CalDigit Element Hub with 8 Ports is the Best Thunderbolt 4 USB4 Hub for Mac and PC 

This dock is exactly what I have been looking for!

CalDigit are making really nice stuff! I am using couple of their hubs! This one looks quite on point too! Cheers from Japan!

If you know somebody from Caldigit, please ask them to make the same thing but 100W PD and turn all four of the USB-A ports into USB-C. Thanks!

wow ! This hub is great ! I like the 4 10gbps USB type-a ports and the 3 Thunderbolt 3 ports. And being able to charge from any port and not loose the 60 watts of charging power to a laptop is great ! I like this hub better than the OWC thunderbolt hub.

Solid review, thanks! So basically it’s all we need, as long as we don’t need a certain kind of video other than Thunderbolt.

In the middle of a project where I'm moving my PCs into a dedicated computer storage closet, ducted through the attic. I'm thinking about running an optical Thuderbolt 3 cable to my computer for peripherals. This looks like a great solution to have all of the bandwidth I'll ever need.

I know that there might be physical constraints dictating the placement of the ports, but, for my use case, I wish that they would have put the host connection and power connector on the same side. Also, I wish that we had a mix of A and Thunderbolt ports on each side, instead all of each on one side or the other.

After this excellent review, I'm planning to buy the hub. Thanks for your work Jerry in producing this video.

Looks like a great product. I just wish this had two upstream inputs so you can have 2 laptops/PCs connected, and share the same monitors.

Holy crap and you imagine this on the newly dubbed 2021 Thunderbolt iPad Pro!

Very powerful for those that need to connect multiple bandwidth demanding devices.

Nice! This seems like the perfect hub. So many of them only have one additional Thunderbolt port. I put in my order already. I don't even have a Macbook Pro..........yet.

The ports on the front are USB Type A plugs with USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 protocol, previously known as USB 3.1 Gen 2. Short hand: USB 3.2 Gen 2 x 1 Type A ports. Think of it how the USB type C plugs with Thunderbolt 4 protocol are named Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. Think of the plug as the transport verhicle and the protocol as the load: 4 adults (in a car) or 20 containers full of coal (on a train)? While you can't put 20 containers of coal in a car, you can put 4 adults in a train. Easily. It's a good analogy for how fast a port can transfer loads. Erm. Data speeds.

Looks like a good product and I liked the review. It is tough to sell it as unbiased when CalDigit features your RU-vid video on their website for this product though.

That's the dock I need, way more useful than 5-in-1s that only have 1 usba and 3 downstream ports. Well suited for connecting multiple external drives, except the price is as high as some full size desktop docks

My experience has been very different from the one you describe, connecting only two devices to thunderbolt, on the one hand a thunderbolt 3 monitor and a USBC-Ethernet adapter, and using two of its USB3.2 ports, on the one hand with a USB HUB X7 ports (to which keyboard, numpad, mouse, bluetooth 5.3 music dongle, SD Card Reader, WebCam are connected) and another USB3.2 port with an SSD hard drive. Connecting it to the MacBook M1 Max, and configuring the external monitor as primary, the connection of all the peripherals was lost, just by opening Blender or Photos (MacOs), I think it has to do with the GPU connection. This forced you to disconnect everything and reboot to make it work again, even sometimes it would not reconnect, as if there was something that remembered the previous bad link. --- Mi experiencia ha sido muy distinta a la que narras, conectando al thunderbolt tan sólo dos dispositivos, por un lado un monitor thunderbolt 3 y un adaptador USBC-Ethernet, y usando dos de sus puerto USB3.2, por un lado con un HUB USB X7 puertos (al cual va conectado teclado, numpad, ratón, bluetooth 5.3 music dongle, SD Card Reader, WebCam) y otro puerto USB3.2 con un disco duro SSD. Conectandolo al MacBook M1 Max , y configurando el monitor externo como primario, se perdia la conexión de todos los periféricos, con tan solo abrir Blender o Photos (MacOs), creo que tiene que ver con la conexión GPU. Esto te obligaba a desconectar todo y reiniciar para que volviese a funcionar, incluso a veces no volvía a reconectar, como si hubiese algo que recordase el mal enlace anterior.

