Macworld

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

  • 12 ports, including four Thunderbolt 5
  • SSD slot option (UTD58M model)
  • 2.5Gb Ethernet
  • 30W USB-C at front
  • 230W Power Delivery
  • Affordable

Cons

  • Upstream port at front
  • Four USB-A but no USB-C

Our Verdict

As a dual-display dock with a bunch of top-rated ports the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station is great value for money for 80Gbps speed and power, with a new model offering a speedy SSD slot.

Price When Reviewed

This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined

Best Pricing Today

Best Prices Today: WAVLINK Thunderbolt 5 Dock (UTD58)

Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide

What is it? A Thunderbolt 5 MacBook docking station with 12 fast ports plus an option for an SSD slot for extra affordable storage.

Who is it for? Users who require the fastest connections and those looking to add speedy storage to their MacBook setup at prices way below Apple’s own.

Who shouldn’t buy it? People who don’t need fast Thunderbolt connections or require more than two external displays.

The Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station is a full docking station with 12 ports, including a full four 80Gbps Thunderbolt 5 and 2.5Gb Ethernet, available at an affordable price. It features a decent rack of high-end ports, and looks fancy, too.

There are two versions: the UTD58M ($349) with an integrated fast SSD slot, and the base UTD58 without ($299).

Even if your laptop has Thunderbolt 4 (TB4) rather than Thunderbolt 5 (TB5) connectivity, buying the newer faster standard will future proof your purchase. Backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 3 and 4, TB5 features the fastest 80Gbps bandwidth (up to 120Gbps Bandwidth Boost for unidirectional video) plus smart device daisy-chaining and super-fast storage connectivity.

Foundry

Specs and features: The ports and power you get
  • One upstream Thunderbolt 5 port (80Gbps, 140W)
  • Two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports (80Gbps, 15W)
  • One downstream Thunderbolt 5 port (80Gbps, 30W)
  • Four USB-A ports (10Gbps)
  • Ethernet (2.5Gb)
  • SSD slot (UTD58M model only)
  • UHS-II SD Card reader (312MBps)
  • UHS-II MicroSD Card reader (312MBps)
  • 3.5mm audio jack
  • 230W power supply

As well as its upstream Thunderbolt 5 port that connects to your laptop, there are three downstream TB5 ports that connect to other devices such as monitors or storage drives: one is at the front with the upstream TB5 port, and two are at the back.

Only the UTD58M model features the built-in SSD slot.

Simon Jary

Wavlink’s Thunderbolt 4 dock had just one downstream TB4 port as it sacrificed two possible Thunderbolt ports for dedicated HDMI 2.1 ports. With this new model, Wavlink ditches the video ports to give you the choice of which TB ports to use to connect to monitors either via a direct USB-C connection or using USB-C to DisplayPort or USB-C to HDMI adapter cables.

This gives you flexibility, and if connecting two screens we expect you’ll choose the two TB5 ports at the back.

The downstream TB5 port at the front can output at 30W, which is easily enough to fast charge an iPhone or iPad. The two TB5 ports at the back can handle 15W each.

The upstream TB5 port can output at 140W (PD 3.1), which is what you need to fast-charge the 16-inch MacBook Pro so is good for the whole range.

The external power supply can provide up to 230W of power, which is a welcome boost from the company’s rather puny 160W TB4 dock.

USB: Thunderbolt is backwards compatible with USB-C, which uses the same end connector, so any of the TB ports not being used to connect a monitor can be used for USB-C devices as well as speedy Thunderbolt. There are four speedy 10Gbps USB-A ports. USB-A has a place for legacy devices, but do we need four of them at the expense of a spare USB-C or two?

Simon Jary

What are this dock’s storage options?

Both versions of the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station feature fast storage card readers, but only the UTD58M model comes with the built-in SSD slot hidden under its base.

This slot supports high-performance PCIe Gen 4 x4 M.2 SSD with a data transfer rate of up to 64Gbps, which should significantly improve read and write speeds with no need for a port-hogging external hard drive enclosure. Data sloggers and pro studios will enjoy the local high-speed caching.

At the time of writing you could buy a 1TB NVMe SSD for under $200, and under $400 for 2TB. 4TB SSDs will set you back more like $700, but it’s still cheaper than Apple charges at the point of purchase and gives you a lot more flexibility.

Installing your own NVMe SSD (the dock doesn’t come with one pre-installed) is simple, using the included screwdriver as shown above.

This isn’t the only Thunderbolt 5 dock with an integrated SSD slot—check out the Kensington EQ Pro Thunderbolt 5 Dock for MacBook, Ugreen Maxidok 17-in-1 dock, and Sonnet Echo 21 SuperDock—but it is the most affordable of those we have tested.

