Desk & Power review
CalDigit TS4 Review: Eighteen Ports and No Bandwidth Excuses
Most docks give you the ports and quietly share the bandwidth between them. This one runs every USB port at full speed at once, and charges the laptop at 98W while doing it.
By Paulo GerchonPublished 2 min read
Illustration, not a photo — we don’t have a licensed image of this product yet.
CalDigit
CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4
Good · researched from 4 sources
The dock to buy when you have run out of ports and patience with cheap hubs that throttle under load. The absence of HDMI is a genuine irritation at this price, and the reason to check what your monitor actually takes before ordering.
- Buy if
- People running a laptop as a desktop with many peripherals attached · Photographers and video editors moving cards and external drives constantly · Anyone whose current hub slows down when two things are busy
- Skip if
- Anyone whose monitor is HDMI only and who resents buying an adapter · Standard M1 Mac owners, who cannot use the dual-display capability · Desks that need three or four downstream Thunderbolt devices
We don’t list prices, because Amazon’s change hourly.
Port count is the marketing, bandwidth is the product
Cheap docks advertise a long list of ports and then quietly share one USB controller between them. Plug in an external SSD and read a memory card at the same time and everything slows down together.
XDA's finding is the reason this dock costs what it does: all the USB ports run at 10Gb/s independently. Copying from a fast drive while pulling images off a UHS-II card does not create a bottleneck.
That is invisible on a spec sheet next to a cheaper hub with a similar port list. It is the entire difference in use.
The power supply is doing real work
Most docks ship with a supply barely bigger than what they pass to the laptop, so the host charging figure quietly drops once you attach a few peripherals.
The TS4 has a 230W supply feeding a 98W host output, and XDA's specific point is that the 98W is guaranteed regardless of what else is drawing from the dock. Laptop Mag put that to work charging a Dell XPS 15, a machine that normally ships with a 140W brick, and it filled up, slower than native but without complaint.
The HDMI problem
There is no HDMI port. Video out is DisplayPort 1.4, plus whatever you hang off the two downstream Thunderbolt ports.
Laptop Mag makes this their headline criticism and attaches a cost to it, because the adapter is a real purchase on top of a dock that is already expensive. XDA frames the same decision more sympathetically: CalDigit sacrificed a third downstream Thunderbolt port to fit native DisplayPort, which suits more people than it inconveniences.
Both readings are fair. What matters is that you check the back of your monitor before ordering, because at this price discovering it in the box is annoying.
What it is like on a desk
Brushed aluminium with a ribbed shell, standing vertically or lying flat, at about 1.4 lb. Laptop Mag found it stayed cool under sustained load and XDA reported no thermal issues across months of use, which is worth saying because docks pushing this much power often run hot enough to notice.
The port bank includes 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and both SD and microSD at UHS-II speeds, usable simultaneously. For anyone who still moves files off cards, that pair of slots removes a dongle from the desk on its own.
Where it does not fit
Standard M1 Macs drive a single external display no matter what dock you attach, which XDA flags. That is Apple's silicon rather than CalDigit's engineering, but it is worth knowing before buying a dock partly for dual-monitor support.
And if your workflow genuinely needs three downstream Thunderbolt devices, the DisplayPort trade goes the wrong way for you.
How it scored
The overall 8.2 is the weighted average of these five criteria — we never adjust it by hand.
Connectivity
Eighteen ports, and XDA's point is that all USB ports run 10Gb/s independently, so a fast SSD and a UHS-II card read at once without contention.
Value
Both XDA and Laptop Mag lead their criticisms with the price, and Laptop Mag adds the cost of an HDMI adapter on top.
Build quality
Brushed aluminium with a ribbed shell for heat. Laptop Mag found it stayed cool under load and XDA reported no thermal trouble across months.
Ease of use
Works vertically or flat, but there is no HDMI at all, so a common monitor needs an adapter that Laptop Mag priced separately.
Power delivery
98W to the host from a 230W supply, and XDA notes that figure is guaranteed regardless of what else is drawing from the dock.
Pros and cons
What we liked
- Eighteen ports, including 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and both UHS-II SD and microSD
- Every USB port runs at 10Gb/s independently rather than sharing a pool
- 98W to the host laptop, held regardless of what else is plugged in
- Aluminium shell that both reviewers found stayed cool under sustained load
- Stands vertically or lies flat, so it suits a crowded desk
What we didn’t
- No HDMI output at all, so most monitors need an adapter bought separately
- Only two downstream Thunderbolt ports, because one was given up for DisplayPort
- Expensive, and it is the first criticism in both reviews we read
- A two-year warranty that XDA notes is shorter than some competitors
- Standard M1 Macs drive only a single external display, which is an Apple limit rather than a dock one
Specifications
| Thunderbolt | 3 x Thunderbolt 4 at 40Gb/s, one host and two downstream |
|---|---|
| USB-C | 3 x USB-C at 10Gb/s |
| USB-A | 5 x USB-A at 10Gb/s |
| Video out | DisplayPort 1.4, no HDMI |
| Ethernet | 2.5 Gigabit |
| Card readers | SD 4.0 UHS-II and microSD 4.0 UHS-II, usable at once |
| Audio | Front combo jack plus rear in and out |
| Host charging | Up to 98W sustained |
| Power supply | 230W |
| Dimensions | 5.55 x 4.46 x 1.65 in |
| Weight | 1.41 lb |
| Warranty | 2 years |
How we researched this
We have not had this unit on the bench. This review synthesises the manufacturer’s published specifications, independent measurements and owner reports listed below. Every figure on this page comes from one of those sources rather than our own measurement.
4
sources reviewed
CalDigit supplied the port list, power figures, dimensions and platform-specific display support. XDA contributed months of use and is the source for the independent 10Gb/s behaviour and the guaranteed host wattage. Laptop Mag stress-tested charging and external display output on a Dell XPS 15 and supplies the thermal and build observations. All three agree on the specifications, so there was little to reconcile here; the criticisms rather than the numbers are where the reviews differ in emphasis.
What we read
Common questions
Does the CalDigit TS4 have HDMI?
Will it really charge my laptop at 98W?
How many monitors can I run?
Do the ports slow each other down?
Why only two downstream Thunderbolt ports?
The bottom line on the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4
The dock to buy when you have run out of ports and patience with cheap hubs that throttle under load. The absence of HDMI is a genuine irritation at this price, and the reason to check what your monitor actually takes before ordering.
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