The upgrade from Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 4 was a marginal one, especially when you consider there wasn’t a boost in bandwidth.
More power to the host was nice.
It’s always good to see better resolution.
And, additional security is always welcome.
However, it isn’t as monumental as the jump to Thunderbolt 5. The specs are amazing with 80Gbs to 120Gbs being transferred over a single cable.
Thunderbolt 5 is truly an upgrade, but unfortunately the landscape is pretty limited.
Taking the Thunderbolt 5 lead is Apple, and they currently have two products that feature this protocol from Intel.
The latest MacBook Pro with the M4 Pro or M4 Max will provide three Thunderbolt 5 ports. You will also find the Mac Mini to have three Thunderbolt 5 ports, but only you opt for the M4 Pro chip. The popular 599 Mac Mini will still have Thunderbolt 4 ports, in fact so do the majority of Apple computers.
Razer is the other player that has adopted Thunderbolt 5 in their flagship Blade 18. The gaming laptop boasts impressive specs, and comes with a single Thunderbolt port 5 port. Razer promises desktop performance in a compact size with the Blade 18, and the Thunderbolt 5 port does most of the heavy lifting.
Thunderbolt 5 on the host-side is just starting to kick off, and we should see more computers equipped with Thunderbolt 5 later in the year. For now, there are only a handful of early adopters, but the future does seem bright.
