Since Apple announced the first Thunderbolt 5-enabled Macs last year, it hasn’t taken long for peripheral-makers to usher in new Thunderbolt 5 compatible devices. Of course, Sonnet is often at the forefront of bringing such new hardware to market, and its Sonnet Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock is the first TB5 dock with an integrated NVMe SSD. How does it perform, and should you consider it? Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for the details, and be sure to sub to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Mac hardware reviews.
Specifications
- Built-in NVMe SSD
- 1 x Thunderbolt 5 upstream USB-C port (140W)
- 1 x Thunderbolt 5 downstream USB-C port (60W)
- 2 x Thunderbolt 5 downstream USB-C ports (15W)
- 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) USB-A (7.5W) w/offline charging support
- 2.5Gb Ethernet port
- UHS-II SDXC 4.0 microSD slot
- UHS-II SDXC 4.0 SD Card slot
- 3.5mm combo headphone/microphone port
- 20V/9A DC input
Video: Sonnet Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock review
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Design and build
The Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock features a horizontal layout and is comprised of a durable, black, plastic exterior. While the horizontal design takes up more desktop footprint, its flatness makes it easy to tuck away under a monitor, inside a desk drawer, etc.
Living up to its branding, the unit features a total of 12 I/O ports (plus the NVMe SSD), available on both the front and rear of the dock. The top of the Echo 13 features the SONNETTECH branding on a removable black faceplate that exposes the cooling fan and NVMe SSD enclosure underneath.
I know some of you may be wondering if the cooling fan is audible, and the answer is yes. It’s not terribly loud, but you can definitely hear it if you listen closely. I’m super-sensitive to fan noise, though, so keep that in mind. The fan (and heat sink) does a great job of keeping the Echo 13 cool to the touch, especially considering that NVMe SSDs can get ridiculously hot when under load.
Sonnet includes a handy power button on the front of the device that removes power from all ports. To toggle the dock on or off, hold the power button for three seconds.
Next to the power button are two status lights: link and power. The power status light denotes whether or not the dock is on, while the link status light indicates when it’s connected to a Thunderbolt host.
Charging
Sonnet’s Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock touts up to 140W power delivery to compatible laptop computers. The highest charging wattage for a machine in Apple’s lineup is the 16-inch MacBook Pro, which is capable of 140W charging. When paired with Sonnet’s included 240W-capable Thunderbolt 5 cable, the dock can charge the 16-inch MacBook Pro at full 140W speed.
Sonnet employs a smart charging system to accommodate for all of the devices that might be connected to the dock at any given time. While it can max out at 140W of power delivery, if you have additional devices connected to the dock’s other charging ports, some of that wattage will be routed to those devices, which may cause the 140W output to throttle down. This all, of course, depends on what you have connected to the dock. The power routing happens invisibly to the end user, and power delivery will automatically throttle up when it’s no longer needed elsewhere.
The Echo 13 features a 20V at 9A DC power input. This 180W power connection is what makes it possible to charge a device up to 140W, with 40W of additional headroom for powering other components of the dock.
Sonnet’s Thunderbolt 5 dock also supports charging connected devices when there is no connected host to the upstream port; this is called offline charging. All of the Echo 13’s ports, with the exception of the 5Gbps USB-A port, support offline charging.
Connectivity
The Echo 13 brings Thunderbolt 5 to Sonnet’s lineup for the first time, and the dock takes full advantage. If you have a Mac with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, such as the M4 Pro MacBook Pro, or M4 Pro Mac mini, then you’ll be able to reap the full benefits of Thunderbolt 5. But even if you don’t own the latest and greatest hardware, the dock’s backwards compatibility ensures that it plays nice, albeit noticeably slower, with older Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4-enabled hardware.
The unit comes bundled with a 0.8-meter passive Thunderbolt 5 cable, capable of up to 240W charging and 120Gbps connectivity. When using standard Thunderbolt 5 / USB 4v2 accessories, the link speed will connect at 80Gbps between the dock and the Mac’s Thunderbolt 5 ports. When used with older Thunderbolt hardware, the link speed will revert to 40Gbps.
Next to the dock’s upstream port is a 60W USB-C port, the first of three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports. This 60W port is more ideal for recharging a MacBook Air, iPad Pro, etc.
Four USB-A ports grace the Echo 13, with the one on the front panel featuring USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps connectivity and up to 7.5W of power output, meaning that bus-powered SSDs should perform flawlessly, and all of the ones I tested did. Two additional USB-A ports reside on the rear of the device, featuring the same connectivity and charging speed.
