Kensington SD5800T Thunderbolt 4 Dock Review

In one look

Expert rating

Benefits

• Robust, well designed
• Can sit vertically on its stand to save space
• Yes, it works: four 4K screens are possible
• A surplus of ports

The inconvenients

• Expensive list price
• Mislabeled USB-A charging port not working
• Average storage performance

Our Verdict

The Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Dock (SD5800T) offers plenty of ports, but may be overpriced at some retailers. Otherwise it’s excellent.

Best prices today: Kensington Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Quad Video Dock (SD5800T)

$229.99

The Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Dock (SD5800T) sounds a bit like another verse of a familiar song: A new dock arrives, loaded to the gills with ports; However, all this flexibility also comes with a hefty price tag.

Kensington and Plugable appear at the top of our current list of the best Thunderbolt docks. This is our first opportunity to test Kensington’s ultra-premium SD5800T Thunderbolt 4 16-in-1 dock, which looks virtually identical to the Plugable TBT4-UDZ.

Given the potential for an eventual head-to-head shootout, it’s worth noting that the SD5800T’s MSRP/RRP is technically $379, but Amazon lists it for $299, the same as the station Plugable home page.

And as of press time, Amazon has slashed the price of the SD5800T to just $229. Those in the UK can find it on Amazon for £233.

Either way, this is the Kensington dock to buy if you want it All: four 4K displays (two DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1), plus a multitude of USB-A and USB-C ports. Of course, you don’t have to connect four displays; you can choose two displays instead, knowing that you can favor the cable (HDMI or DisplayPort) of your choice.

Some basics need to be explained. Virtually all Thunderbolt 4 docks will connect to USB4 ports without issue. The long, formal name of the Kensington product explains this clearly. Because Intel refuses to certify non-Intel laptops (read: AMD Ryzen) for Thunderbolt, Ryzen laptops use USB4 ports instead. They are essentially identical.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Kensington achieves quad-screen orientation (for Windows, not Mac) through a combination of the 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 port and a technology called Display Stream Compression (DSC), which uses industry-standard compression technology to get more bandwidth. DSC is similar to DisplayLink, a compression technology designed by Synaptics and the basis for an entire class of superb DisplayLink docks, which we include in our best Thunderbolt docks roundup. DSC does not require DisplayLink’s driver software, but DSC can be a little iffy on any laptop using a 12th generation Core processor or higher.

Kensington’s SD5800T sits at the top of the premium Thunderbolt dock market with solid stability, a multitude of ports, and the power to connect to four displays at once. It’s a great looking dock, but it seems a little overpriced at its default price.

The bottom line is that a Thunderbolt dock was designed for a pair of 4K/60Hz displays, and DSC or DisplayLink increases that to four 4K displays instead. If you like multiple monitors, this is really cool.

The dock only supports two 6K/60Hz external displays when connected to a Mac.

Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Docking Station (SD5800T): Specifications and Features

• One upstream USB4 port (40 Gbps, 100 W)
• Two HDMI 2.1 video ports
• Two DisplayPort 1.4 video ports
• Three USB-A ports (10 Gbps)
• Two USB-A ports (5 Gbps)
• One USB-A port (480 Mbps)
• One USB-C port (10 Gbps)
• 2.5 GB Gigabit Ethernet
• UHS-II SD card reader (312 MB/s)
• 3.5mm combo audio jack (front)
• 170W power supply

On the front of the SD5800T is a microSD and SD card slot for photographers (SD 4.0, UHS-II), as well as a 10 Gbps USB-A port and a 480 Mbps USB-A port, clearly marked for charge a smartphone at a rated voltage of 1.5A. There is also a power button, a headphone jack, and a 3.25-foot Thunderbolt 4 cord that delivers a rated 98W of power to your laptop. On the rear, Kensington includes a Kensington nano and full-size (natch) security slot, the power port, all four display ports, 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, a 10 Gbps USB-C charging port /s rated at 7.5W, along with four USB-A ports. ports evenly distributed between 10 Gbps and 5 Gbps.

Mark Hachman / IDG

It’s a lot, and the design hides some advantages and disadvantages. For one thing, did I mention that the dock can be mounted vertically? Kensington’s SD5800T measures 7.68 x 4.09 x 1.42 inches (and 1.34 pounds, if that matters) but can sit vertically on a stand to save space. (However, the dock has rubber feet for flat mounting.) Even with cords coming from multiple ports, it remained absolutely stable on my desk. The ports are also well spaced.

What I don’t like about the design is how it places the USB-C charging port on the back; If you’re concerned about organization, you’ll want it on the front, closer to you. I also don’t like the lack of an LED lit power button.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and Quad USB Dock (SD5800T): Performance

The question I always ask about a quad-monitor dock like the Kensington SD5800T: does it deliver what it promises? The answer is: Well, it depends. Due to the vagaries of different hardware, you can probably expect different capabilities depending on how new your laptop is. As always, the newer the hardware, the better.

Here’s a summary of the Kensington SD5800T’s performance on different laptops, just to illustrate the differences. It’s important to note, however, that while the displays took a few seconds to connect, I never experienced any issues or disconnections. It is also important to note that the manual states that the dock can deliver “until 4K performance at 60Hz on four displays. (Emphasis mine.) Kensington also promises that the dock can power a single 8K display at 60Hz, but we don’t have the hardware to test that.

• Asus ZenBook 14 OLED (14th generation Core Ultra): Perfect. 4K, 60 Hz on four 4K displays (4K60).
• Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 (13th generation Intel Core): 4K60 on three screens. The fourth would only turn on in 4K30, 1440p59 or 1080p60.
• Acer Swift Edge 16 (AMD Ryzen 7000): as above
• Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 (13th Gen Intel Core): Same as above
• Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio (11th generation Intel Core): dual displays at 4K60, dual displays at 1080p

The dock’s USB-C charging port delivered 7.45W, enough to charge a smartphone. But the front-mounted USB-A charging port only delivered 0.5A (or 2.4W), which is nowhere near the promised 1.5A. Both front-mounted ports provide the same amount of power, even though one of them pretends to be a charging port! The SD800T delivered a maximum power of 94W to the laptop, which is close enough to the rated power to be acceptable.

Streaming and data transfer performance were acceptable. Thunderbolt docks still offer a bit lower data rate than DisplayLink; the 130.74 Mbps was about comparable to other Thunderbolt 4 docks I tested, such as the Anker 777. The dock dropped 7 frames out of 10,000 when streaming in continuous. A test in which I copied a folder containing gigabytes of data from an SSD to the dock to the desktop finished in 1 minute and 8 seconds, which is among the slowest. The SD card slots worked as expected and there was no noise or dropouts from the headphone jack.

Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 docks tend to offer similar performance; Thunderbolt 4 docks are a bit more stable, which is why you see a mix of Thunderbolt 3 and 4 docks among our top picks.

Should you buy the Kensington SD5800T?

At $299, the SD5800T is a tough sell. At a total of $379 (we can’t find an official UK MSRP), I would completely ignore it. At £230/$229, your ears should perk up.

I like the flexibility of the SD5800T more than our existing best pick, the Kensington SD5780T (or a similar SD5700T in the UK), which is why the generous Plugable TBT3-UDZ is still one of our favorite Thunderbolt docks. However, I don’t like the SD5800T’s mislabeled charging port, and our review is muddied by how it interacts with various hardware.

Nonetheless, the Kensington Thunderbolt 4 and USB Quad Dock (SD5800T) remains a well-designed Thunderbolt 4 dock with some slight flaws. Use the available price to guide your purchasing decision.

This review was originally published on PCWorld.