Keychron 14-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Dock Review

Keychron’s new Thunderbolt 5 dock is heading in exactly this direction. The manufacturer, known for its mechanical keyboards, is venturing into a field that’s still relatively new for the company and has packed a whole lot of technology into a compact aluminum enclosure. 14 ports, Thunderbolt 5, 2.5 Gbit networking, HDMI 2.1, and up to 140 watts of charging power—on paper, these specs look pretty impressive. In the following review, we took a closer look at whether you actually need these features in everyday use and what else the dock has to offer.

About Keychron

Keychron is best known for its mechanical keyboards. The Chinese company was founded in 2017 and has its roots in Hong Kong. With its keyboards, Keychron primarily targets enthusiasts who value customization options, a variety of switches, and good compatibility.

Keychron has since expanded its product line beyond keyboards and now offers, among other things, mice and other desktop accessories. With the Thunderbolt 5 Dock, however, the manufacturer is venturing into a slightly different territory, launching its first-ever docking station—one designed primarily for users with high demands regarding ports and data transfer speeds.

Thunderbolt 5

Several years ago, Intel and Apple launched Thunderbolt to finally enable the transmission of data, video, and power over a single cable. With the fifth generation, the standard is now getting a major upgrade, doubling the standard speed compared to Thunderbolt 4 to 80 Gbit/s. As soon as massive amounts of data or extremely demanding displays are connected to the cable during everyday work, the system even automatically activates a boost mode with speeds of up to 120 Gbit/s. Combined with new standards like DisplayPort 2.1 and charging power in the triple-digit watt range, Thunderbolt 5 is simply a versatile solution for any professional desktop setup.

Technical Details

A glance at the features makes it clear that Keychron didn’t skimp on the Thunderbolt 5 dock. It’s the combination of Thunderbolt 5 and high charging power in particular that makes the dock so appealing. At the same time, the features also show that Keychron isn’t necessarily targeting users who simply need two additional USB ports. The dock is designed to be a complete control center for the desk. We’ve summarized the most important technical specifications for you in the table below.

Package Contents

Upon unboxing, it quickly becomes clear that Keychron has included everything you need to get started right away. In addition to the docking station itself, the box contains a one-meter-long Thunderbolt 5 cable, which is essential for full bandwidth and data transfer. Also included are the sturdy power adapter with a matching power plug, as well as a compact printed user manual for getting started. This means that, for the most part, everything you need to set up your workspace right away is included.

However, there’s a slight catch with the power cord. Keychron ships the dock with a US-standard power cord that doesn’t fit directly into a German outlet. The power adapter itself has the familiar two-pin C8 connector, so to use it here in Germany, we’ll need a compatible IEC-C7 cable or Euro-8 cable. While this is a quick and inexpensive fix, we would still have preferred a compatible power cord included in the package for a dock sold in this country.

Package Contents:

• Keychron Thunderbolt 5 Dock
• Thunderbolt 5 cable (1 meter)
• 180-watt GaN power adapter with AC cable (U.S. standard)
• Documentation

Thunderbolt 5 Dock in Detail

For the Keychron Thunderbolt 5 Dock, the manufacturer has opted for a sleek enclosure made of CNC-machined aluminum. Our unit is silver and makes a very solid impression right from the first touch. The enclosure feels high-quality, is cleanly crafted, and, thanks to the metal, weighs in at 860 grams. The design is modern and eye-catching, yet also elegant. For stability, the dock not only has four rubber feet on the bottom but also two large, rubberized feet on the sides, allowing you to position the device flexibly. Thanks to passive cooling through the housing, the device operates entirely without a fan.

On the front are the Keychron logo, directly below it the easily accessible power button with a subtle status LED, "Thunderbolt" lettering, and two USB-A ports as well as a USB-C port, each supporting transfer rates of up to 10 Gbit/s. This is ideal for quickly connecting USB flash drives or external hard drives in everyday use. In addition, there are SD and microSD card readers with UHS-II support, which achieve theoretical speeds of up to 312 MB/s. Also located on the front is a combined 3.5-mm jack for headsets.

The back panel is significantly more extensive and forms the true centerpiece of the device. Here you’ll find three modern Thunderbolt 5 ports, each offering up to 80 Gbit/s of bandwidth. One of these ports serves as the main connection to the laptop and supplies it with up to 140 watts via Power Delivery—which should easily suffice even for power-hungry laptops. The other two Thunderbolt 5 ports provide 30 watts and 15 watts, respectively. The back panel is rounded out by two additional USB-A ports, each with 10 Gbit/s, two HDMI 2.1 outputs for high-resolution monitors, and a 2.5 Gbit Ethernet port. To prevent theft at the workplace, Keychron has also included a side-mounted Kensington lock.

