HP Thunderbolt G4 Dock review: Electric power packed into a very small cube


Expert’s Rating
Professionals
- Ports aplenty, plus 100W laptop charging
- Compact
- Good performance
- No thermal considerations
Our Verdict
HP’s Thunderbolt Dock 120W G4 Dock (4J0A2AA) is company-focused, meeting NIST 800-193 protocols. But with 100W of charging ability at the completely ready, additionally a tidy form issue, any property workplace could use this Thunderbolt dock, much too.
Most effective Rates Nowadays: HP Thunderbolt Dock 120W G4 (4J0A2AA)
$299.00
Free of charge
$369.00
HP’s Thunderbolt G4 Dock is a compact small cube of connections, supplying additional than plenty of electricity for most laptops. As a small business option, it’s a top Thunderbolt dock.
HP sells two variations of this Thunderbolt G4 Dock: the 4J0A2AA (this design) and the 4J0G4AA, which we have not examined. The variation is that thelatter includes a “combo cable” that supplies up to 280W of power by using the mixture of a Thunderbolt 4 cable moreover a barrel charger, for HP workstations. The 4J0A2AA provides up to 100W to the host laptop computer by way of the Thunderbolt cable—still amongst the best we’ve seen. Even then, there had been no thermal troubles at all.
All round, we’ve rated this as the very best organization solution we have found among the our ideal Thunderbolt docks.

Mark Hachman / IDG
HP’s squat very little plastic Thunderbolt G4 Dock (3.9 x 3.9 x 2.7 in) feels a lot extra reliable than its rated 1.68 lbs would suggest, and it sprouts ports to all sides: a 10Gbps USB-C port able of 15W charging on the entrance a 5Gbps USB-A port on possibly facet as well as two more on the again, all able of 7.5W out. The again also residences two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, an HDMI 2. port, and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port developed for video. We only tested this dock with two 4K/60 exterior shows, but it is able of driving a few 4K/60 shows delivered you have a DisplayPort 1.4-capable laptop computer with Exhibit Stream Compression, or DSC.
There is also an ethernet port able of 2.5Gbps, as properly as yet another Thunderbolt 4 port outlet. The ports are crammed jointly with scarcely enough room for DisplayPort cables or USB keys, but a couple of the exterior ports are somewhat skewed outwards to offer additional space, a pleasant contact.
This small business-oriented Thunderbolt G4 Dock includes vPro aid and the electrical power button/LED can be used to convert alone on and off —but only when connected to supported HP notebooks. The throughput is great, conference anticipations on all of the ports. The front USB-C port sent 15W of electric power, as the HP’s guide says it should—although, weirdly, the dock dropped relationship with the displays for a couple of seconds when a smartphone was linked. We be expecting a firmware up grade to address these challenges, and we do not take into consideration them dealbreakers mainly because of the charging capabilities of the other ports.
When notified of our findings, HP reps stated they couldn’t reproduce our success. In any occasion, HP involves a one particular-yr constrained guarantee in situation the issue manifests by itself again.