Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock for MacBook Pro and MacBook. At $349 it’s not a cheap docking option, but it offers a lot of connectivity over a single cable and supports two 4K monitors. This is an essential MacBook Pro accessory.
2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro laptops come with two to four USB C ports; that means lots of dongles and adapters when you need to hook up a full set of accessories to your desk. We put our Mac Pro aside and connected the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock to a 15-inch MacBook Pro to see what it can do.
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This allows us to use a single cable to connect to the MacBook Pro for charging, connecting two monitors and lots of accessories. It is an impressive tool that makes it much easier to use the MacBook Pro as a primary device. Plugging in multiple adapters is no fun when you want to work at a desk, and you can leave them plugged in, although you’ll still need some adapters to get the most out of the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock.
Belkin designs the Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock to match the Apple style, with anodized aluminum and a black finish. This isn’t a dock you should hide under a desk or behind a monitor. It’s meant to be visible on your desk, and there are even two front-facing ports that let you connect headphones or plug in another USB device.
Connect a desktop’s worth of accessories to your MacBook Pro with a single cable.
Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock ports include;
Belkin includes a USB C THunderbolt three cable in the box so you can connect to your MacBook without buying another cable. The docking station uses an included power supply; This means you can keep your MacBook Pro charger in a bag instead of being tied to a desk. That means you don’t need to spend $90 on a spare charger. Unlike the more affordable Moshi USB C dock, Belkin provides the 85W of power you need to charge the 15-inch MacBook Pro at full speed.
You will see the cables when you use this slot as it does not need to be hidden.
This setup allows you to connect two 4K displays, one via DisplayPort and the other via USB C. You can use USB C adapters to convert this port to a Display Port or HDMI. While many monitors support DisplayPort, it would be nice to see an HDMI connection without the need for an adapter. Ultimately this is something we can overlook as there are cheap adapters for DisplayPort or USB C. If you’re using a USB C ThunderBolt 3 monitor, you can daisy chain it, but if you’re using an adapter, the USB C ports are populated with a connection to your Mac and an adapter to a monitor. The dock drove our 34-inch curved Samsung display and an Apple Cinema Display with adapter very nicely. We have seamlessly connected a number of accessories and hard drives via USB and USB adapters.
The sound from the back connects to a set of speakers for better sound on our desk and works well. Sometimes we had to re-select the output device on the Mac to use this connection after disconnecting, but this could be a macOS Sierra issue.
One thing that is definitely missing from the Dock and should be at this price is an SD card slot on the front. The MacBook Pro doesn’t have an SD card slot, and the USB ports in the slot are top-notch, so it would be great to see an SD card reader on the front next to the third USB port and headphone jack.
Three USB ports is a good start, but you’ll likely also need to rely on a USB hub to connect whatever you’ll be connecting to a Mac Pro or similar desktop. Fortunately, many monitors now offer USB 3 hubs, so you can plug in other accessories that way.
The Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock delivers everything it promises with a single-cable connection, even with some areas for improvement, and charges your MacBook Pro at full speed without the need to purchase a separate charger.
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