Plugable’s new 16-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Quad Dock (TBT4-UDZ) doesn’t assist the upcoming next-gen Thunderbolt 5 spec. But at CES 2023, the corporate may be very clearly signaling that it’s going to with its new specs.

The options of the TBT4-UDZ embrace assist for 4 4K shows, which is each ludicrous and fairly seemingly not even doable with the present 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 specification. After all, simply two 4K shows can eat about thirty gigabits per second, plus a bit extra relying on the refresh charge and complexity of the picture. So it’s unlikely that this dock can energy 4 4K shows concurrently, particularly because it’s constructed upon the Intel “Goshen Ridge” chipset, which permits simply 40Gbps per second.

Clarification: According to Plugable, sure PCs will have the ability to assist 4 4K shows. “Due to advancements with DisplayPort video technologies such as DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 (High Bit Rate 3) with DSC (Display Stream Compression) there is enough bandwidth when using the TBT4-UDZ to achieve 4x 4K 60Hz extended displays via 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 on Windows systems,” Plugable mentioned in an announcement.

The next-gen Thunderbolt specification, nevertheless (prone to be referred to as Thunderbolt 5) will assist as much as 80Gbps. That will simply permit 4 4K shows, or (gulp) a 4K show working at 240Hz, or some further mixture of excessive decision and excessive refresh charges. It’s simply not right here but, although we’ll seemingly see it in 2023.

Otherwise, the TBT4-UDZ (Plugable’s first official Thunderbolt 4 dock) contains a number of the options we’ve come to count on in our record of the best Thunderbolt docks: a alternative between HDMI and DisplayPort connections — or the power to make use of each — together with 100W charging energy. The TBT4-UDZ is a cousin of the TBT3-UDZ, one of our Editors’ Choice-winning docks. Plugable is among the many producers formally supporting 2.5Gbps Ethernet too, though the extra bandwidth coming down the cable, the extra congested that cable will be. You’ll discover 4 USB-A ports (two 5Gbps, two 10Gbps) and a UHS-II microSD/SD card slot.

The TBT4-UDZ shall be launched on Jan. 17 on Amazon for $299.

This story has been up to date at 4:50 PM with an announcement from Plugable.