybe that makes a difference). Helpful tip: to get status on the main firmware update, open the macOS "Console" app, click the "start" button to begin the log firehose, and then type "Thunderbolt" up in the search box (might have to hit enter afterwards). You'll see an endless stream of messages as the firmware is being written to the dock, and eventually they'll stop streaming in and the dock will reboot itself when the update is complete. This dock runs quite warm, although never hot enough to burn. I have mine "sideways;" standing vertically may help with cooling since more of the fins would be exposed but it would be tight under my displays if I went vertical. It is taller (or in my case, "wider") than the TS4. Annoyingly, the port layout is also "flipped" from the TS4, so the power & ethernet are on the opposite side from the TS4 and the Thunderbolt upstream / host port is also moved. If you have a very specific cable layout this could be problematic for you. The included TB5 cable *is* a little bit longer than the TB4 cable that comes with the TS4 though, so this helps. The "space black" color is nice if you have a matching Macbook, but mine is silver... and Space Black makes it *very* hard to read the labels printed on the dock, especially if you're not looking straight-on at the dock or if it is in any sort of shadow. Sitting under my monitors with my office's (residential) lighting, I can hardly even read the logo on the front of the dock. I wish they had used a white or light gray print. To corroborate what others have said - the power supply seems to suffer from coil whine. I only hear it if I get about 1-2 feet away from it though, and right now I have the PSU down on the floor so it's not bothering me. The whine is sort of a cyclical pitch shifting noise (almost like a siren) so it would be severely annoying if I could hear it regularly. The TS5+ dock itself is silent to my ears, only the PSU has whine. I'm in my mid-40s but was in music in high school and have tried to take care of my hearing; YMMV. [EDIT 2025-08-28] I contacted support about the coil whine, and they said this is a known issue in some of the power supply units. They are working on an improved version with the PSU manufacturer, and asked for my shipping address. They told me they would send out a new PSU once they are available. I asked if they would send a label to collect the "noisy" one, and they said that I would be welcome to keep it as a spare - this is a really nice gesture! "A+" support. Overall, it's a solid product. [EDIT] If I could rate it 4.5 stars, I would, especially after support said there's a fix coming for the coil whine. It loses "points" for the nearly-unreadable legends/glyphs due to "black on dark gray," and for not using a higher quality NIC - Intel or Broadcom would've been preferable at this price point. If you want to have 10Gb Ethernet on your dock and you don't want a separate, bulky, external adapter connected to it, the TS5 Plus makes sense. If you think you're going to want "portable" 10GbE, it might be more logical to just stick with the (lower-priced, especially if you can find one used or on sale) TS4, and add a separate Thunderbolt 10Gb interface, especially since then you have a bit more choice for Ethernet chipset (I believe Sonnet has at least one offering with Intel NICs, although it appears that several of theirs along with OWC are using Aquantia chips now as well).

Super solid premium build. Looks very nice. Easy to set up on 16” MacBook Pro M4 Pro. No OS problems, and has a useful configuration app. Easy update to firmware then smooth operation on both 4K external monitors, chargers, mechanical keyboard, ring lights, sound system and multiple external TB5 SSDs. SUPER FAST on Gb home network, with no hiccups thus far. Will buy another for my other laptop. Plug and play.

I use this with a new MacBook Pro M4. The power output and number of ports are amazing. The speed is also impressive. What is not so impressive is how it manages power to external devices. I use 2 new NVMe external drives for backup and large file storage, each of differing manufacture and configurations. The TS5 plus fails to properly power down either device, causing them to use energy and create heat. Upon computer restart one external device is not remounted by the system requiring a power off and restart of the external drive. Note that by connecting either device directly to a MacBook port they power down properly and remount at start up. I’ve worked with Caldigit tech support who tell me they don’t see this problem and don’t have a fix for it. If CalDigit fixes this problem, I’ll update my review and add stars.

Excellent device! Handles all my gear with ease, with room for growth of device and future technology! Just buy it, don't cheap out. Remember your setup is only as good as your weakest device!