CalDigit TS4 Long-Term Review: The Only Thunderbolt 4 Dock Worth Buying
18 ports, 98W Power Delivery, and 2.5GbE Ethernet through a single cable. Does it run hot, and does it survive sleep-wake cycles without disconnecting?
Thunderbolt docks are notoriously fickle pieces of consumer hardware. Cheap $100 hubs from Amazon frequently drop external monitor connections when your laptop wakes from sleep, overheat under sustained Ethernet traffic, or fail to negotiate proper USB-PD wattage.
The CalDigit TS4 has been the benchmark workstation dock for power users since its release. At $399, it is an expensive metal brick.
I have had my desk plugged into one for eighteen continuous months:
- Dual 4K 60Hz displays via DisplayPort and downstream Thunderbolt.
- 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet running to local NAS storage.
- Audio interfaces, mechanical keyboards, and hardware debuggers all routed through a single braided cable.
In eighteen months, it has disconnected exactly zero times across thousands of sleep-wake cycles on macOS. The fluted aluminum heatsink runs warm to the touch (around 38C), but performance never degrades. It is the gold standard of desktop connectivity.
Written by Daniel Dano
danieldano.com ↗15-year-old software developer, founder of Ryla Labs (50,000+ monthly users across 12 countries), author of Built Young, and high school student leader.