2.12.2019

I have a Dell XPS 9360 which shipped with Ubuntu, so it's always been tricky finding compatible hardware and drivers. So I got this dock and wasn't expecting much from it. I have a Dell Dock which uses DisplayLink, and it was my understanding my laptop wouldn't cope well without it. However, this dock doesn't make use of DisplayLink, and it actually works fantastically and drains much less CPU than my other dock!My setup ---My specs are 16gb RAM, 500GB SSD and quad-core i7-7500U CPU. I also have a QHD touchscreen (which is a pain with anything to do with Linux due to ultra high resolution!). I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 which has Dell software inbuilt into the image. I also have a desktop I use which is linked to two HD monitors.I have wanted to use my laptop at home with my screens for ages but haven't had a dock at home and it is fiddly moving wires around all the time. But, with the right placement I think it will work (the dock is currently sat on my tower so I can just change the source when needed).Wires tested ---So, for my two screens, I used one USB-C port on the Dock and used a USB C to VGA connector for one screen. I tried the other USB-C port to HDMI, but then realised only one USB-C works with a display. I bought a display port to HDMI cable and used this port for the other monitor. I then connected the ethernet, popped in my keyboard USB dongle, plugged in my vertical mouse and then plugged in the supplied USB-C to USB-C cable to my laptop. This is all with the Dock plugged into the mains of course with the battery pack included.It's normal in Ubuntu for the screen to go black and for it to struggle initially, but I tweaked the display settings on all the displays to match in resolution (ie downgraded the inbuilt display and upgraded the two external monitors so they all matched - this can be tricky in Linux, but the trick is to make them all match on the same scale) and applied the settings and it works seamlessly. This is without any DisplayLink working! So I was completely shocked that it worked and that it worked so well! Usually when using two screens with my laptop my laptop struggles and DisplayLink hogs the CPU so much that my mouse goes glitchy. But this just worked, and the laptop copes fine.I booted up a virtual machine, watched some YouTube videos and even plugged in some speakers into the Dock and everything works so well. I opened some heavy programs and the extra screens doesn't seem to impact functionality greatly at all. I honestly can't believe how well it works!Physical Look and Feel ---The dock has a smart, darker silver metal casing and has all the ports you'll ever need. As well as what I mentioned above, it has an SD and micro SD card slot too! I just can't believe the power it packs underneath it all. It's relatively light, but heavy enough that you can feel the good quality, and has rubber feet to help keep it in place. It isn't too thick and bulky but needs to be wide enough for all the ports, so don't expect something really thin. Also, with docks come lots and lots of wires.. Everywhere!It feels nice and cold to touch and doesn't overheat. It is powered by the mains with a battery pack, and comes with other attachments for different plugs. It is well designed and the ports are placed intelligently. The only thing I'd say is it would have been nice to get some wires included (like a displayport one) and a longer USB-C wire to connect to the host machine.So all in all, if you're a Linux user, I'd say this dock is really worth it even for the expensive price (the DisplayLink one was similar). My laptop is never going to be more powerful than my tower but considering I do all my website and application development on my laptop this dock is going to be priceless for me and the fact I don't get flickering cursors makes this win over my other dock. I don't need to connect to 4k screens so I cannot comment on this functionality, but it's truly performed above and beyond my expectations.

14.9.2020

I’m reviewing the “Core” version of this item here; it’s quite a different shape and spec to the Plus and Pro models, so some of my comments only apply to the Core version.This is a neat little block of a dock. It’s a modest, matt black little square with two (fairly bright) LED lights on it, and it looks quite smart and professional.It works well and does what it ought. From my test Macbook I can happily drive a triple-monitor set-up- the laptop’s own monitor plus the DP and HDMI outputs from this, both of which handle my monitor’s maximum resolutions- which chugs along nicely with no apparent processor struggles or blips. I can run my ethernet connection through it and be reading files from a USB drive through it at the same time,and it just ticks along elegantly with no apparent problems and no sense of slowdown. I’ve run it for several hours straight in this set-up and it gets gently warm but I certainly wouldn’t describe it as overheating.The cable from the dock to the laptop is really quite short, just over 20cm, which will suit some desk arrangements more than others. I can store the dock underneath my laptop stand and have the cable curve round and connect with my laptop on top, which is quite a neat solution which hides a lot of cables (until the laptop’s removed)- but it’s quite tight and there’s not a lot of spare. Other people may well find they prefer to add a little USB-C extension cable into the equation to give a bit more flexibility. It’s hard-wired at the dock end so it has to be an extension, not a replacement.With cable connections on all four sides of the box, it’s quite a difficult box to arrange in an organised fashion, and simply plugging cables into it makes it look instantly messy, if that’s the kind of thing that bothers you. The Plus and Pro have a longer thinner layout with cables mostly on two sides, and that intuitively feels a bit neater. But if you have no concerns about cable management, and many don’t, then the compact size of the Core dock becomes a virtue.I want to give Belkin extra credit for the fully recyclable packaging as well. Tech manufacturers (including Belkin in the past) have often used excessive plastic showy packaging, shop-style packaging, even for online orders where the customer doesn’t need it- so I was pleasantly surprised to see Belkin are shipping these in sturdy cardboard. A big improvement.Some of the other reviews on this product seem to indicate that Belkin have had to revisit and revamp this product after initially making something that had problems. On the evidence of the one I received, everything seems to be sorted out now.For what it can do, it isn’t the cheapest dock on the market, and depending on the specs and speed that you need, there might well be a sub-hundred-quid dock on this site that’s just as capable of doing what you need it to. Nevertheless this does its job well, and in a nicely understated way. Reliability (this time) from Belkin.

