Kensington’s first Thunderbolt 5 dock, the future of PC I/O, is here! Unfortunately, it’s just one part of the equation. The Kensington SD5000T5 EQ Thunderbolt 5 Triple 4K Docking Station is the first Thunderbolt 5 dock I’ve seen inside PCWorld’s lab. Kensington will begin selling the dock today on Amazon for $399.99, a substantial premium to the majority of Thunderbolt 4 docks already on the market. (One exception is Kingston’s SD5800T, a premium Thunderbolt 4 dock).
Thunderbolt 5, however, offers significant advantages compared to Thunderbolt 4 docks, which have offered the same 40Gbps throughput as the older Thunderbolt 3 docks. Thunderbolt 5 boosts that to 80Gbps, and in certain cases even up to 120Gbps in a single direction. That equates to two 8K, 60Hz displays, or three 4K displays at 144Hz.…