Notebookcheck Logo

Thunderbolt 5 dock with built-in 4TB SSD and 140W power delivery: Sonnet Echo 13 launches

Sonnet's latest Thunderbolt 5 docking station comes with an extremely quick PCIe 4.0 SSD with up to 4TB (Image source: Sonnet)
Sonnet's latest Thunderbolt 5 docking station comes with an extremely quick PCIe 4.0 SSD with up to 4TB (Image source: Sonnet)
Thunderbolt 5 promises data speeds of up to 120Gbit/s, which is up to three times faster than Thunderbolt 4 under ideal conditions. Sonnet's latest docking station takes advantage of this bandwidth and has an integrated M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD, which can achieve transfer rates of up to 6.1GB/s.

Thunderbolt 5 is still somewhat rare in the laptop segment, since only a few devices such as the Razer Blade 18 (currently $2,845 on Amazon) actually support the latest standard. However, tech enthusiasts who are looking to buy a new docking station can already future-proof their purchase by opting for a dock that supports TB5. Products like the new Sonnet Echo 3 Thunderbolt 5 SSD docking station are backwards-compatible with Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4 computers and laptops, albeit at slower speeds.

The standout feature of this Sonnet dock is the built-in PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with up to 4TB of storage, which can reach transfer rates of up to 6,100MB/s when connected via Thunderbolt 5. Over Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4, at least 3,400MB/s are possible. It's also rather unusual that a docking station can charge laptops with up to 140 watts, which means that even certain gaming laptops like the HP Omen Transcend 14 can be provided with enough power.

The Sonnet Echo 13 dock also supports two 8K monitors or three 4K displays at refresh rates of up to 144Hz. The docking station has three additional Thunderbolt 5 ports (USB-C), one of which can charge devices with up to 60 watts, while the other two ports can provide up to 15 watts. Sonnet has passed on HDMI and DisplayPort and instead opted for a total of four USB-A ports, 2.5Gb ethernet and an SD/microSD card reader.

Price and availability

The Sonnet Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 Dock will first launch in the US. The 1TB SSD model is officially priced at $399.99, while 2TB of storage cost $499.99 and the 4TB SSD variant sells for $699.99. Details on the TB5 dock’s international launch and prices have not been disclosed. Further details about the Sonnet docking station can be found on the official product page.

Source(s)

Read all 1 comments / answer
static version load dynamic
Loading Comments
Comment on this article
Please share our article, every link counts!
Mail Logo
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2025 01 > Thunderbolt 5 dock with built-in 4TB SSD and 140W power delivery: Sonnet Echo 13 launches
Hannes Brecher, 2025-01-17 (Update: 2025-01-19)