A small but interesting tidbit for hardware enthusiasts is the included 180-watt power supply, which bears the exact same model number as the power supply for the UGREEN Revodok Max 213, which we’ve already tested. Certain parallels can also be seen in the layout of the dock’s front-panel ports. Such overlaps are, however, quite common in today’s accessories market and remain, for us, simply an interesting side note. But now let’s see how the dock really performs in practice.

Real-World Experience Report

We integrated the Keychron dock into our daily workflow and connected it to our MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro chip using the included, certified Thunderbolt 5 cable. For our test setup, in addition to our two 4K monitors, we also connected a fast external USB-4 SSD for large video projects, the corresponding USB-4 CFexpress Type-B card reader for professional camera footage, a network cable, and the obligatory iPhone charging cable to the front USB port. Setup was straightforward, even though we first had to find a compatible EU power cable for the power adapter, since Keychron unfortunately only includes a US plug in the box. However, once we plugged it into the outlet and connected the host cable to the MacBook, the charging process started immediately and without a hitch. The power output was more than sufficient for everyday use, quickly charging our laptop’s battery even under heavy load while reliably powering all peripheral devices at the same time. Thanks to its substantial weight and generous rubber coating, the unit stood absolutely securely and stably on the desk, even with numerous cables tugging at the back.

While working with our monitors, it quickly became clear how well our setup worked together in practice. To work around the usual macOS limitations regarding mirrored content when using both HDMI ports simultaneously, we connected our first 4K monitor to one of the standard HDMI ports, while the second 4K monitor was connected via one of the Thunderbolt 5 ports due to the operating system’s lack of MST support. With this setup, both screens operated completely independently of each other as an extended desktop and ran stably at 60 Hz each during everyday use, with 10-bit color reproduction via HDMI also supported seamlessly. The bandwidth buffer provided by Thunderbolt 5—typically 80 Gbit/s—ensured in the background that data for the displays and connected USB-4 drives was transferred losslessly and absolutely smoothly, without any stuttering.

The positive impression was also confirmed in everyday use with other data transfer rates. The built-in 2.5 Gbit Ethernet port worked immediately on macOS 26 without any tedious driver installation and transferred data from our NAS smoothly over the connection. There were no noticeable slowdowns even when copying large video files. Thanks to the connected USB-4 SSD, the CFexpress reader, and the built-in card reader, the copy operations ran so quickly it was as if the drives were plugged directly into the MacBook. We didn’t notice any limitations; the dock ran very stably.

During continuous use, we particularly appreciate the dock’s completely passive cooling design. Since there’s no internal fan, the hardware operates silently and doesn’t produce any disruptive noise on the desk. Instead, heat is completely dissipated through the solid aluminum enclosure. During our extended use at full load—with connected monitors, a network cable, and the charging function active—the metal did get noticeably warm but remained within a safe range at all times.

A few minor issues did come up during testing, however. It’s a real shame, for example, that Keychron relies solely on HDMI and didn’t equip the dock with a standard DisplayPort connection. Features such as a 10-Gbit Ethernet port instead of the built-in 2.5-Gbit version or an internal M.2 NVMe slot for storage expansion would have further enhanced its already future-proof profile. Of course, the issue with the US-style power plug is also frustrating. Apart from these minor details, however, the docking station delivers a consistently impressive performance in everyday use, which brings us directly to our conclusion.

Conclusion

The Keychron 14-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Dock left an excellent overall impression in our test. Keychron impressively demonstrates that they can not only build top-notch keyboards but also absolutely deliver in the docking station segment. The build quality of the solid aluminum housing is top-notch and fits perfectly on any modern desk. The passive cooling design also impressed us in everyday use.

Technically, the features leave little to be desired. The charging power of a whopping 140 watts effortlessly supplies even power-hungry workstations with energy. Added to this are UHS-II card readers, a 2.5 Gbit Ethernet port, dual HDMI, and maximum future-proofing thanks to the new Thunderbolt 5 standard. The fact that Mac users cannot rely solely on the two HDMI ports for two monitors, due to macOS’s lack of MST support, but must instead use a Thunderbolt port for the second display is more of an Apple issue, but it’s something to consider before purchasing. In addition, the bulky power supply isn’t exactly space-saving, it lacks an EU plug, and features such as an internal M.2 NVMe slot, a DisplayPort connection, or a 10-Gbit port would have really topped off the overall package.

Ultimately, we give the Keychron Thunderbolt 5 Dock our highest recommendation, especially for professionals, content creators, and power users who don’t want to compromise on bandwidth or connectivity options. For those who can already take advantage of Thunderbolt 5’s tremendous speed or want to future-proof their setup without compromise for the coming years, this dock offers a top-notch and reliable solution at a hefty MSRP of 325.99 euros. For everyday office use, the performance it offers is a bit overkill, and in many cases, a more affordable Thunderbolt 4 dock can still be a very smart choice. However, those who invest the necessary funds and are looking for maximum performance reserves will receive a well-designed and extremely powerful work tool.