Mike Peterson
Anker has launched a new Thunderbolt 4 dock that's equipped with 12 total ports, including a 90-watt power pass-through slot and legacy options.
The Anker Apex Thunderbolt 4 dock sports the same general design as previous products in Anker's work-from-home lineup, but sports a broader selection of ports.
Those ports include a 90W Thunderbolt 4 port that can power any M1 MacBook model, though it isn't compatible with M1 desktops. There are also a pair of 4K HDMI ports, three USB-C ports, four USB-A ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a 3.5mm audio interface, and an SD card slot.
The Apex is compatible with a range of specifications, including USB4, DisplayPort, and PCI Express. The dock will be able to handle a single 8K display at 30Hz, a 4K display at 120Hz, or various other display combinations at 4K 60Hz. It can power up to three external monitors simultaneously, though only for Windows or Mac devices equipped with Intel chips.
Anker's Apex Thunderbolt 4 dock is available for $299.99 at Amazon. It's slated to start shipping on July 1.
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13 Comments
Anker’s previous model in a similar form factor in the only Anker product I’ve seen getting majority bad reviews. I went for the CalDigit, even though the port alignment bugs me.
Because of comments about the previous Anker, I just want to leave this: I have the previous generation Anker PowerExpand Elite 13-in-1 Thunderbolt dock. (They also make a non elite version which is not TB3 but USB-C only).
I needed something to drive an HDMI enabled 40" 4K TV as a monitor. I also wanted something with an output TB3 port and several 10gbs USB-C ports. It is hooked to a 2017 Intel powered iMac which also has an older Caldigit TB2 (using Apple TB2/TB3 adapter) dock and a Akitio Node Lite Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis. I had tried various ports (DP->HDMI etc) that I already had on the existing expansion docks/chassis to drive the 4K 40" over HDMI but nothing worked well (previously I WAS driving a 32" 4K monitor with a pure DP -- DP link) but the Anker has worked fine. I use a TB external storage and a USB-C external storage at the same time and also use the SD slot since the SD slot in the iMac has been flaky since forever. I've been using it since last October or so. I had another brand TB3 expansion dock that did not work well and was returned and the Anker took its place.
The Anker runs hot to the touch, which I guess is understandable with the small and dense size and the amount of stuff running off it. I am not using the charging 85W capacity as I have an iMac. I had been having intermittent troubles with the 40" 4K display not coming back after the display was blacked out by macOS (energy saving setting) and disappearing from the Mac (the monitors settings panel would not show it at all). Unplugging it and plugging it back in would sometimes work, but I often would have to turn the dock off for a while and then back on. It started happening more often recently and I contacted Anker. They had me make some tests (different HDMI cable, etc) and it still was a problem. So they forwarded me a replacement. However, on PRIME day I ordered a new HDMI cable as a backup since it was dirt cheap on lightning deal. When it came I swapped out the one I was using, and since then, I maybe had the problem once or twice, right after the swap (I may have not pushed the cable in all the way or something where the cable had an imperfect connection), and since then, about 1 week straight, it has been flawless. So I may be sending the replacement back to them untouched since my original once seemed to have a problem with the 2 cables I had tried and not the unit itself. I still have the replacement here while I continue the test. I may have bought the 2 "bad" cables at the same time and gotten subpar cables -- I've had them for a while and don't remember when I got them. But the Anker dock has actually been great since the new HDMI cable came. I have no complaints about the Anker TB3 dock of the previous generation and their support has been very responsive and accommodating.
It is interesting that they say this new Apex TB4 dock is not compatible with the M1 series. I wonder why they would make something that is not compatible. I don't know how well or how reliably this new one runs compared to the older model.