The front panel also includes both an SD Card and microSD memory card slot. Both of these slots feature UHS-II SD 4.0 connectivity to help facility quick media transfer to your upstream-connected device.
The last bit of I/O on the front of the unit is a combo audio jack, which lets users connect a pair of headphones with a 3.5mm audio input, or a headset with a built-in microphone.
The rear of the unit features the two aforementioned USB-A ports with 10Gbps/7.5W power output, along with an additional USB-A port featuring USB 3.2 Gen 1 5Gbps connectivity. This port, which lacks 7.5W power output, is ideal for simple devices like mice, keyboards, USB storage, etc.
Next to the USB-A ports, you’ll find the 2.5Gb Ethernet port, which lets you connect to high speed Internet connections that surpass regular gigabit Ethernet. I currently subscribe to 2Gb Internet service, and this allows me to enjoy faster upload and download speeds while connected to the Echo 13. This 2.5Gb connection is also ideal for connections to NAS boxes with faster Ethernet connectivity options, such as UGREEN’s 2-bay NASync DXP2800.
The last two Thunderbolt 5 ports round up the available I/O on the Echo 13. These two ports feature 15W power output, which can also be handy for charging devices via USB-C that don’t require as much wattage.
Performance
What advantages does the Echo 13 bring to the table for Thunderbolt 5-enabled Mac users? For starters, 80Gbps of bi-directional bandwidth, resulting in speeds that are twice as fast as Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4. When connecting devices like Thunderbolt 5 SSDs, you will notice a substantial increase in both read and write speeds. Thus moving files back and forth between an external SSD and a Mac is much faster than before. Depending on your workflow, this could end up saving you a considerable amount of time.
Outside of super fast Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, the star of the show is the built-in Kingston PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, which can take full advantage of the additional bandwidth that TB5 makes possible. Sonnet provided me with a 2TB version with my review unit, but it also has SKUs featuring 1TB, or 4TB configs. Please note that Sonnet says that the 1TB SKU features slower write speeds of up to 4000MB/s.
It’s super-handy to have storage built in to the dock, which means it’s one less thing you have to worry about connecting. I also like the fact that you can easily access the SSD by removing the top cover and heat sink. This means that you can upgrade the drive later on down the line if need be.
Performance will depend on the type of connection that’s made, but when hooked in to a Thunderbolt 5 host, like the 2024 M4 Pro Mac mini, you’ll reap the full rewards of the additional bandwidth.
Display Connectivity
One of the main benefits of a Thunderbolt dock is one-cable connectivity to all of your peripherals, including external displays. Although I’m currently a one-display user thanks to the excellent ASUS Pro Art 5K Display (full review), the Echo 13 should be able to easily handle multiple monitor setups. The Echo 13 can support one 4K, 5K, or 6K monitor, or three 4K monitors. The unit can also support up to two 8K monitors, but 8K support is not available for macOS, thus this feature is Windows-only.
Display connections can be made directly to Thunderbolt or USB-C-enabled displays, but can also work with DisplayPort or HDMI displays with the right USB-C to DisplayPort/HDMI adapter or cable. As usual, there are quite a few things you’ll need to consider when using external displays with macOS, but Sonnet lines up many of the use cases in its technical specifications.
One of the key attributes of Thunderbolt 5 is Bandwidth Boost technology, which will automatically route one of the two incoming bandwidth lanes to the outgoing channel, resulting in 120Gbps bandwidth being allocated for high resolution/refresh rate displays. All of this happens seamlessly with zero configuration needed by the end user.
9to5Mac’s Take
At $550, Sonnet’s 2TB Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock is premium priced, although you can score a 1TB version for $440. Meanwhile, Apple charges $600 for a 2TB SSD upgrade on the M4 Pro Mac mini, so I think it’s a fair price for everything that you’re getting with the Echo 13 – including an SSD that will never leave you wanting for speed.
In addition to a blazing-fast SSD, the Echo 13 yields you loads of I/O, including three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports that will not only play nice with all of your current Thunderbolt hardware, but will be ready for future Thunderbolt 5 accessory upgrades.
Add in the fact that the dock provides 2.5GbE, and 140W fast charging for the 16-inch MacBook Pro via its upstream Thunderbolt connection, and it makes for a pretty compelling device.
What are your thoughts on Sonnet’s Echo 13, and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity in general? Do you see a use-case for it in your workflow? Sound off in the comments with your thoughts!
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