Anker has announced its first Thunderbolt 5 dock. At roughly 5.2 inches wide and 3.4 inches tall, the Anker Prime TB5 Docking Station is not as compact as some competitors, like CalDigit’s Element 5 Hub. But inside its aluminum alloy housing is an integrated GaN power supply delivering up to 232W of combined power output, so you won’t have to deal with a chunky power brick or a bulky adapter.
The Prime TB5 Docking Station has 14 ports, according to Anker, including the SD and microSD memory card slots on the side. Along with those you get two 10Gbps USB-C ports, three 10Gbps USB-A ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, a 2.5Gbps ethernet port, a headphone jack, two downstream USB-C Thunderbolt 5 ports offering up to 120Gbps speeds with a Bandwidth Boost option, and an upstream USB-C Thunderbolt 5 port that can deliver up to 140W of power to a host computer.
For comparison, CalDigit’s TS5 Plus, the reigning champ of Thunderbolt 5 port offerings, has 20 ports, including three Thunderbolt 5, five USB-C, and five USB-A. The Element 5 Hub has 15.
The Anker Prime dock can connect up to two 8K displays, although Anker says resolutions and refresh rates may be limited by the host system’s capabilities. The company hasn’t said whether triple-display setups are possible; Cable Matters says its Thunderbolt 5 dock can be connected to three displays running at 8K/60Hz or 4K/144Hz.
Available starting today through Anker’s online store and other retailers for $399.99, the TB5 Docking Station also features a ring of adjustable ambient LED lighting around the top and a U-shaped air duct with a cooling fan that uses an “intelligent temperature algorithm” to prevent overheating and performance loss. Its firmware can also be updated remotely using Anker’s Dock Manager software, making software maintenance easier in facilities with several in use.
