Thunderbolt 3 is incredible technology. It's built into the USB C ports of the latest high-end laptops from Apple, HP and Dell, and delivers phenomenal speeds over a tiny cable. Unfortunately, it is also phenomenally expensive: docks, hard drives, even dongles are priced well above similar USB C technology.

So while the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 HD dock comes in at a jaw dropping $529.95, the price is competitive when compared to similar docks on the market.

Belkin is marketing the item towards MacBook Pro owners: the sleek, silver docking station matches Apple's aesthetic, and can provide power to the connected laptop. Beyond power, the dock will allow you to connect two 4K monitors, with room for another Thunderbolt Raid, three USB devices, and a gigabit ethernet. This is high-end, heavy-lifting stuff, capable of turning a laptop into a full commercial edit suite.

I borrowed a few UHD monitors from a colleague to test the image quality — docks and adaptors can sometimes interfere with and downgrade the resolution of connected monitors — and was pleased to see the Belkin lived up to the promise of powering dual 4K displays.

It's technically impressive, but my needs are far more reasonable. I just want to plug my MacBook Pro into an external monitor, ethernet, and keyboard, but until now, I haven't bothered, because it required three separate dongles to pull that off.

Switching to a single cable solution was so much more convenient, but I'm not sure the convenience is worth the price. I'm hoping Belkin will follow the Thunderbolt 3 HD Dock with a less powerful USB C version that could bring similar convenience at a lower price. And while they're at it, can they throw in a front-facing SD Card reader?