29.11.2019

This makes a perfect dock for my Windows 10 laptop, and it is a superb piece of kit.If you're not familiar with the idea, modern laptops with a USB-C port (the tiny oval shaped sort) can charge through the port and simultaneously run peripherals like external disk drives, keyboard, mouse, monitor and a headset through that same port. So, when you arrive home from the office, all you need to do is plug one end of the supplied USB-C cable into your laptop. All the peripherals spring to life, and you're up and running almost instantly. You don't have to use external keyboard and monitor, but why wouldn't you?The power supply brick is a huge in-line thing. Not particularly elegant, but it packs a punch,

18.2.2020

Belkin's stuff normally comes in their branded white and green packaging while this Thunderbolt 3 Dock Plus arrives in a simple compact plain brown cardboard box.Open the lid of the box and you're presented with the dock, which is a fairly featureless black plastic box measuring 165mm wide, 31mm tall when it's sitting on the four little rubber feet on its base, and 78mm deep. It has its name and the Belkin logo printed tastefully on top, and the plastics are rendered in a variety of surface finishes which give it a feeling of quality.Then we get to connectivity which is what this dock is all about - on the front is a Thunderbolt 3 socket, headphone socket and a single USB 3.1 Generation 2 socket.

11.9.2020

This is a review for the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core with Dual 4K at 60Hz, 40Gbps Transfer Speeds, 60W Upstream Charging that was released in January of this year.Upon using this for a while, I have experienced no connectivity issues with this model that was reported for its predecessors.For an expensive piece of kit, I was quite surprised to receive this boxed in a simple small brown box with no other form of packaging to make it feel like a more polished product.I dont know whether this is a result of it being relatively new and perhaps still in the final stages of development.My job in this situation is to report on what I receive.

23.9.2020

The Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Core is well made and is exceptionally versatile! It features 7 ports that includes ultra fast charging support for your devices when plugged in, aswell as fast processing and connectivity speeds. I have been using this device for transferring 4K video files from my flagship smart phone and I am incredibly impressed by the processing speed that this product facilitates! I was able to process 120gb of video footage to my external hard drive In under an hour. I have tried using other products in the past, and they weren’t anywhere close as fast as this product. I would say that the ‘40gbs’ statement is very deceiving as this would imply that my files should’ve been transfer in 3 seconds,

3.2.2020

These days, you can never have enough ports. With a dongle or two in place, I would have to disconnect one peripheral in order to connect another.That's no longer a problem with this little beauty!Firstly, setup is straightforward plug and go on my Windows 10 gaming laptop.Mouse, external drive, Blu Ray player can all be corrected with ease. But, best of all, for the ultimate gaming experience, connecting to a 4K UHD TV with negligible lag is simplicity itself.So far, I've only scratched the surface of what this hub can do - the instruction leaflet is minimalist to say the least, but there's loads of information out there to give you some ideas about experimenting with connectivity.Only criticism is that the hub itself doesn't come cheap and the one USB C lead supplied is annoyingly short.

13.9.2020

As a result whats happening around world I needed to start working from home. And was trying to use just laptop but it does not do it as the screen are too small. Plus it is just more productive to work with two monitors as i can work much faster. As I use Mac pro I wanted to use a dock which would support macOS and Windows as we have two laptops and this Belkin doc was available. It is a small black box which will not take a lot of space on a table and I really like what compactability.As most of a docks, it charges a laptop while working which is a good function, no need to think about plugging in a laptop. It has 7 ports which cover all the needs for working from home from a keyboard/mouse to speakers.

