The Razer Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma is now available, and it’s a great investment product if you have a computer or laptop with Thunderbolt 4. Thunderbolt 4 will be more readily available by end of the year, so it’s nice to see Razer getting ahead of the next generation of tech.
Razer, as I’m sure most of you know, are known for their gaming gear, but have really been branching out with their product line over the past few years. The Razer Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma is simple enough, it adds four Thunderbolt 4 ports as well as additional other ports to your desktop or laptop and gives it some stylish lightning.
The Razer Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma is a big ol’ black box that is rectangular in shape with rounded corners. The dock is constructed from black anodized aluminium. It’s solid and looks great hidden away under my laptop stand. In terms of sizing the unit is just under 7 ½ inches wide, three inches deep and just over an inch in height. It’s a very compact device.
“It’s frustrating to have to run a USB-C to DisplayPort in order to make my dual monitors work. It’s the one flaw I have with this device especially at the price.”
On the front of the dock you have a 3.5mm audio jack, Thunderbolt 4 USB-C upstream port, and a UHS-II SD card reader. The remaining ports are found on the back of the dock. These ports include, three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C downstream ports, three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports and a Gigabit Ethernet part. My biggest grievance with this device is there isn’t a DisplayPort or HDMI port. It’s frustrating to have to run a USB-C to DisplayPort in order to make my dual monitors work. It’s the one flaw I have with this device especially at the price.
The top of the box there’s the Razer logo, and the bottom has some rubber pads to prevent sliding. Of course, because this is a Razer product there’s tacky RGB lights on the bottom for good measure. No matter how much I complain about RGB lighting I keep getting sent more things to review. It’s so unnecessary and feels lame, sorry RGB fans.
Setting up the device took mere seconds. It’s pretty much plug and play. Plug the dock into the power adapter followed by plugging the Thunderbolt 4 USB-C cable into the upstream port on the front to your computer or laptop. Then plug in the rest of your wired accessories into the other USB dongles and you’re good to go. The older and more out of touch I get, the easier I prefer my setups.
To get the “lovely” RGB lightning to work you’ll need to have the Razer Synapse 3 software installed. It’s straightforward and allows you to adjust the Chroma lightning and adjust things like volume output. From here you can sync it with your other Chroma-enable devices for a customized lighting experience.
The device is a beast and has a power delivery of 90W. I had no problem running my setup on it. I had a microphone, my mouse and my two monitors connected to it. I would have loved a DisplayPort or HDMI option here but unfortunately this feature was left in the past.
It’s certainly not cheap with an MSRP of US$329.99. If you’ve read this far I’m sure you’re doing research before buying this gadget. The lack of DisplayPort is a deal breaker for me, despite how well it runs. If you don’t need one, then this is the perfect device for you. It’s also nice that it’s Windows/Mac supported.
Overall, this is a great device. I’m sure the RGB lighting will be a game changer for some people if you’ve always wanted to light up your fancy Thunderbolt Dock. I do love how small and sleek the device is and how easily it blends into my desk, I just wished it had a damn DisplayPort.
