CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 Dock Review (2026): The Desk Dock That Replaces Three Cables

Why you should trust this review

I cover laptop and workstation accessories at The Tested Hub, with years of background reviewing Thunderbolt docks, hubs, and external storage. For this review I bought the CalDigit TS4 at retail in late August 2025. CalDigit did not provide a sample. I tested the dock against an OWC Thunderbolt Dock and the Anker 7-in-1 PowerExpand+, on the same MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro and ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 rig.

I logged 9 months of daily use, an estimated 1500 hours of connected operation, across two displays, a NAS, an external GPU enclosure, and a UHS-II SD reader. Every measurement, dual 4K signal stability, 98W power output, 2.36 Gbps Ethernet throughput, came off our test bench, not CalDigit’s marketing page.

How we tested the CalDigit TS4

Our dock test protocol covers display, power, data, network, and thermals. The full plan is on our methodology page.

• Display performance: dual 4K 60 Hz output across DisplayPort 1.4 and downstream Thunderbolt 4, 9-hour continuous test for signal drops and EDID renegotiation.
• Power delivery: input wattage measured at the wall, output to host measured with a USB-C power meter inline.
• Data throughput: Thunderbolt 4 downstream speed via a 4-disk RAID enclosure benchmarked with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.
• Ethernet: iPerf3 sustained throughput between the dock and a wired Mac Studio on a 2.5 Gbps network.
• Thermals: chassis temperature measured at 30-minute intervals during sustained dual-display + RAID + Ethernet load.

Who should buy the CalDigit TS4?

Buy this dock if:

• You have a permanent desk with two 4K displays and a Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 laptop.
• You move between a laptop and a workstation setup daily and want one cable to dock.
• You have a 2.5 Gbps home network or work with multi-gig file servers.
• You run an external GPU, RAID enclosure, or other Thunderbolt 4 downstream peripherals.

Skip it if:

• You travel with the dock. At 800 grams plus an external 230W brick, this is desk-only.
• You only have one external display. The Anker 7-in-1 PowerExpand+ covers a single-display setup for 10x less.
• You do not have Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 on your laptop. The dock works on Thunderbolt 3 with reduced ports, but you are paying for capability you cannot use.

Display performance: dual 4K 60 Hz, all day

The CalDigit TS4 supports dual 4K 60 Hz across two outputs: one DisplayPort 1.4 and one downstream Thunderbolt 4 (which terminates at a USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable, or a Thunderbolt-native monitor). We tested the configuration with a BenQ PD2705Q (DisplayPort 1.4) and an Apple Studio Display (Thunderbolt 4). Across a 9-hour continuous test, the dock held both signals cleanly. Zero EDID renegotiations, zero flickers, zero resolution drops.

For users with single 8K monitors, the dock supports 8K 60 Hz on a single Thunderbolt 4 output. We did not test 8K because we do not have an 8K monitor in our lab. CalDigit’s documentation lists the spec, and the underlying Thunderbolt 4 standard supports it. We trust the spec but cannot confirm it from our own testing.

Power delivery: 98W where it matters

The TS4 delivers a measured 98W to the host laptop through the upstream Thunderbolt 4 cable. We verified this with a USB-C power meter inline between the dock and a MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro. During a Final Cut Pro 12-minute 4K export, the laptop pulled a peak of 88W. The dock held the battery at 100% throughout. During an extended ProRes 422 HQ render that pushed CPU and GPU together for 30 minutes, the laptop briefly hit 96W draw, just under the dock’s 98W output. The battery stayed at 100% but did not climb during that window.

For typical office use across Lightroom, Excel, multi-monitor browsing, and video calls, 98W is well above the laptop’s average pull. For sustained heavy creative work on an M4 Max MacBook Pro 16, expect occasional moments where draw briefly exceeds output. In normal mixed use, this never causes a battery drain we could measure.

Data, network, and thermals

Thunderbolt 4 downstream throughput: a 4-disk SoftRAID 0 enclosure connected to a downstream Thunderbolt 4 port benchmarked at 2840 MB/s read and 2620 MB/s write in Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, very close to the theoretical 32 Gbps PCIe ceiling on Thunderbolt 4.

USB-A 3.2 Gen 2: a Samsung T7 Shield SSD copy ran at 998 MB/s sustained on a USB-A 10 Gbps port, near the SSD’s USB-A native ceiling.

UHS-II SD reader: a 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro card benchmarked at 289 MB/s read and 251 MB/s write, the strongest UHS-II reader speed we have measured in any dock.

Ethernet: 2.36 Gbps sustained iPerf3 throughput between the dock and a wired Mac Studio. That is the realistic 2.5GBASE-T ceiling after Ethernet overhead.

Thermals: under sustained dual-display + RAID + Ethernet load for 90 minutes, the aluminum chassis peaked at 44°C on the top plate. Comfortably warm, well below any safety concern, and roughly 5°C cooler than the Anker 7-in-1 PowerExpand+ at the same load type. The TS4 has more aluminum surface area to dissipate heat, and it shows in the numbers.

CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 Dock vs. the competition

Full specifications

Frequently asked questions

Author

Alex Patel

Senior Tech & Computing Editor

Alex Patel writes for The Tested Hub.

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