OWC Announces Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station

OWC is known to built products that break the norm a little while still offering the usual functions. This time they are ready with a new docking station that uses Thunderbolt 3 rather than USB. This doesn’t just make it perfect for the latest MacBook Pro systems, it also provides more bandwidth to the connected devices that USB can.

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock comes with a total of 13 ports that have to share the 40 Gbps bandwidth that Thunderbolt 3 can handle. That is double the speed of Thunderbolt 2 and four times the speed of USB 3.1 Gen.2.

“With our critically-acclaimed Thunderbolt 2 Dock and USB-C Dock, OWC defined a new standard in providing more connectivity at a time when new computers were shipping with fewer ports,” said Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO, OWC. “The all-new Thunderbolt 3 Dock is the best expansion solution we’ve ever made, offering the incredible speed of Thunderbolt 3 technology coupled with 13 ports of connectivity, perfect for getting the most out of the new 2016 MacBook Pro.”

The docking station features two Thunderbolt 3 ports and the user can daisy chain and power up to five Thunderbolt 3 devices through the dock. It further has two USB-C ports and five USB 3.0 ports, including two high-power USB Type-A ports for fast charging of mobile devices. There is also a Gigabit Ethernet port for a wired network connection and a FireWire 800 port for legacy device support. Audio wise it features both an audio combo port for headphones and microphones as well as an S/PDIF digital audio port. Extra display area can be added through the mini DisplayPort and users can quickly offload photos and videos from their SD cards through the built-in card reader.

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock is currently available for pre-order and deliveries of the dock will begin in February 2017. The MSRP is set to $279.00 and pre-orders come with a 50cm Thunderbolt 3 USB-C cable included which otherwise would cost an extra $24.95.