Review: Anchor Prime Thunderbolt 5 Dock pairs with 14 ports compact design

Apple Pal added Thunderbolt 5 connectivity to its latest M4 Pro and M4 Max Machine and companies are starting to launch Thunderbolt 5 Docks Apple Pal’s Thunderbolt 5 Mac. At the beginning of this year, anchor anchor Prime TB5 came out with TB5 docking station, a 14-port dock with a unique design and high-end feature set.

Doxes are useful because they increase the available number of ports that they can use at the same time and add legisy ports such as a closed USB-A. Thunderbolt provides 5 80 GB/S symmetrical data, which is doubled of Thunderbolt 4, as well as a bandwidth boost option to 120 GB/s when the display is connected. You are able to connect more without running the bandwidth limit.

Design

Anchor Prime TB5 Docking Station is probably my favorite dock that I thank the design. It is surprisingly compact for a 14-port dock, with square shape that spreads the monkey on three sides.

The best part of anchor prime is the lack of heavy external power supply. The 232W power supply is in solid, so there is only one thin cable that needs to be plugged in the outlet and then the cable to attach the dock to the Mac. The dock comes with both cables and I have a minor complaint of cable. At $ 400, I wish the cables with the dock were good, maybe with the braided designs.

I love the square form factor because it does not take much space on my desk and do not have to deal with heavy power supply. I lean into the box inside my cables that put them out of my cat’s mouth and out, and it is always a problem to fit the power supply and multiple cables.

Achor Prime has a power button in front, USB-C and USB-A ports and headphones jack for charging device. The other monkeys are on the back and sides, and I think the port layout is well designed. I often have the front or side of the monkeys that need to enter, while things like Ethernet or HDMI are not often needed. I wish at least one downstream TB5 port will be in front of the monkey.

The attachment includes a fan and is made from aluminum for heat loss. I can hear the fan, but this is a subtle sound that I am not sure that the room will register with other sounds. I am sensitive and it hurts me because the dock is right by my display, but I do not listen to this music, wear air pods, watch TVs or listen to the AC. The decibel measuring app indicates that it is about 32 decibels, which will be around the whisper level.

Depending on the size, the anchor Prime is 6.6 by 6.6 and it is three inches high. If you have Mac Mini, it’s around that size, but not as wide as it is about an inch. The color is a gray aluminum. This is not as dark as the space black aluminum of the M4 MacBook Pro models, or it is not as light as silver aluminum, which is why it is a kind of shade.

When the blue LED lighting on the top of the dock is when it is on and in use. The pain is not shiny enough to get annoying and it can be closed by pressing the power button.

With a fan, the attachment does not heat up. It looks very warm, which goes away from the docks that depend on heat wastage without active fan cooling. I would be surprised if Dinkar Prime can be more heated by how nice it works by multiple peripheral plugs. It is significantly colder than other doctors like Caligit TS5 Plus.

Ports

In front of the dock, there is a headphone jack, a USB-C port and a USB-A port. USB-C port gives the power of 45 W integrated to charge other devices. 45W MacBook Air, or iPad and iPhone is enough to charge full speed. When only one device is plugged in, a port will get the entire 45 W. In the use of two ports, the split is 30W on the first port and 15W on the second port.

Two fronts USB-C port also support data transfer, but must be connected to the display back. Front ports offer a power to accessories even when there is no Max plug -in, which is convenient.

There are no ports to the right, but there is a “prime” logo. On the left is the SD card slot and a microSD card slot (label TF). Card slots are UHS -1 and are limited to 104 MB/s, so photographers will not get UHS -1 transfer speed.

Most of the ports are behind. There is an AC-in for the plug, the upstream Thunderbolt 5 Port (with 140 W) to connect the anchor Prime to Mac and two-downstream Thunderbolt 5 port with 15W bus power for SSD and other Thunderbolt/USB-C accessories. It was limited to 100W charging without using the earlier Mac Magsafe, but the Thunderbolt 5 Max is not a limit.

