Pexar by Lexar’s Thunderbolt 5 dock with a built-in touchscreen has passed $480,000 on Kickstarter, and two new features will now ship with it: AI-built Vibe Plugins and 60W AVS fast charging.
When we first covered the PexarBolt Ultra, the dock had just been named a 2026 IFA Innovation Awards Honoree and blown through its Kickstarter goal in the first 30 minutes. [Add internal link to our earlier PexarBolt story.] A month on, the Kickstarter campaign has raised more than $480,000, and Pexar has announced two additions that will be included in the shipping product.
Vibe Plugins: build your own touchscreen tools
The most unusual feature of the PexarBolt Ultra is its 5-inch touchscreen, which shows power draw, port status and transfer speeds in real time. With Vibe Plugins, you’ll also be able to create your own tools for that screen without writing any code.
You describe the tool you want in the desktop app, such as a Pomodoro timer, and a connected AI agent builds the interface and how it works. You can preview it, ask for changes, install it on the dock and then revise it later using plain language. At launch, Codex and Claude Code are the supported AI agents. Pexar has posted a demo video showing how it works.
60W AVS charging for the latest iPhones
The second addition is more practical. The two front USB-C ports will deliver a shared 60W output with AVS compatibility, which supports fast charging for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max as well as other phones, tablets and accessories. Host laptop charging remains at up to 140W.
Our take
For photographers and videographers, the appeal of the PexarBolt Ultra has always been its port selection, with CFexpress Type B, SD and microSD readers, 10GbE and a built-in NVMe slot all in a single Thunderbolt 5 box. Vibe Plugins feels like more of a novelty, but it’s a clever use of a screen that would otherwise only show status information, and it could be genuinely handy for simple workflow tools like ingest timers or checklists. The faster front charging is the more immediately useful upgrade, as phones are now a serious part of many creators’ kits.
PexarBolt Ultra key specifications
- Thunderbolt 5, 80Gb/s (up to 120Gb/s in Bandwidth Boost mode)
- 5-inch touchscreen dashboard
- 22 ports including 10GbE, CFexpress Type B, SD and microSD readers, USB-C and USB-A
- Built-in M.2 NVMe SSD slot
- Dual 8K 60Hz display support
- 140W PD 3.1 host charging
- Two front USB-C ports with shared 60W AVS output
- Vibe Plugins for custom touchscreen tools
PexarBolt Ultra price and availability
The PexarBolt Ultra is available to back on Kickstarter with an early bird price of $479. The official retail price will be $649 once the campaign ends. UK pricing has not yet been confirmed. As with any crowdfunded product, backing a campaign isn’t the same as buying from a shop, so it’s worth checking the campaign’s delivery estimates before you pledge.
