OWC Thunderbolt 2 Dock

Excellent! (OWC products are always excellent!) This Thunderbolt 2 dock is perfectly designed, can be set up instantly (if you have the cable necessary) and works exactly as stated. I'm very happy with this purchase. The shipping/delivery was quick and the product nicely packaged. While not shown in the photos, one can also stand the dock on the side, thereby saving space between a Macbook on a stand (I'm using the Twelve South BookArc) and a monitor display. Previously, I was plugging my old Apple 24" LED Cinema Display directly into my 2014 MBP Retina 13" (with a magsafe 2 adapter), but this dock is a much better solution, as the cables stay firmly in place. It does not come with a Thunderbolt Cable, so be sure to have one on hand. As expected, I am unable to use the Apple Super Drive with the dock, but so far, I haven't found anything that would power the ASD except by directly plugging into the computer or display. The two high-powered USB charging ports are great for devices when you don't want to sync. (ie. One less device charger having to be plugged in to a power point). Clean lines, easy to use, and probably the best dock available. OWC rocks!

I've had this dock for almost a year and half and bought it despite mixed reviews. I thought I might be one of the lucky ones; I was not. When it works, it does work well. I bought it mostly to have an Ethernet port, some sort of display port (I'm using HDMI but you could also use the second TB as Mini-DP--just not both at the same time, mind you), and some USB ports to avoid having to plug in and unplug things from my laptop all the time as well as restore some ports that were "missing" from my new MBP, and at the time all TB2 docks were about the same price, and I trusted the OWC brand.Unfortunately, I've had intermittent problems with the dock. Seemingly at random, it will disconnect, thus dropping my display, speakers, Ethernet, and everything else I have plugged into the dock (I won't use external storage on it anymore for this reason). Sometimes it also seems to just drop the display for a few seconds and come back. These problems are usually intermittent, but sometimes they happen over and over to the point where I'll just unplug the dock and try to make that work instead. I've done troubleshooting over e-mail with OWC, who first suggested resetting NVRAM and/or the SMC, trying a different port, and trying a different TB cable (which I had to buy; I was using one of theirs in the first place). None of these worked, or if they helped it was only in the short term. (They also suggested it might be my computer and that I should try a different one, but I only have one TB2-equipped Mac, and given the other reviews I can't imagine this is just me.) They eventually offered me an RMA for a replacement, but I had to pay my own shipping and be without the dock for a week or so, plus I had to do quite a bit of troubleshooting on my own for what (based on other reviews) clearly seems like a problem with their dock.That being said, when the dock does work, it works as expected. It has more USB ports than most docks, and it has separate jacks for audio in/out, which a lot of others combine. It does have high-power USB ports on the side for charging. For what it's worth, it's also fairly aesthetically pleasing aside from the slightly bulky power adapter ("brick in the middle" style, not "wall wart"). I'd give it five stars if it didn't disconnect all the time. You might be luckier than I am, but I'd probably just choose another dock--though there don't seem to be many good options.UPDATE: The warranty was still active (it's more than one year long; yay!), and I did contact OWC for an RMA again as described below. My new unit arrived recently and is slightly different from the old one--the copyright on the box has been updated from 2015 to 2016, and references to "USB 3.0" have changed to "USB 3.1 Gen 1" (the new name for that standard, otherwise the same). I've had the new one for a month now and haven't had any random disconnects. Unfortunately, I get some noise in the speakers (3.5mm audio out on the dock) when some USB devices are plugged in, though it's only noticeable if the computer isn't playing audio. I think this was a problem on the old one, too, and it probably only happens for high-power devices like iPhones and iPads (or maybe it's a matter of having WiFi or cellular radios). I'll still keep one star off for that but now feel comfortable raising the review to four stars because *the random disconnects appear to have stopped*, so they must have fixed the problem. I'm very happy about that.

If you still have a mackbook from the thunderbolt 2 days, this dock is a welcomed pardon from dongle pergatory! I don’t remember how many adapters/cables I used to have hanging out of my mbp ( 2 external monitors, usb keyboard, Ethernet, etc). When my Ethernet adapter crapped out, I decided to use the opportunity to get a good TB2 dock. There weren’t a lot of options. When I came across this, it had all the features I wanted, and I am comfortable with the OWC name. I have been extremely happy with my purchase. It pushes all of my peripherals through one thunderbolt port (minus my second external monitor which still has to plug into the HDMI port of the mbp). It handles it beautifully. I couldn’t be happier. Bonus tip: I temporarily had to use a new mbp (tb3 with usb-c ports only) and I was concerned about not being able to use my whole setup. I bought a thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 adapter and used it to connect the new mbp to my existing dock setup. To my surprise, everything worked beautifully... Ethernet, video, usb, all of it. So, if you can’t find a good price on a new tb3 (usb-c) dock, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this dock with a good tb2 to tb3 adapter. I purchased an Apple brand adapter when I did it.

Have used this for about six months in the office. Works perfectly as convenient way to connect MacBook to charger cable and to the dock, which has an HD monitor and external hard drive for Time Machine backup connected all the time. I also use an Apple portable bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth mouse that stay permanently in the office on my desk. So, within 30-45 seconds after walking in the office, I'm up and running with everything I need in place, with the only thing to connect being the Thunderbolt cable into the Mac (that connects me to everything in the dock) and the charger cable (which also stays permanently plugged in beside my desk). I've recommended this to others. I have the monitor on a stand, with Dock underneath it, so it takes no extra space on the desk (Do have to remember to eject the external hard drive before unplugging to go, but that's a Time Machine issue, not an issue with the dock.)