9 accessories that’ll help you get more out of your MacBook

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Generally speaking, if you own a MacBook, you should be happy with your purchase. They’re good laptops. But it’s not hard to see where you might run into some annoyances. Some might be specific to Apple, others might be more general. Either way, they’re a bummer, especially when you’ve paid through the nose to get your hands on one of these things.

So, to help, we’ve rounded up a few simple accessories that can add to your Mac-owning experience in small but useful ways. They may not be applicable to everyone, and they won’t change the MacBook line’s more fundamental issues, but they should help you get more out of the device that’s eaten up so much of your time and money.

Transcend JetDrive Lite

If your MacBook’s hurting for storage space, an expansion card like the Transcend JetDrive Lite might be the easiest way to add it. It’s neither as fast as an external SSD nor as flexible as a good thumb drive, but it’s eminently simple to use: You slide it into your Mac’s SD card slot, and it adds capacity that works in conjunction with your original SSD. If that works, be sure to grab the model designed for your particular machine.

Transcend JetDrive Lite 130 (128GB, 13-inch MacBook Air), $65.99, available at Amazon.
Transcend JetDrive Lite 330 (128GB, 13-inch MacBook Pro), $65.99, available at Amazon.

Seagate Backup Plus Slim

Regardless of how much storage you’re consuming (on any computer), it’s always a good idea to keep that data backed up. The Seagate Backup Plus Slim is a compact, well-performing portable hard drive that’ll help you do that. We’ve commended it before, but it still provides good value per dollar, with a helpful software suite for managing your files, and a free 200GB of Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage (for two years, at least).

Seagate Backup Plus Slim (2TB), $89, available at Amazon.

Griffin BreakSafe USB-C Cable

For new MacBook owners who find themselves missing the easily detachable MagSafe cables of yesteryear, the Griffin BreakSafe is worth a look. It’s a bit chunky, and its magnet is a little more sensitive than Apple’s own solution, but it still makes you less likely to fling your laptop across your desk the next time you trip over your charging cord. (Be it the MacBook, or other USB-C laptops like Google’s Chromebook Pixel.) You can read more on it here.

Griffin BreakSafe Magnetic USB-C Cable, $39.99, available at Amazon.