Remember the early days of USB-C, when a single port promised to replace the alphabet soup of connectors cluttering our desks? That dream never quite materialized—until now. CalDigit’s new Thunderbolt 5 docking stations deliver what feels like the long-awaited fulfillment of that original promise, wrapping unprecedented speed and connectivity into sleek aluminum packages that might finally justify their premium price tags.
The Bandwidth Renaissance
The TS5 and TS5 Plus harness Intel’s Thunderbolt 5 technology, which essentially doubles the already impressive Thunderbolt 4 specifications to 80Gb/s in each direction. This isn’t just a numbers game—it’s the difference between smoothly editing 8K video across multiple displays and watching progress bars with the enthusiasm of waiting for water to boil.
“Today, we have announced the most powerful docking stations we have ever created,” stated Kosta Panagos, the CEO of CalDigit, highlighting how their Bandwidth Boost technology can increase speeds to 120 Gb/s for demanding display setups.
Think of bandwidth akin to lanes on a highway. Previous-generation docks often created traffic jams when multiple high-speed devices competed for attention. The TS5 Plus, with its 20 ports and dual USB controllers, transforms this congested two-lane road into an information superhighway with express lanes for every device.
The ability to drive dual 8K displays from the TS5 Plus (or dual 6K from the standard TS5) marks a significant milestone in desktop connectivity. These aren’t just specifications that look good on paper; they’re capabilities that fundamentally change how creative professionals work.
One Cable to Rule Them All
The true magic of these docks becomes apparent in their ability to deliver 140W of charging power through a single connection. Anyone who has carefully arranged their workspace only to disrupt it with an external power brick understands this isn’t a minor convenience—it’s workspace liberation.
For historical context, consider that the first USB specification delivered a mere 0.5W of power. Two decades later, these docks provide 280 times that amount—enough to power today’s most demanding laptops while simultaneously charging phones, tablets, and other accessories through additional high-power ports.
The TS5 Plus takes this further with enhanced 36W charging on select ports. This seemingly small detail eliminates one of the last remaining pain points of dock life: the dreaded “charging slowly” notification that appears when plugging your phone into an underpowered USB port.
Professional-Grade Networking
In an era when even basic home internet connections often exceed 1Gb speeds, the TS5 Plus’s 10Gb Ethernet port addresses a significant bottleneck in professional workflows. For video editors transferring footage across a local network or developers pushing massive code repositories, this tenfold speed increase transforms minutes of waiting into seconds.
When cloud storage companies advertise “fast uploads,” they’re assuming your computer can actually feed data to the internet at appropriate speeds. The reality? Most laptops cap out at 1Gb connections when docked. The TS5 Plus effectively removes this ceiling for compatible networks.
The Price of Progress
At $499 for the TS5 Plus (available late April) and $369 for the TS5 (arriving in May), these docks represent significant investments. They cost approximately half as much as a decent iPad or entry-level smartphone—hardly impulse purchases for most consumers.
Yet for professionals whose livelihoods depend on efficient workflows, the calculation changes. When factoring the cost of separate adapters, USB-C chargers, and the incalculable value of time saved, these docks begin to resemble reasonable investments rather than luxury accessories.
Both models work with existing Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 devices, though at reduced speeds. This backward compatibility transforms them from mere accessories into genuine infrastructure—technology that grows with your setup rather than becoming obsolete with your next laptop purchase.
The CalDigit TS5 series arrives at an inflection point in personal computing, where increasingly powerful laptops with increasingly minimalist port selections demand desktop companions that can bridge the gap between portability and productivity.
