Gigarefurb Refurbished Laptops News

Although it’s listed as a travel dock, the IOgear GTD300 serves as a very good regular work companion. The Thunderbolt 3 dock is bus-powered, however, which means you’ll want your laptop to be plugged in for best results, though the hub itself doesn’t require its own charger.

IOgear’s plastic dock measures just 2.2 x 0.91 x 4.06 inches, and is among the smallest we’ve tested, so it neatly fits into a backpack for travel. On its underside, a green plastic shell conceals a nook to store the dock’s short, 5-inch cord when not in use. 

Ports are minimal: one HDMI 2.0 port, one DisplayPort 1.2 port, one 5Gbps USB-A port, and gigabit ethernet port. If you’re okay using the USB port for a mouse or keyboard, rather than for high-speed external storage, the GTD300 will suit you fine. (Of course, we’d have preferred a 10Gbps port, at least.)

Some of Amazon’s customer reviews are slightly confusing: In our experience the ethernet port worked as expected, as did the USB-A port. Perhaps because of the small form factor, the GTD300 gets noticeably hot, but not uncomfortably so in our opinion. 

Belkin’s Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core arrived in bare-bones packaging, and the product is equally unadorned: It’s a smartly designed “powered” Thunderbolt 3 travel dock.

At a nearly square 5.2 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches, the Thunderbolt Dock Core black doesn’t take up much room, and the included 8-inch Thunderbolt 3 cord provides ample length for flexibility. Ports are adequately spaced out around the flat, black plastic cube, with HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 ports providing a stable 4K/60Hz experience to both of my 4K displays. There’s gigabit ethernet and a 3.5mm audio jack, but good luck telling the USB 3.1 and USB 2.0 Type A ports apart—they’re not labeled.

There’s one catch: The additional USB-C port on the Dock is a vanilla USB-C port that needs to be connected to a 60W charger to power the dock—which isn’t supplied. That’s fine if your laptop charges with a USB-C charger; if it doesn’t, you’ll need to buy one. That means extra expense and something else to carry.

Save for the irritating lack of labels on the USB-A ports, the Dock Core worked as expected, with solid performance. The plastic shell never warmed to worrisome levels.

Plugable’s TBT3-UDZ is simply one of the best Thunderbolt 3 docks we’ve tested, though it’s also one of the most expensive, too. With a boatload of ports, including options for using DisplayPort or HDMI for both displays, the TBT3-UDZ offers flexibility and then some. There’s even a sturdy stand to mount it vertically on your desk.

On the front, the TBT3-UDZ includes a 10Gbps USB-C and a 10Gbps USB-A (USB 3.1) port, microSD and SD card slots, plus a headphone jack. On the rear, five USB-A (USB 3.0 ports) and gigabit ethernet complement a pair of DisplayPort 1.4 ports and HDMI 2.0 ports.  (It’s all based on Intel’s Titan Ridge chipset.) A 29-inch 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 cable connects the dock to your laptop, and is capable of delivering 96W of power. Natually, this is a powered dock, with a hefty 170W (!) charger.

Performance was excellent, driving both 4K displays at 60Hz, and transferring our test file at close to peak speeds while simultaneously playing back two 4K/60Hz videos on both displays over ethernet. The attractive gun-metal chassis never warmed uncomfortably, though it’s a whopping 4.1 pounds—probably heavier than the laptops it’s driving. The extra weight, plus the chassis stand, keeps the TBT3-UDZ rock-solid while in its vertical, space-saving orientation. It measures about 8 inches long/high by 3.75 inches wide, and an inch thick.

A two-year warranty covering limited parts and labor is included.

CalDigit’s Thunderbolt Station 3 Plus is one of the most popular Thunderbolt 3 docks available, and it’s easy to see why: a space-saving vertical orientation, 87W charging, gobs of available ports, and even niceties like a S/PDIF optical connection and an external Thunderbolt jack for daisy-chaining devices.

The TS3 Plus measures 5.15 x 3.87 x 1.57 in., and weighs 1.04 pounds. Though it lacks a supporting stand, it rested easily in a vertical position. CalDigit includes small rubber feet for positioning the aluminum dock in an horizontal orientation.

Port selection includes: two Thunderbolt 3 ports (one from the laptop, and one for an external connection), and a single DisplayPort 1.2 port. That’s ideal for a single 4K display, but awkward for two. The TS3 Plus includes 1 full-sized SD (SD 4.0 UHS-II) card reader, the S/PDIF port, gigabit ethernet, and two 3.5mm audio jacks—one in, one out. Five USB Type A ports are also included (all 5Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 1) and two USB-C ports (one 5Gbps port, and one 10Gbps port).

To enable two 4K/60 displays, you’ll need a second USB-C dongle running off either the Thunderbolt or USB-C dock—or a forward-looking display with a built-in Thunderbolt/USB-C connector. These are still rare in the Windows world.

Daisy-chaining the Thunderbolt port to enable a second monitor worked fine, though the connection dropped momentarily on both displays when playing back video on both displays and transferring files. Otherwise, high-bandwidth video playback went completely smoothly. The external audio jack also didn’t work initially, but did on a subsequent retry. CalDigit’s TS3 Plus barely warmed under load.