Thunderbolt 3 Laptops – The complete list of 2021

Recently, Thunderbolt 3 has become a standard port for laptops. In the meantime, more and more expansion devices will support this port. A diverse variety of devices, ranging from docking stations with simple expansion functions to the external graphics card, which can greatly improve laptop performance, all support Thunderbolt 3.

In the future, it will be widely applied. Therefore, it is necessary for the user to buy a laptop with a Thunderbolt 3 port when replacing a new one. At present, a small number of high-end laptops provide TB 3 ports on the market. In the following form, we will list current Thunderbolt 3 laptops on the market.

This port has only been applied to high-end lightweight laptops and motherboards instead of most of the devices owing to its cost and other reasons. Besides, only a small number of external devices support Thunderbolt 3, and it has not been widely applied to products. However, a policy from Intel may make it gradually become popular. Intel has announced that they will directly integrate Thunderbolt 3 control unit in the CPU in the future and provide this technology to cooperative partners for free, and in the meantime, they will cooperate with Microsoft to make the operating system directly support TB 3 and achieve the hot plug.

In this way, it will be less difficult for laptop products to integrate TB 3, and it will be common to be found in products such as lightweight laptops in the future. TB 3 has high transfer speed, which makes it easier for lightweight laptops to use an external graphics card. In addition, once it has been widely used, it will be possible for a port to replace multiple ports. For example, only a Thunderbolt 3 can achieve all the functions that several USB ports and HDMI ports have in the near future. Therefore, the price will be lower as the number of docking stations increases in the future.

12.5-13.3 inch ultrabooks

Please click laptop mode to see the teardown guide for the laptop.

14.0-17.3 inch laptops

Owing to the development of broadband, it can support two 4K displays or a 5K display and successfully transfer a 4K video within 30 seconds. In the meantime, it can utilize a new USB Type-C port to achieve such a high transfer speed instead of a MimDisplay port. Undoubtedly, this will greatly benefit both device manufacturers and host computer manufacturers.
The transfer speeds up to 40 Gbps. Source

Compared with first and second-generation products, the port has better performance. It adopts the technology that has made a big breakthrough, and its compatibility and adaptability have been greatly improved. To provide maximum speed, it owns bandwidth reaching 40Gb/s, which is eight times faster than the USB 3.0 port and four times faster than the USB 3.1 port.

In addition, the port also provides a device with more power, supporting a 100W power supply and providing a device with a maximum charging power reaching up to 15W. Intel also offers the same alternate mode, which makes ThunderBolt’s signal pass PCIe. It also fully supports USB 3.1 since the control unit of USB 3.1 10Gbps has been integrated into the Thunderbolt control unit.

Generally speaking, a Thunderbolt 3 can handle many tasks which require many ports. That’s why an increasing number of laptops that pursue perfect lightweight features only provide a USB Type-C, which supports TB 3. After all, in addition to the device, keyboard, and motherboard, the lightness and thickness of a lightweight laptop depends on the expansion ports.

As a computer protocol, Thunderbolt can be thought of as a transport technology rather than a port for laptops. The implementation of Thunderbolt 3 technology relies heavily on USB Type-C ports. Unlike other hardware that uses a USB Type-C port, the USB Type-C that supports TB 3 has a small flash symbol printed on both the plug and the connector, representing TB 3.