This is a super junky product category. I notice plenty of people plugging the super expensive OWC and CalDigit Thunderbolt docks. These are also pretty junky, they just have big price tags.
Luckily I have not actually spent my money on these.. but we have had hundreds at work. I have had a Thunderbolt dock at my desk at work for about 4 years now, and have had one at home for 2 years now that I was able to expense. I've had both an OWC and a CalDigit Fail. My CalDigit at work failed last week after mostly sitting unused during the pandemic. IT had a rubbermaid bin full of broken ones.
I think the common thing we have is most of us have 2x 4k monitors.. one has to go into a Thunderbolt port and one goes into a DisplayPort. My desk at home only has one external monitor and seems to not generate problems. Usually one of the monitors will start to refuse to work.
The CalDigit has one set of bugs with Intel Macs and a different set of bugs with Apple Silicon IME.
Both of them have RF interference issues as well with things like Microsoft and Logitech wireless mice and keyboards.
It's all too bad cause the user experience is great when they actually work. Single cable to get everything works great.
> I notice plenty of people plugging the super expensive OWC and CalDigit Thunderbolt docks. These are also pretty junky, they just have big price tags.
Having used actually-junky docks, a good one is worth the money. My TS3+ is in year 3 of consistent, rock-solid performance. Most of its ports are used all the time, the host computer never sleeps (I've used it with both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs), and I've never had an issue that I couldn't attribute to a bad cable.
Apparently you just missed me saying my CalDigit TS3+ failed last week and IT had a whole bin full of others that failed.
It's not the cables.. they handed me a new TS3+ and it immediately worked perfectly and it will probably continue to work for a year or two before starting the process of flaking out.
To be honest with the # of them I've seen break (almost everyone I know at work) the posts here seem like astro-turfing.
You might have a good one, but if you had 500 of them in an office you wouldn't think the product is "good" on average.
> Apparently you just missed me saying my CalDigit TS3+ failed last week and IT had a whole bin full of others that failed.
Nope, that's why I posted a counter-anecdote. Not one has failed in my circle of friends, I think they're ugly but the build quality seems pretty great, so I'm just surprised to hear about your IT department's bin of dead TS3+ that they keep around for some reason. (I can't speak for the OWC dock personally.)
Luckily I have not actually spent my money on these.. but we have had hundreds at work. I have had a Thunderbolt dock at my desk at work for about 4 years now, and have had one at home for 2 years now that I was able to expense. I've had both an OWC and a CalDigit Fail. My CalDigit at work failed last week after mostly sitting unused during the pandemic. IT had a rubbermaid bin full of broken ones.
I think the common thing we have is most of us have 2x 4k monitors.. one has to go into a Thunderbolt port and one goes into a DisplayPort. My desk at home only has one external monitor and seems to not generate problems. Usually one of the monitors will start to refuse to work.
The CalDigit has one set of bugs with Intel Macs and a different set of bugs with Apple Silicon IME.
Both of them have RF interference issues as well with things like Microsoft and Logitech wireless mice and keyboards.
It's all too bad cause the user experience is great when they actually work. Single cable to get everything works great.