CalDigit TS3 Plus is a Thunderbolt 3 docking station that collapses fifteen ports and up to 87 watts of laptop charging into a single cable. Released in 2018 by CalDigit, a California maker of storage and connectivity hardware aimed at creative professionals, it remains compatible with newer Thunderbolt 4 and USB-C hosts.

The TS3 Plus earned its long shelf life on port count. Two Thunderbolt 3 connections at 40Gb/s, DisplayPort 1.2, five USB-A and two USB-C, gigabit Ethernet, a UHS-II SD card slot, optical S/PDIF, and separate 3.5mm audio in and out cover a desk's worth of peripherals that slimmer, later docks quietly dropped. It drives two 4K displays at 60Hz or a single 5K display, and the narrow upright chassis stands on end to take almost no desk footprint. It is built for the laptop-as-desktop pattern — one machine that lives docked at a workstation and unplugs for travel with a single connector.

Key Features

• Fifteen ports on one cable — Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, USB-A, USB-C, Ethernet, SD, optical, and analog audio all reach the host machine over a single connection.
• 87W host charging — Enough power delivery to run and charge a full-size laptop at load, so the dock replaces the machine's own power brick on the desk.
• Dual 4K or single 5K output — Drives two 4K panels at 60Hz across DisplayPort and Thunderbolt, or one 5K panel at 60Hz from the Thunderbolt port alone.
• UHS-II SD and optical audio — Keeps a fast card reader and S/PDIF output, both of which most later USB-C docks dropped in favor of a thinner enclosure.

Contexts

• 🏷️#hardware-recommendation
• 🏷️#my-desk-setup