If only a rackmount version existed, or it could slot into a standard 2/3.5" drive bay (to rack or case mount it that way).

The fact that all of these peripherals can now be connected to a computer via a single cable is crazy...

Looks to be the perfect companion for M1 Macs with TB4

Have an ICY BOX dock that suddenly started crashing my Macbook Pro M3 on every first boot. It worked for a few months then this issue occured. After restart everything was running smoothely but yeah, loosing a minute every time and its bad for the system. Had a call with Apple, had a call with the ICY company, tried a firmware update on the ICY. Nothing helped. Installed the Element Hub today. Plug and play, no more crashing, everything connected immediately. For the price its absolutely amazing. It gets a bit hot as I‘m realy using all the ports in my studio. Some cooling ribs may have been nice. Other than that its perfect.

It's a great hub (I have it)--but note: it's not very portable. The power brick is bigger than the hub, and the whole assembly is so inconvenient to carry that I just leave it at home when I'm working outside of my office.

The only hub I need and want!

Just pre-ordered one.

Thank you ... great review ... enjoy your channel!!

i think it would be a good idea on having a youtube video or on CalDigit webpage explaining how the Element hub works for thoes people who don,t want to update to os Big Sur as many of us stay on High Sierra or Mojave because of 32bit plugins that is not suported in version of OS after Mojave

Hmm... I was just about to order the TS3 Plus but now that this is in my awareness I might get this Element Hub instead. Choices!

Thanks for the info! 👍

This looks like just what I need for my M1 16" MBP. Just trying to confirm the input voltage. My old Dell dock supports 110v-220v. Just hoping this one does too. The lack of an ethernet port is a bit of a downer but not a deal breaker. Just another dongle to carry in the laptop bag. Thanks for the great review.

Anyone know why this has increased by $70 in price since its original $179 introduction? Anker and OWC don’t have all the type A ports but still under $200.

Hey Jerry great video! I think it’s the most detailed review I’ve seen for this product so far! I’m still having one question though. Would it be possible to charge a MacBook air M1 using Caldigit Element hub’s thunderbolt 4 ports? If so, would that be possible while I’m working with MacBook?

Congrats Jerry. Your video review was linked by 9to5 Mac!!!!. And oh yeah, thanks for the review. Just what I needed for my new M1 MacBook Air. Be blessed, be well, stay healthy. And nope, you don’t come across as an introvert! 😝

Hi Jerry, yesterday "Jeff" delivered CalDigit ts3, but now I ´d like to give it back and wait for this like helper here in Europe.

Nice Review! I have a question though. Does it support HDR when connected to dual 4K displays?

excellent review. I like your videos. A quick question: Which Samsung monitor is displayed in this video at 1:56 second?

I would buy this in an instant if it had 87W power. Ugh.

Caution... I’m plagued by slow speeds on the Element Hub. They currently can’t do firmware updates to this Hub on an M1 Mac. There advice to me was to send it back to get the firmware updated or find a thunderbolt 3 intel Mac to do the update. They also said they can’t promise that it would fix the speed issues and don’t have any stock to RMA the unit. I will have a video up within the next week showing the issues I’m having.

Why'd they put USB-A on there...? They could have used USB-C for the 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports.

Now, I'm not more intelligent then before: What devices do not work? With OWC's Blackmagic UltraStudio Mini Recorder/Monitor 3G does not work. Is this with CalDigit too?

Thank you for the review and the conversations/comments. Is it possible to find just a great Thunderbolt Hub with MicroSD/SD/CF and 1 or 2 Thunderbolt USB-C ports, and 1 or 2 USB-A 3.0 (or faster) ports and maybe a headphone jack, and maybe a pass through power option for an M1iPad Pro? There are so many choices but have not found one with those features... Thank you again

This looks better than the OWC I bought.

