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Anker PowerExpand Elite 13-in-1 dock: The ultimate must-have Thunderbolt 3 accessory for Mac and Windows users
It's a fact of life that modern systems ship with fewer and fewer ports. While this suits many people, it can be a bit of a pain for professionals who want to connect a multitude of accessories and peripherals to their system.
Enter the Anker PowerExpand Elite 13-in-1 dock. This is a professional quality desktop dock that is enough to power a whole desktop of peripherals.
The dock is literally bristling with ports on both the front and rear.
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Anker PowerExpand Elite 13-in-1 dock - in pictures
On the front you get:
- SD Card Slot (SD 4.0 UHS-II)
- microSD Card Slot (SD 4.0 UHS-II)
- Audio In & Out
- USB-A Port (5 Gbps, 5V/1.5A)
- USB-C Port (10 Gbps, 5V/0.9A)
- USB-C Port (10 Gbps, 5V/3A or 9V/2A)
On the rear you get the following:
- Thunderbolt 3 Downstream Port (40 Gbps, 15W)
- Thunderbolt 3 Upstream Port (40 Gbps, 85W)
- USB-A Port (5 Gbps, 5V/0.9A)
- HDMI 2.0 Port
- Gigabit Ethernet
- DC-IN (20V/9A)
The dual Thunderbolt 3 ports both support data transfer at up to 40Gbps, which, in real terms, allows it to transfer a 20GB file in just over 6 seconds.
On the charging front, the 85W Thunderbolt 3 port delivers enough juice to fully charge a 13-inch MacBook Pro in under 2 hours, while the separate 18W Power Delivery USB-C port can charge an iPhone 11 in just 1.75 hours.
Need to connect a lot of monitors to your system? The Thunderbolt 3 and HDMI ports offer you the ability to hook up two monitors. Need more? Using a USB-C to dual HDMI splitter (not included) the Thunderbolt 3 port supports dual 4K@60Hz displays off this one port, allowing three displays in total.
Oh, and there's also a 3.5mm headphones port that supports full 48 kHz/16-bit digital transmission.
This is a great dock. It's sturdy and well made, and all the ports feel solid and positive. I've put a lot of gigabytes through this dock and it's not let me down. It's a perfect desktop companion for the professional.
It also comes with a beefy 180W power adapter and 2.3-foot Thunderbolt 3 cable so you have everything you need to get going right out of the box.
If something does go wrong, the dock is backed by Anker's 18-month worry-free warranty.