One of the most significant factors in my laptop docking station reviews is value: How much can you get for your money. A solid sale on StarTech’s quad-display Thunderbolt 4 dock was good enough to elevate it to the top of my preferred list.
I’ve reviewed dozens of Thunderbolt laptop docking stations over the past five years in forming PCWorld’s recommendations for the best laptop docking stations. Experience has taught me that $250 is about the sweet spot price for a good Thunderbolt 4 dock — and that was before tariffs and inflation snarled pricing further.
Imagine my surprise when I saw StarTech’s Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Quad Display Docking Station for $204.99 on Amazon. No, it’s not what you think: StarTech priced this dock at $330.99, but Amazon cut the MSRP to a “list price” of $272.99 and then took 25 percent off that. In all, that’s close to 40 percent off right there.
And it just left my desk. About three weeks ago I completed my review of StarTech’s Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Quad Display Docking Station: four out of five stars, barely missing an Editor’s Choice award.
StarTech’s dock falls into the category of a “Cadillac dock” like the Plugable TBT4-UDZ, which boasts two DisplayPort and HDMI ports apiece. Some docks make you pay for adapter cables that run from the dock to your display. Instead, this dock can pretty much handle any port your display has — as long it’s not purely an external USB-C display. That’s a nice feature right there, but this dock allows you to connect up to four displays, which is pretty unusual. That’s three 4K displays running a standard 60Hz, and a fourth running at a slower 30Hz instead.
This dock is a slightly older model — old in the sense that it supports gobs of USB-A legacy ports, while more and more devices are moving to USB-C instead. This dock does have a dedicated USB-C port — though just one. However, if you have a mouse, keyboard, and printer, chances are they’ll be able to neatly plug into this dock with additional ports for USB keys, storage and more.
While this dock will push about 100 watts to your laptop — probably more than necessary — it doesn’t provide as much power to the other ports as some of its competitors. This won’t be a problem for any of your typical PC peripherals; it just means that you won’t be able to fast-charge a smartphone via this dock. You’ll have to use your phone’s standard charger for that. Otherwise, this was a terrific dock to use, and the discount makes it a killer deal in an age where great deals aren’t as common as they once were. I’d recommend it.
Buy StarTech's Quad-Display Dock for $204.99 at AmazonAuthor: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.