Hi Jerry, A. If I plug this into a Mac M1 mini-mac with the computer port thunderbolt 4 (which is also the charger link), it won't damage it will it? (Because obviously the mini-mac has its own power unlike a MacBook) B. Will it act as hub if I use another thunderbolt port, and keep the 60w port for charging my iPad Pro instead? Thanks!

I wonder if this would work withe the Gigabyte Tintan Ridge TB3 card in my PC. I'm driving two LG 4K displays throught it at the moment. In Linux too :)

Thank you Jerry. Very detailed introduction

Great review Jerry! I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon that comes with a 65W power supply. How will this Element Hub perform in terms of charging? Will it slow charge or sustain/drain the battery?

I am very leery of CalDigit et al. I had a USB3 card for my MacPro 4,1. With every OS X upgrade, a new driver was needed. A driver that was hidden on the website. You needed an email from CalDigit to find it. The Mac shouldn't be upgraded through System Preferences. I believe a Combo Update was needed. You shouldn't upgrade .n to .n+1. It was necessary to get from Apple the .n+1 version. Needless to say when CalDigit stopped updating the drivers, that was the last OS version the card could work with. Thanks CalDigit. Thanks Newer Tech, they had eSATA cards that needed driver updates that ceased at some OS X version. Thanks Drobo[2 TB was the largest it could work with]. Thanks Buffalo for a new hard drive that after a day or two behaved like an unbalanced washing machine...total data loss. So I think twice, thrice before getting a product that needs driver updates. My OWC Thunderbolt 2 Dock still works as it was designed to. It is not orphaned hardware. It works with a mid 2015 pre T2 chip[MacBookPro11,5]. With the TB2 to TB3 Apple adapter it works with a 2017 iMac Pro[iMacPro1,1]!

thank you

Caldigit currently (July 21)have no stock and forecast next delivery in late August/September. :-(

The read speed is good but the write speed? Just try something, connect the SSD to one M1 Port and an external display to the other port and then check drive speeds. They usually increase by around 50% write and 10-25% read. It seems the M1 detects when a display is connected and then releases PCI-E data lines to the other slot.

Hi Jerry, I have a couple of questions. 1. When it comes to cable performance, what's the difference between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4? Is it true that unlike Thunderbolt 3 cables, 2 meter Thunderbolt 4 cables won't affect the bandwith? 2. If I daisy chain the Element Hub with the TS3+ (or HDMI Dock), will I get the benefit of 87w ( or 94w) charging to my laptop? Also, does both hubs need to be plugged in at the same time with their AC adapters? 3. Is it safe to leave the Element Hub plugged in to power when my laptop is disconnected from it?

Awesome review Jerry! Would recommend the element hub instead of the SOHO? Cheers from Mexico!

Great review! How about overheating? A lot of docks are getting really hot.

Jerry, Can I connect my New MacBook Pro to the Element or the So Ho to charge the MacBook. Is it the port as the side of the hug with the word Computer, the port used for charging. Thank you. I'm new to USB C

It can’t be the best if you can’t buy one. I’ve been trying for two months with no luck.

hey, jerry i want to preorder this hub but it seems they are not shipping it internationally. i want it in india what can i do? and are you still using your benq pd3220u or you returned it.

Could you explain the difference between a hub and port? It would be a good idea to make a video that explains all different names or connections. I have bought macbok Air M1 and want to find the right hubs or ports. I have a La Cie 1TB harddesk with many different holes. Can I use that on MBA?

I checked and noticed that the provided power adaptor is 150W. Since it is constantly supplying 60W, this means the hub is drawing 90W. Is that right?

Hello Jerry,! I need to connect 8 hdmi monitors to my laptop, and want to use thunderbolt to take advantage of its super fast speed, what extender/duplicator should I use? Thanks a lot, Luis

great video. I tried buying one but everyone seems to be out of stock. Do you have any suggestions as to where I can get one? Thank you in advance.

Jerry can you comment on whether this hub works with the new iPad mini? charge it and use for say connecting to a display parallely?

It would be nice if you could actually get one... They are currently not shipping until mid-May which doesn't help anyone buying Macbooks today...

