Following the release of its original Thunderbolt Docking Station earlier this year, popular TV and video accessory maker Elgato has now introduced an upgraded Thunderbolt 2 Dock.
Elgato’s new dock is similar to the original, sticking with an aluminum shell and black plastic core, now with added focus on taking advantage of Macs and accessories with Thunderbolt 2 ports. The Thunderbolt 2 Dock also shuffles around the arrangement of the ports compared to the original, but maintains the same feature set.
Just like its predecessor, Elgato’s new Thunderbolt 2 Dock has three USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, audio in and out ports, and a port for the power source.
As noted by iLounge, the change in port arrangement has seen the two audio ports on the device’s front swapped and now sitting to the right of the front-facing USB 3.0 port, instead of the left. The rear Ethernet port has also been moved from between the HDMI and power ports on the original to the far left of the new version’s rear section, shifting everything else slightly to the right.
Elgato claims the dock can support any HDMI input display, even those reaching up to 4K resolution. The Thunderbolt 2 Dock also has a few features not offered by many other hubs: the USB ports provide enough power so that you can boost the charge of your iPhone or iPad even if your computer is shut down and not connected to the dock, use Apple SuperDrive, or even connect additional USB bus-powered devices onto an Apple Keyboard.
The same menu bar utility that enables high-powered USB support and allows for easy ejection of the Thunderbolt 2 Dock is still free and available for download.
Elgato’s Thunderbolt 2 Dock comes in at the same retail price of its predecessor, $229.95 with an included Thunderbolt cable, and can be purchased from Elgato’s official website. Elgato’s launch comes as OWC continues to take pre-orders for its Thunderbolt 2 Dock, which will begin shipping later this month with pre-order pricing of $249 without a Thunderbolt cable. Pricing on OWC’s dock will rise to $299.99 once it launches.
