Home Hi-Tech Hardware and Peripherals ,,,,, Belkin is not a new brand in the Apple environment: there are several solutions that are easy to find in the Apple Stores and Apple Premium Resellers around the peninsula. Belkin Dock Thunderbolt 3 Pro is one of these, even if here we are aimed at a typically professional audience with very high demands in terms of yield, speed and practicality at an important cost but aligned with the final yield.
Belkin Dock Thunderbolt 3 Pro, the review
All in one, with elegance
Belkin Dock Thunderbolt 3 Pro (which we had already seen here) is a professional product, you can immediately guess it from the discreet, but decisive design: an external profile in gray satin aluminum that collects the internal motherboard with all the input and output ports .
The power supply, discreet but of generous dimensions, typically stops under the desk and is not noticeable, given the black color: to tell the truth, the only thing that is noticed is the small front LED in green or orange, indicating respectively the activity or stand-by status.
The presence of a Thunderbolt 3 port here suggests that we are in a very different class from that of the usual USB-C HUBs now known to all: thanks to this connection, and to the power supply, here it is possible to take full advantage of different active connections. to connect devices or to recharge them, as we will see.
Belkin Dock Thunderbolt 3 Pro review in early tests, here with a LaCie Rugged RAID Pro drive
Door-to-door
In detail, there is a USB-A 3.1 port, a USB-C 3.1 port, an SD card reader and an analog audio input and output with jack on the front.
In the back instead, in addition to the port for the 170 W power supply, capable of delivering charging energy via USB-C up to 85 W for a laptop (practically all MacBook Pro with USB-C or Thunderbolt 3, including the latest MacBook Pro 16 ″, although in this case in a slower way) there are several other ports.
In detail, two Thunderbolt 3 ports (one with charging), a DisplayPort connector for external display, a Gigabit Ethernet connector and 4 USB-A 3.0 ports for peripherals.
Basically, a big help for those who use the laptop but also convenient for those who, like the writer, use it next to a Mac mini, which has several Thunderbolt 3 ports but few USB-A.
How does it work
It goes without saying that the small (not so much, as it measures 200x81x26 mm for 422 grams of weight) Belkin Dock Thunderbolt 3 Pro looks great on the desk, where it works perfectly and barely heats, even under stress.
We used it as the only HUB by connecting a mouse (the Razer Basilisk Ultimate), a display (LG 27UL850 4K via USB-C) in DisplayPort, a LaCie Rugged RAID Pro Hard Disk (which typically absorbs more power than a normal Hard Disk portable) this without external power supply and a webcam (Razer Kyo) via USB, plus obviously various USB sticks that normally pass on the desk.
Belkin Dock Thunderbolt 3 Pro withstood all connections very well, powering an iPhone 8 via USB-A among other things, while for our iPad Air, it kept it alive without recharging the battery.
As for the Ethernet connection, it came in handy with the MacBook Pro 13 in use, while when connected to the Mac mini, we preferred the Mac's built-in Ethernet connector, which carries ten times as much.
As for the video signal, obviously no problem with the LG 4K display: we tried a double connection with a second Full HD display in a completely natural way also because the Dock holds two 4K displays at 60 Hz or an 8K display at 30 Hz when in Thunderbolt, or a 4K display at 30Hz and 1080P at 60Hz when in USB-C.
By taking advantage of the Display Port, however, it is possible to have more configurations available. All with the other doors working, thanks to the external power supply.
Considerations
Belkin Dock Thunderbolt 3 Pro is a nice product, an excellent help for the professional who needs to use different external accessories especially with a laptop, but also with a desktop computer (because the ports are never enough).
The cost is important, but it arises on a higher class than normal USB-C HUBs, which cannot do the job that this Dock does, both for the speed in communicating with external Hard Disks (especially SSDs) and for the versatility of data ports and video ports.
Are there any flaws? Someone, such as a network connection that could have been 10GbE and the form that is not really a Dock, in the sense that it does not “host” the laptop, but only supports it, however these are venal aspects that do not compromise a product that, in capable hands, it becomes a real must on the desk.
The contents of the package: the Dock (top), the power supply and the Thunderbolt 3 cable
Pro:
• Lots of ports available • Elegant shape that doesn't hurt • The aluminum cladding cools more easily
Cons:
• Price matters • Gigabit only network port
Price:
• 349.99 Euro
Belkin Dock Thunderbolt 3 Pro is distributed in Italy by Attiva.com, and readers can find it in all Apple Premium Resellers in the peninsula, as well as in the best home appliance and computer stores and on Amazon: more info on the page of the Belkin website.
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