Simon Jary

Card readers: Although Apple’s MacBook Pro laptop includes a 250MBps card reader, having one on the dock is convenient. The Wavlink TB5 dock has two: one SD and one MicroSD, both at the fastest 312MBps. These are nicely placed at the front for easy access.

Such cards offer very affordable and extremely portable storage. At the time of writing you could get a 512GB SD card for under $50, although faster cards are pricier.

Simon Jary

Ethernet: While WiFi is great for phone use, sometimes hooking up to the home or office wired network gives you faster and more stable downloads. Most local area networks (LANs) use 1Gb Ethernet, known as Gigabit Ethernet or 1GbE. Increasingly networks are moving to much faster 2.5GbE, 5GbE or even 10GbE. The Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock offers 2.5GbE, which is backwards compatible with 1GbE so even if you’re not yet on the faster network speed you’ll be ready for it when you do.

Other ports: At the front there’s an anti-theft Kensington Security Slot (also called a K-Slot) and a combo 3.5mm In/Out audio jack.

Wavlink dock’s display capabilities

For most people the number one reason for buying a docking station is to easily add external screens to their laptop. Connect a cable from the dock to each monitor and you massively extend your screen real estate.

While the dock can support up to three displays for Windows laptops, limitations in Apple’s setup limit you to just two, unless you install third-party software such as DisplayLink that can give you access to up to five external displays. Five!

However, for three or more monitors the dock needs to support DisplayLink, and the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock isn’t one of those. See our reviews of the best DisplayLink docks for options, but note that at the time of writing there were no Thunderbolt 5 DisplayLink docks. Your only solution for TB5 plus three displays without DisplayLink is the iVanky FusionDock Max 2, which has a nifty dual-chip arrangement that uses two of the MacBook’s Thunderbolt ports.

The Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock supports up to two 6K at 60Hz displays for most M1/M2/M3 Pro/Max/ MacBooks or any M4/M5 models.

These MacBooks could opt for a single 8K/60Hz display instead.

Non-Pro/Max M1/M2/M3 MacBooks support single 4K or 6K monitors. DisplayLink is also useful if your MacBook is running one of those plain M1 or M2 processors as Apple further limits those laptops to a single display. That’s by the by as M1 MacBook owners are unlikely to be in the market for a Thunderbolt 5 dock, and it’s time we got back to the review.

Simon Jary

Futuristic design looks great on any desk

The Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock is a smart aluminum build with some futuristic cooling vents at the top. Underneath are silicone pads that raise the dock off the desk surface for stability and further cooling. On the UTD58M the base is where you’ll find the SSD slot secured with a single screw.

I’m not a fan of having the upstream Thunderbolt port at the front of the dock as it’s the one cable you know will always be in use, so we prefer it hidden around the back. Ideally, given the choice I’d have all the Thunderbolt ports at the back and a spare USB-C port at the front for charging. But that’s not how Wavlink has laid out its ports. Still, having three downstream ports is more than some docking stations offer and we’re happy with that.

Wavlink has included an on/off button, which is appreciated. Although Apple has made the MacBook clever enough to manage its power in a sensible fashion, I still like to turn off power to the laptop’s battery as I don’t want it constantly kept filled to 100% when I’m not using it. A power button means I don’t have to yank the cable out to break the power between the dock and the laptop when I’ve finished working.

WAVLINK Thunderbolt 5 Dock (UTD58)

Read our review

WAVLINK Thunderbolt 5 Dock with SSD Slot (UTD58M)

How much do the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 docks cost?

At $299.99 or £239.99, the base-level Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock is priced below most Thunderbolt 5 docks. It shares the sub-$300 price point with the Plugable Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station, and has a similar array of ports, although it has one more and faster USB-A ports. The Wavlink also wins on a higher overall power supply: 230W vs 180W.

The Plugable can stand either vertically or lie flat like the Wavlink and sensibly places the upstream TB5 port at the back. The Wavlink’s 30W front TB5 port beats the Plugable’s 15W front TB5 port. Otherwise, they are very similar in terms of tech specs.

The $349 / £349 UTD58M model with SSD slot will set you back another $50 plus the cost of whichever capacity and speed NVMe SSD that you can afford. Pay the extra $50 for the UTD58M if you want fast, inexpensive desktop storage built into the dock; otherwise the standard UTD58 offers essentially the same docking features for less.

See our roundups of the best Thunderbolt docks for Mac for other comparable solutions.

Which Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station should you buy?

While its triple-monitor potential is muted on Macs—Apple’s limitation, not the dock’s—as a dual-display dock with a bunch of top-rated ports the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station and an SSD slot option is great value for money for 80Gbps speed and power. The new model with SSD slot offers high-speed data transfer and lower latency for demanding jobs with greater flexibility than you get from Apple when you purchase your Mac.