Sonnet's new Echo 11 Thunderbolt 3 dock promises plenty of ports and full power for MacBook Pro

Sonnet on Wednesday launched the Echo 11, a new Thunderbolt 3 dock geared primarily towards MacBook Pro owners.

The device uses its main Thunderbolt 3 port to supply a 40-gigbit data connection and up to 87 watts of power to connected laptops. The dock is further requipped with five USB 3.0 ports, individual HDMI 2.0, 3.5mm audio, and Gigabit Ethernet connections, plus a UHSII-compatible SD card reader. A second Thunderbolt 3 port enables daisy-chaining or hooking up peripherals like monitors.

Two of the USB ports are forward-facing, though only one is powered to charge devices like iPhones and iPads. Charging will continue even if a MacBook is disconnected.

Like similar docks, the Echo 11 can handle two 4K, 60Hz monitors, or a single 5K display. When using multiple monitors, one has to connect via HDMI while the other uses Thunderbolt.

Sonnet with Amazon is selling the Echo 11 for $299, with a single Thunderbolt 3 cable included.

Follow AppleInsider on Google News

13 Comments

ireland

said about 5 years ago

Shipping a few dongles and expensive computers with a single connector, and in some cases a single data port, without offering a first-party hub is poor form on Apple’s part.

night9hawk

said about 5 years ago

I find it sad that after several years of a commitment by Apple to USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 that there are no true USB-C hubs available. It's fine that there are options that give you USB-C to legacy ports but I would love to have a USB-C hub with 4 actual USB-C ports on it.

HeliBum

said about 5 years ago

This dock suffers from an omission common on many such docks: no Micro SD card slot. I hate dealing with Micro SD-to-SD card adapters because they're easily misplaced. It's not like the cost would suffer much.

Eric_WVGG

said about 5 years ago

night9hawk said:

I find it sad that after several years of a commitment by Apple to USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 that there are no true USB-C hubs available.

I heard a rumor regarding this. In order to make a hub, you need an interface controller chip, and no ICs that support USB-C even exist. Apparently Intel is working on one but it won’t be ready until next year at the earliest.

ref: http://atp.fm/episodes/284

sflocal

said about 5 years ago

I just don't understand why manufacturers of these docks don't include all standard ports in the front. Sure, the legacy USB ports are great up front, but why omit the "standard" USBc ports? Is it asking too much to include even ONE USBc port in the front of the unit, in addition to a legacy USB port?

I just don't get it.