Belkin on Monday introduced its new Thunderbolt Express Dock, which will allow users to connect multiple devices to their Mac with one Thunderbolt cable when it arrives in September for $299.
Though it won't be available until later this year, the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock will be on display at the company's booth at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev. The dock will enable Thunderbolt-equipped Macs to access multiple desktop peripherals with just one cable.
"People purchase MacBook Airs and Ultrabooks for ultimate portability, but constantly plugging-in and unplugging numerous cable-connected peripherals is an annoying and time consuming ordeal," said Martin Avilla, general manager of Belkin's Core Business Unit. "The Thunderbolt Express Dock provides a much-needed solution that creates a cleaner, faster, more productive workspace and reliable connectivity to desktop devices and the Internet."
Highlighted features of the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock are:
- Quickly connects into a desktop workstation and instantly accesses multiple devices with a single cable
- Adds reliable, gigabit Ethernet connectivity to your laptop
- Includes three USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire 800 port, one HDMI port, one 3.5mm Audio port, one gigabit Ethernet port and two Thunderbolt ports (one upstream and one downstream) for daisy-chaining to another Thunderbolt compatible device.
- Utilizes Thunderbolt Technology for data transfer rates of up to 10Gbps bi-directionally
For now, Mac users looking to use Thunderbolt for a simplified docking solution can use Apple's Thunderbolt Display, which allows users to plug in one 10Gbps Thunderbolt cable that can drive multiple devices with its high bandwidth capacity. The Thunderbolt display serves as a docking station in addition to a monitor, and packs three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port and a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining up to five additional Thunderbolt devices.