Green Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station Review

Design and features

• Compact size
• Reasonable hole selection
• A smaller amount of USB-C than expected

The Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station is the smallest docking station in its class, measuring closer to the size of competing Thunderbolt hubs than a proper docking station, making it a powerful choice if you’re on the go and don’t want to sacrifice the ports you’re otherwise familiar with.

The fit and finish here is solid, with a pleasing heft and a gray aluminum shell that works well with modern MacBooks. This also coincides with the rounded corners on the top of the unit which again resemble the industrial design language of the last Apple MacBook Pro refresh.

There are also top vents on the front and back sides of the docking station for ventilation, where you can get a peek at the large heatsink inside to help dissipate heat when the Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station is in heavy use.

Due to the compact size of the unit, the front and rear ports are kept very accessible, the front contains the power button, microSD and full-sized SD card readers and three USB-A ports. These card slots are rated at 170MB/s, which is reasonably fast, although it trails the rated speed of the internal card reader on today’s MacBook Pros.

The back is where things get weird. The large upstream Thunderbolt 5 connector for connecting the Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station to a laptop has an integrated braided cable that is approximately 80cm long, alongside two other downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports that can handle display power on compatible screens and up to 15W of power delivery each – not much charging, but not much charging.

For reference, Thunderbolt 5 doubles the data speed from 40Gbps to 80Gbps bi-directional, and up to 120Gbps in ‘boost mode’ for high display bandwidth, which technically means up to 8K/60Hz or 4K/240Hz, depending on the laptop you’re using and the ports.

Instead of a possible third Thunderbolt 5 USB-C connector on the back, Ugreen has chosen a DisplayPort 2.1 port, next to it is a Gigabit Ethernet port and a DC power brick jack that powers this docking station. It is arguable that this is where Ugreen falls short in this dock compared to some of its wealthier competitors, which can offer high-efficiency power delivery from backwater ports and a fast wired network.

The Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station comes with a 140W power brick which is almost enough power to meet the needs of the unit, although you may see some fluctuations in the power going to your laptop through the 100W upstream port as the dock tries to accept some of its inputs.

Working

• Reasonable power delivery on my MacBook Pro
• A port array is ideal for non-standard applications
• Permissions need to be granted before it works

During my time with the Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station, I connected it to my primary 16-inch M1 Pro-powered MacBook Pro laptop and used it in conjunction with a range of devices to better judge its usability.

I used the included Thunderbolt 5 USB-C cable and associated port to connect my MacBook to the docking station, which not only makes it a workhorse. It provides 100W of power to the MacBook, which is enough for decent fast charging, although it falls short of the 140W required for PD 3.1 fast charging of the device.

Using other devices with the other 15W USB-C and 4.5W USB-A ports can temporarily drain the MacBook, too, resulting in slower charging speeds.

My 16-inch M1 Pro-powered MacBook Pro unfortunately doesn’t support full-fat Thunderbolt 5 output, and instead has three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, which means its display resolution is 6K/60Hz, rather than the 8K/60Hz that UGreen touts.

When I connected the external display, I was initially greeted with no signal, but it turns out that macOS requires permissions to connect to the cell before anything will work – that’s a handy troubleshooting tip if you can’t get a display over one of the rear USB-C ports or the DisplayPort 2.1 port on the unit.

Still, I had no problem using it at 4K/144Hz with my Philips Evnia 32M2N8900 monitor connected to the docking station via the USB-C cable with Thunderbolt 4 that came with the monitor originally. With a Thunderbolt 5 compatible monitor, however, you may be able to reap the full benefits of 4K/240Hz output via USB-C.

This left one spare Thunderbolt 5 USB-C port that I used to charge my Honor Magic V3, but at only 15W, it couldn’t charge it as fast as other docks with powerful USB-C ports could.

The array of ports here was more than adequate for my typical use case, though I can see why power users might prefer other similarly priced docks from CalDigit or OWC that offer higher water capacity and stronger ports.

However, I can still fill most of the ports with a couple of SD cards for my video cameras, as well as a wired mechanical keyboard and an external SSD.

Should you buy it?