6.2.2020

Delivered by Parcel Force in a quite heavy box .This Belkin Thunderbolt 3 dock plus is just what my son needed , he's running his own business and frequently complains about having to move all of his computer equipment wiring etc between his office and home .Inside the box contained everything he needed to use on both his work Mac and home Windows PCs .Included a 2.6ft Thunderbolt 3 Cable , the unit has its own power cord , 3 USB-A 3.1 ports , 3 USB C.3.1 ports 2 display ports a 3.5mm audio in/ out port and 1 Gigabit Ethernet port .It supports Dual 4K s teens and has upload speeds of up to 60W... I'm not going to pretend I understand any of the technical jargon , because I don't !

13.11.2019

I have owned a few Belkin products over the years and have always found them a good build, robust products that deliver well. This Belkin thunderbolt 3 pro dock is also a good build but not quite worthy of 5 stars. I connected MacBook pro 2013 no problem, some people would describe a 2013 as old tech but in my opinion Macbooks keep their usability, update well and if you don't mind not having the latest feature last for a long time. I attached a HD monitor no problem delivers crisp HD, handles 2 monitors perfectly. High speed transfer of data. The description says Mac and Windows but when I attached a HP Windows 10 laptop that's when I had issues. My HP didn't connect,

24.11.2019

Tested on an HP Envy 13...Docks are surprisingly expensive bits of kit enabling lots of peripherals to be connected to a laptop in one go. I have used a previous Belkin device for some time and found it works well but periodically starts flickering and a gentle tap fixes it.This is a much sturdier proposition - it feels well built and features lots of ports, notably dual 4K which I was unable to quite get working as I wanted. I was a bit frustrated to see the native video port was Displayport rather than HDMI but I was able to get a conversion cable for £5 so not the end of the world. The second video port is USB-C so you just need an adapter there (to HDMI for example)

26.9.2020

This arrived in a plain brown box with little instructions just the cable inside, it was well packaged and protected though.It's quite straight forward to connect all of your desired devices to it although we had a few teething problems having to restart some devices until it was running smoothly.I'm not the best with technology so my son did most of the setting up and he has it running in his bedroom connecting his laptop and monitors , tablet and phone.YouTube videos also helped in the setting up process so i would recommend watching if you are struggling with the connection.It does feel a little hot after a while in use so we have made sure it's in a safe place and not on the plastic desk just incase.My son is happy with the performance so far ,

24.1.2020

So I am far from being an expert on Thunderbolt but This makes things easy. The Belkin is a beast of a machine, its sturdy and solid and looks really nice on the desk. There are 3 different region power cables in the box, which is excessive to say the least, but Belkin think of everything. There are enough USB-A ports for everything you will need, a USB 3, a couple of Thunderbolt 3's, Ethernet and a display port. I was never gonna be able to put the full power of all these to the test, but had a wireless keyboard and mouse, a tablet and a phone and a monitor.All worked well with no issues. Maybe if I was using 4k monitors and a plethora of other peripherals then I would jump at this,

14.11.2019

This Belkin mini Thunderbolt 3 is another serious quality product from Belkin. It starts with the packaging the item is very well packaged comes in a quality box with the unit wrapped in a protective cover. The unit itself feels very well built with its brushed aluminium design and is a very robust build. This pro dock comes with 13 different ports as listed below1. 1 x USB-A 3.12. 1 x USB-C 3.13. 1 x SD card reader4. 1 x Audio in/out5. 1 x 170W PSU (Power Supply Unit)6. 1 x Thunderbolt 3 (connects to laptop)7. 1 x Thunderbolt 3 port (connects peripherals)8. 1x DisplayPort9. 1 x GB Ethernet10. 4 x USB-A 3.0 portsI got this to work with my MacBook but it’s intel chip is also compatible with the windows operating systems so does give you the option to use on both.

14.11.2019

This pro Dock is absolutely superb!Before this I had a basic plug and play into the side of my mac dock, which had issues and kept cutting out so I returned it.This dock is leagues above the other style I got and really is a pro product.The tolerances are great and it sits neatly behind my desk and it's a single cable plug into the laptop which is perfect.Overall its the best dock I've ever used but I have to knock off one star for the price. I don't know if I could justify almost £300 for a dock! If you're using 4k/8k monitors then maybe but for the average person this is very expensive.If you can justify the price then you won't be disappointed as it has all the USB A,

Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Plus (F4U109) - Reviews

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