Sonnet Technologies has announced the Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock. The headlining feature of this dock is that it can accommodate a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD and facilitate 6,100 MB/s data transfers. Sonnet claims it will be the first to ship a dock with this mix of performance and features (it boasts many other ports). The Echo 13 will be available “in limited quantities” starting this month.
Sonnet is a long-time Apple Mac hardware accessories maker. The timing of this hardware release is convenient for Mac M4 users who have recently upgraded and gained access to machines with Thunderbolt 5 ports. It says this device should also be suitable for iPad Pro, Windows, and even Chromebook computers with Thunderbolt 5 and 4 and USB4. Using the older, slower standards will mean reduced performance, but it seems like no functionality will be missing.
In addition to the housing for a fast M.2 SSD, the Echo 13 fairly bristles with ports. It features four Thunderbolt 5 ports – one used for connecting the host and which can take 140W for power delivery functionality (e.g., charging your laptop when it docks). Additionally, it has four USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet jack, a 3.5mm headset jack, and both SD and microSD card slots.
When used with Thunderbolt 5 peripherals, users will benefit from up to 80 Gbps of bi-directional data speed — twice as fast as Thunderbolt 4 — and have up to 120 Gbps display bandwidth. Regarding displays, Sonnet says this dock can connect up to two 8K displays or three 4K displays running at up to 144 Hz – you can use USB-C monitors or compatible adaptors for HDMI or DP ports.
Thunderbolt 5 was finalized and announced in September 2023, promising up to 120 Gbps bandwidth. Last year, we saw a handful of computers and peripherals with support, and things picked up a little at the recent CES 2025, where we saw the first Thunderbolt 5 eGPU dock (which will also support M.2 SSDs). However, it is still far from becoming a standard I/O feature on new laptops, desktops, or motherboards.
The first Echo 13 SSD Docks will be higher-priced SKUs. Sonnet says devices bundled with a Thunderbolt-certified 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Kingston SSD will initially be available for $669.99. From mid-March, the 2TB and 1TB models will hit retail at MSRPs of $499.99 and $399.99, respectively. A Thunderbolt 5 cable is included with your dock purchase.
