Belkin Finally Taking Pre-Orders for Thunderbolt Express Dock

Belkin is taking pre-orders for its $299 Thunderbolt Express Dock and is telling buyers that it should begin shipping next week.

The Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock is an easy, powerful way to take advantage of Thunderbolt technology. The Thunderbolt Express Dock lets you use a single connection to create high-speed, reliable transfers between your laptop and up to eight other devices, including FireWire, Ethernet, USB, and daisy chaining multiple Thunderbolt devices.

- 1 Thunderbolt port
- 1 FireWire 800 port
- 1 Gigabit Ethernet port
- 3 USB 3.0 ports (max 2.5Gbps transfer rate)
- 1 3.5mm-out port
- 1 3.5mm-in port

Belkin first showed off its Thunderbolt Express Dock back in September of 2011, promising 3 USB ports, an outbound Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining, a FireWire 800 port, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

In January 2012, an HDMI port and a 3.5mm audio out plug were added to the dock which was priced at $300. In June 2012, Belkin added USB 3.0, an audio in port, and eSATA while bumping the price to $400.

At CES last month, Belkin removed the eSATA port and dropped the price back down to $299.

Now, close to a year-and-a-half after it was first announced, the Thunderbolt Express Dock is here. Matrox has a similar dock with slightly different ports that launched in December for $249.