Here are two additional 10 GB/S USB-A ports, one 2.5 GB/s Ethernet port, one HDMI 2.1 port and one display 2.1 port. With HDMI and Displayport, only one can be used at a time, so remember when you buy a dock.

I do not use the Ethernet port, but it is frustrating that anchor prime does not have a 10GB Ethernet port for those who need or want connectivity.

Exhibition

The anchor says that anchor prime supports the display up to two 6K at 60 Hz, so you can run two pro display XDR display, two studio display or any other combination of 6 K/5K/4K display (only one 4K display is supported at MAC at 240 Hz). On the PC, anchor Prime supports three total display, but Max has two display limits on the same Thunderbolt 5 port.

According to Apple Pal, the M4 Max Chip supports the display up to two 8K at 60 Hz, while M4 Pro supports an 8K display at 60 Hz. Anchor Mac does not list the 8K display support and I do not have 8K display to test, but it should work.

Anchors say that HDMI and display ports cannot be used together, which means two display can be added by Thunderbolt 5 ports or connected by using one TB5 and the other can be connected by HDMI or display, which is free for SSD or other OYY XSeri.

I used an M4 Pro MacBook Pro with Encker Prime and I tested it with a 5K Studio Display on Thirdbolt and I Test with the 4K144 Hzed display of Samsung connected by the display. I had no problem with connectivity in several days tests and plugged in with various combinations of accessories. Working according to the display and port intended.

Although this is a Thunderbolt 5 dock, but it is consistent with the earlier versions of the Thunderbolt, which means it is compatible with the old Mac. All standard M4 machine anchors with M1, M2, and M3 Pro and Max Machines and Thunderbolt 4 chips support the dual 6K60 Hz when they are dried with anchor prime.

The above two display setups also fined M1x -MacBook Pro. Compared to Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 5 has a more total bandwidth for display and accessories, so for excellent performance you need a thunderbolt 5 machine and to increase the capacity of the dock.

There is some good print with anchor prime, which you want to read if you have a 5K Thunderbolt 3 display. Dual 5K Thunderbolt 3 display or 5K display and Thunderbolt 4 display will not work with screen mirroring mode.

SSD Speed Test

I used Thunderbolt 5 SSD from OWC with M4 Pro’s MacBook Pro and anchor Prim. SSD has promised to speed up 6,000 MB/s, but I did not hit it quite. The writing speed with the achor prime increased to about 4,675MB/s, while the reading speed was about 5,140 MB/s. When the direct M4 Pro’s Macbook Pro’s Thunderbolt 5 is plugged in the port, the SSD’s speed was up to 5,250 MB/s and the reading speed was 5,350 MB/s. The momentum of the real world can vary on the basis of loads below the mac, so the actual transfer speed may change.

The speed of writing was constantly slightly lower, but the speed of the Thunderbolt 5 is so quick that it does not hurt me in the day-to-day use. It takes about 20 seconds to transfer 50 GB photos, which is enough for my use.

Software

The anchor has a dock manager software that can be used to tweak dock settings such as distributing firmware updates to the anchor primer or disabled.

Base line

The Achor Prime market is one of the more affordable thunderbolts in the market, and its compact design, port array and features make the average user ideal. If you have a Thunderbolt 5 MAC and if you want a dock that will allow you to run the exhibition, plug in SSD and use other peripherals, I don’t think you are sorry for anchor prime.

If you do not have a thunderbolt 5 Mac, it’s still worth lifting. This is compatible with Thunderbolt 4 and it runs the Thunderbolt 4 dock in the same way, but when it comes to upgrade, you also have future evidence for Thunderbolt 5.

I think the dock for most people has the right monkey, but for commercial use or those who want best performance and connectivity, I am not this dock. It is limited to 2.5 GB, there is no UHS -2 support, and in addition to the two Thunderbolt ports, there are only two USB -C ports, which may not be enough for some users.