I thought this thing was nice too. I own all kinds of hubs already but this is the only dock I'd buy next. The only worry I have is one day running out of thunderbolt ports on the m1, and this fixes it just fine without the need of a new dock with redundancy and more peripherals I already have in exchange of thunderbolt ports.

CAN YOU SHOW 2 EXTERNAL MONITORS ON AN M1 (Mac mini, MacBook Pro 13, or MacBook Air)!!! That may be a limitation on the GPUs but with upcoming M1X/M2 systems this summer, some of us want to replace our iMac Pros. My setup has two 5K monitors (iMac Pro being one of them) and a Cintiq Pro 32. Not uncommon for creative pros (or semi-pros).

I wish a laptop would have an ssd card hdmi Ethernet plus 4 usba ports and 2 thunder bolt and 2 usbc ports on them.

Jerry Schulte- I just bought the new 2021 16” M1 MacBook Pro. I like the Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub. I like the fact that it offers the 2 different style ports that I need ( I don’t need the other things that the other hubs offer).What have me concerned is that the “Element” Hub might not be the better fit for my 16” MacBook. You mentioned that the USB-C CalDigit Hub might be the better hub for it. Is the Element Hub still ok to buy for My MacBook because USB-C Hub has the power (which I do understand) but, have alot of things I don’t use. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Super cool but I ordered it over 2 months ago and it's still not here......

Good morning Jerry! I hope you can answer a quick question for me. At long last, I was finally able to get an Element hub. I'm going to be using it in conjunction with the excellent Caldigit SOHO dock, with my M1 MBP. I'm confused as to the order in which I connect them. Should the faster Element hub be placed in between the SOHO and the MBP?

I’ve owned this hub since August. It was working great, connecting my Wacom pen tablet, external SSDs, card reader and monitor to my MacBook Air (M2). The monitor is connected via a display port to USB-C cable. The trouble started when I upgraded to OS Ventura. That is when my monitor stopped connecting via the hub. Works fine if connected directly to the computer, but does not pick-up the connection via the hub. The computer registers the connection to the monitor in the System Settings of the computer and mirrors the resolution. However, the monitor (Eizo CG2730) fails to pick-up the connection. Now, I know that perhaps firmware updates are needed when there are upgrades… that’s not troubling me. What is troubling me is the total lack of response from CalDigit support!! I’m in the UK and CalDigit in the UK don’t respond to emails and don’t answer the phone!! if they are busy they could at least acknowledge the email or call, but I got nothing. The same applies to emails sent to ALL CalDigit support offices around the globe. What is the point of a great product with lousy service! On the basis of service I would not recommend CalDigit to anyone.

Hi Jerry, thank you for the review! I have a quick question for you. I just got my M1 MBP, and I want to get this, but need something in the meantime. For maximum flexibility, and I better off to get the TB3 now, or the SOHO?

I have a 13" Macbook Pro M1 and need to connect an old Firewire external drive. I bought a Apple Firewire to mini-display port adapter, and an Apple mini-display port to thunderbolt adapter, but to support this drive I have to connect directly to the MacBook. Any idea whether the CalDigit Element Hub would support the drive through one of the Thunderbolt ports?

Hi, Thank you for good information. Can I connect two Egpu?(win10)

Wish you would have plugged it in. There are reports that it’s too loud. Would like hear what they mean.

Ordered mine

Hi. Can, connect an external cards? Aourus 3080, 3 graphics card (thunderbolt 3), will work? Many thanks for answer

I was intrigued by the review... I clicked your “buy” link. No price and no availability. Did you get a pre-release sample? If so you might want to put expected GA date in the text.

Thanks for the review. Why 4 USB-A ports and no SD card reader?...smh. Otherwise it looks perfect

When will it be available on Amazon? I can't find where to buy it.

Can it connect ethernet via Thunderbolt, because the base model iMac doesn't come with ethernet connection on the power brick.

Can it work with only the power from macbook via USB-C without connecting the power plug? For some portable conditions, I don't want to bring extra AC power out.

Are there any alternative to this hub in 2023?

