macbook air thunderbolt external hard drive

It doesn’t exactly match most Macs, but is made entirely from brushed metal, and feels incredibly solid. The nice aluminum and plastic design started with the company’s long-delayed prior-generation Thunderbolt Express Dock, and defined the look of many rival options, but the same general port array is available in several competing products.ĬalDigit’s Thunderbolt Station 2 ( currently $197 via Amazon) is the Sherman tank of the Thunderbolt dock category.

Cosmetically similar and functionally nearly identical to Elgato’s Thunderbolt 2 Dock below, Belkin includes three USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, an Ethernet port, HDMI (4K) port, and two audio ports. We’ve reviewed it here.īelkin’s Thunderbolt 2 Express HD Dock ( currently $279 via Amazon) was the first Thunderbolt 2 dock to be announced, and remains (without justification) the most expensive option on the market. But to achieve its small size, it omits Ethernet, HDMI, and audio ports, making this a better option for connecting peripherals than a TV or speakers. 2″ by 3.8″ by 0.65″ - around the size of a typical portable hard drive - it’s volumetrically the smallest Thunderbolt 2 dock I’ve tested, and the easiest to throw in a bag. In addition to a rarity - a FireWire 800 port - its edges contain one power port, two USB 3.0 ports, two 6GB eSATA ports, and two Thunderbolt 2 ports, allowing you to connect everything from a 4K monitor to pretty much any hard drive from the past 10 years. Here are the best Thunderbolt 2 dock options out there - and my suggestions as to which of them are best-suited to various usage scenarios…Īkitio’s Thunder2 Dock ( currently $209 via Amazon) is impressively thin, portable, and made completely from Mac-matching metal. This enables MacBook users to return home and make one connection to everything from an external monitor and speakers to external hard drives and card readers it can also allow iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac mini users to connect devices built with connectors not found on their machines.

Long-time Mac accessory makers have come up with a few different riffs on the same basic idea, leveraging a single cable to connect a bunch of Thunderbolt, USB, and audio/video accessories all at once to a Mac. This year, Thunderbolt 2 docks have really taken off. The latest iMacs, Mac Pros, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs all feature at least one Thunderbolt 2 port, a boon for expandability. Apple and Intel’s Thunderbolt 2 standard has given Mac users - particularly professional Mac users - a premium, high-speed connector option for situations where bandwidth and speed are necessary: hooking up big, fast hard drives, high-resolution monitors, or even external graphics cards.

Macbook air thunderbolt external hard drive