Black Friday deals on Thunderbolt docks are picking up steam, allowing you to buy discounted docking stations to expand the ports on your laptop. We’re busy scanning retailer sites, looking for the best early Black Friday deals on Thunderbolt docks in advance of Black Friday. Our list of deals below is roughly ranked in order of preference, followed by an explanation of why we picked them. For more context, scroll down to our FAQ, where we explain how much you should pay for a Black Friday Thunderbolt docking station deal, what features to consider, and more.
For even more deals, check out PCWorld’s Black Friday deals page.
Best Black Friday Thunderbolt dock deals
HP Thunderbolt Dock G2, Thunderbolt 3, 100W charging, $98.85 (72% off at Amazon)
Targus USB-C Docking Station, DisplayLink, 65W charging, $102.71 (58% off at Amazon)
OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock, Thunderbolt 4, 90W charging, $283.77 (19% off at Amazon)
Anker 778 Thunderbolt Docking Station, Thunderbolt 4, 100W charging, $136.00 (64% off at Amazon)
Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Plus, Thunderbolt 3, 60W charging, $129.00 (25% off at Amazon)
HyperDrive Gen2 Thunderbolt 3 Dock, Thunderbolt 3, 85W charging, $199.99 (33% off at Amazon)
Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core, Thunderbolt 3, $99.95 (50% off at Amazon)
Kensington SD2500T, Thunderbolt 3, 60W charging, $131.73 (27% off at Amazon)
Monoprice Thunderbolt 3 Dual Display Dock, 60W charging, $69.99 (38% off at Target)
I recommend the top three entries here: HP’s Thunderbolt G2, the Targus USB-C dock, and OWC’s Thunderbolt Go. We’ve reviewed quite a few Thunderbolt docking stations in our list of the best Thunderbolt docks, but many of these don’t make the list. The exception (kind of) is the HP G2 dock. I personally reviewed the HP G4, and it was excellent. The G2 swaps HDMI ports for DisplayPort connections, so that means you’ll have to buy two $14.99 DisplayPort-to-HDMI cables if you only have HDMI connections on your display. Otherwise, the discount is insane!
The Targus USB-C dock uses DisplayLink to approximate the capabilities of a Thunderbolt dock. I love DisplayLink docks, though I haven’t tested this one myself. Customers rave over it, though.
I still have a soft spot for the OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock, which eliminates the external power brick entirely. Anker’s Thunderbolt docks have sometimes been a little questionable — I liked the Anker 568, but not the Apex, which is 11% off at Amazon at $187 — and my colleagues at TechAdvisor were iffy on the Anker 778 currently on sale. But one of its minuses was its high price tag, which this deal solves in a big, big way!
Pay attention to the Belkin Thunderbolt Dock 3 Plus deal. The price is excellent, but some customers have complained that one of the DisplayPort ports doesn’t function properly. (We haven’t tested this dock ourselves.) Just make sure to test this dock within the return window to ensure you don’t have a bad unit. The Kensington SD2500T is about the same price point: older hardware, with only DisplayPort options, and 60W charging might be a little low for newer notebooks. It’s otherwise perfectly fine and customers love it.
Our colleagues at TechAdvisor have reviewed the Hyper dock — it looks capable, and the discount is pretty good.
The Belkin Dock Core, I continue to really like, especially as a travel dock — but it’s not powered, so you’ll have to use a USB-C charger with it. Your laptop’s should work. But they dropped the price further…now half off! Maybe Monoprice noted our mention as well, the discount has jumped from 15 to 38 percent off! (As for the Monoprice — well, Monoprice makes basic hardware, and it continues to do the job.)
As always, remember that Thunderbolt docks don’t play well with some Macs — and Mac buyers tend to downvote products because of that.