Hi Jerry, very good review and interesting product, one question, do you think that it's possible to plug an USB-C sound card to this device (e.g Focusrite Scarlett) ? I normally plug it directly on my MacBook Pro to be safer, but it could be convenient if it works with this device.. I am just thinking about its latency, tks in advance

Another great video. Would like to see the brick too, but I was cooking dinner and might have missed it. This looks like a fantastic solution!! I'm trying to not buy old tech like TB3, so very attractive to me. Thanks.

My MacBook charges 140W and this hub is only 60W…will this work? can you please advice…Thanks! :)

It needs 2 tb4 source ports, and an internal processor, that can intelligently distribute that 80Gps bandwidth. This will allow everything to operate at full speed. An Ethernet, sd card, and 2 usba ports, would had been perfect. I wish egpu's would adopt the 2 independent tb3 tb4 ports, on most laptops, to seriously increase bandwidth. And allow for the highest possible, EGPU performance, once they are available to buy again. This would essentially equal the performance of the Asus X13 Flow, special 8 lane pcie adapter. This would need a hardware and software component to work. Maybe Apple will implement it, or razor, or Intel. Way too much power is never taken advantage of in egpu's, because of only using one tb3 channel, instead of two. Razor has a similar dock with the added ports and rgb lighting for $329.

Does the caldigit have anything to do with docking MacBook to monitor ?

Do you know if they're going to release the 2m Thunderbolt 4 cable anytime soon?

Can I connect a thunderbolt to headphone jack adapter to use my headphones?

This isn't a criticism of you, but an observation of the marketing companies like CalDigit and OWC are putting out. This (and OWC's dock are not 4 port hubs IMHO. They have 4 thunderbolt ports, but one is to plug into the host device. If it was a hard-wired thunderbolt wire, it would have the exact same functionality, but they would only have 3 thunderbolt ports. You can connect three thunderbolt devices to your computer using this, so it's a three-port hub. Marketing it as having 4 thunderbolt ports implies that you can connect 4 Thunderbolt devices to your computer and that's not true. Now, that all being said..... I have 100% pre-ordered this haha! Can't wait to plug it into my TS3 Plus connected to my M1 Mac Mini!... One question, do you think I would be best plugging it into the TS3 Plus or plugging the TS3 Plus into this? (Moot point, as I have 2 Thunderbolt ports on the back of my Mac, so I can use both of them haha but still curious...)

Will this work with iPad Pro & Apple SuperDrive?

Thinking about getting a hub, but I have an odd setup. Dual Dell monitor stand, Mac Mini M1 on one monitor, XPS 15 laptop on the other. I have a dongle to make the PC dual monitor if I want, but rather have a hub because I'm not excited about the dongle. (which I plug in via USB C port on the laptop) Was eying the Bridge Stone Lite...

Can I use this hub with my Mac Studio ultra computer?

Question, can I plugin USB 3.0 flash drives in all 4 USBs and run at max 5gbs speed on each individual USB port???

it doesn't support two monitors for m1/m2 MacBook?

So can I plug 3 usb c portable monitors to this and it’ll give me video?

Can it charge MacBook Air M1 ? If yes, what port I should be connecting my MacBook Air M1 ? Thanks.

Why I cannot find a place that sells this dock?

Can I connect 1gig ethernet cable > USB-C hub > element hub > Macbook Air M1 and get full ethernet speed?

Too expensive hub..

I really wnat to get this, but there are a lot of complaints on Amazon about it...? Any long time opions from anybody who has had it for a while? I plan on using it on an M1 Air, Thanks RE: Some complaints are that the HDMI does work properly after a while and some of the ports in general..?

Hi, nice review, thank you! I was about to purchase the OWC for 100$ more, but I think this is a great alternative. Questions (please): Does it come with only US power cord? (Since I will be using it in Europe too). And is it 60W enough on a MacBook pro 13", running software like DaVinci, or Capture One? (The OWC has 95W) Thank you!

Do u think is it possible to use 3 egpu at once?? My laptop support thunderbolt 4.