5 Best USB-C External Storage Drive For Your MacBook’s

Apple has moved away from normal USB ports and only included USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports in their latest MacBook Pro. So if you are trying to look for external storage drive you only have few choices.

Best External Storage Drive For MacBooks

You have an option to use an adaptor and use USB 3 external storage drives with your Macbook’s but they don’t take full advantage of USB C ports. USB 3.1 Gen 2 provides up to 10Gb per second data transfer rate which can be good if you store your day to day file on an external storage drive.

The same ports can support up to 40 Gbps transfer rate if you use thunderbolt interface but those drives are expensive than USB-C drives. So here is a list of 5 best USB-C external storage drives which you can buy to take the full advantage of your MacBook power.

Samsung T5 Portable SSD – 1TB

Samsung T5 SSD External Storage Drive

Samsung has released the latest version of their one of the best SSD drive T5 Portable SSD Drive. The drive is available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB configurations.

Considering that this is an SSD drive it provides a read-write speed of 540MB/s which will be helpful for your 4K videos and photos. It comes with a shock-resistant metal enclosure to provide a solid protection.

This drive comes with USB-C to USB-C cable or USB-C to USB-A cables in the box. So you can use it with your new or old MacBook Pro. It also has AES 256-bit hardware encryption to protect your data from unwanted access. You will also get 3 years warranty for any manufacturing defects.

Specifications:

Read-Write Speed – 540 MB/s
Interface – USB-C
Body Type – Metal Enclosure
Size – 2.3 x 0.4 x 3 inches

Buy It From Amazon


WD My Passport SSD External Storage Drive

Western Digital External Storage Drive

WD provides some of the best and reliables external storage drive, I am still using my first WD drive which I have purchased almost 10 years before. So you can use them with trust.

They have also updated their drives to get a benefit of USB-C connections. Their My Passport drive comes in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB configurations.

You can password protect your content with the hardware encryption and it supports up to 515 MB/s read-write speed.

The WD case is built to stand with a fall from up to 6.5 feet. It usually comes pre-configured to work with windows or Mac but if you want to use it as a time machine backup drive then you need to reformat it.

Specifications:

Read-Write Speed – 515 MB/s
Interface – USB-C
Body Type – Metal Enclosure
Size – 3.5 x 1.8 x 0.4 inches

Buy It From Amazon


Suggested Read: [Review] Infuse – Best Media App For iPhone / iPad

LaCie Rugged USB-C Hard Drive

LaCia Rugged Portable Hard Drive

This is not an SSD drive, though they have 1TB and 2TB capacity available in SSD also which can give up to 500 MB/s read-write speed. This is a hard drive with many different types of connection available, so you can choose based on your MacBook model.

The drive is available from 250GB to 5TB capacity so you can choose according to your need. It will provide the read-write speed of around 100 MB/s which should be good for most of your work.

The case is built to last all kind of rough uses like drop, crush or rain resistant.

Specifications:

Read-Write Speed – 7200 rpm
Interface – USB-C
Body Type – Rugged Enclosure
Size – 0.7 x 3.4 x 5.3 inches

Buy It From Amazon


Archgon USB-C Portable External Drive

Archgon USB-C Portable Storage

This is another good external storage drive for MacBook’s. They use WD hard drive inside within their enclosures so it will be reliable.

They have added an enclosure on top of WD hard drive to add the USB-C connection and provides USB-C to Micro-B cable along with it which can be used with any of latest MacBook Models.

It comes with a blue indicator to show you activity on the hard drive with a glossy surface. This hard drive comes pre-formatted in HFS+ so that you can directly use it with your Mac or time machine.

Archgon provides 3 years warranty for any manufacturing defects in the device. This hard drive is specifically made for new MacBook models and will connect with them easily.

Specifications:

Read-Write Speed – 7200 rpm
Interface – USB-C
Body Type – Rugged Enclosure
Size – 4.9 x 3.1 x 0.5 inches

Buy It From Amazon


Suggested Read: Best USB-C External Monitors For iPad Pro and MacBooks

Seagate – DJI Fly Drive 2TB

DJI Fly External Storage Drive

Seagate has a USB-C Drive but they promote it as a Drone Footage drive. It can be used as a regular drive and comes with a rubber bumper to protect it from unintentional damages.

It has a dedicated UHS-II microSD card slot which can help in transferring content from your DSLR or other cameras. Durable rubber bumper makes it a good companion on outdoor travels and you can almost carry it anywhere along with you.

Other than that it’s a standard drive which provides all other benefits of the 2TB drive. It comes with User Manual, USB-C to USB-C cable, Hard Drive and Rubber bumper in the box. Because it is promoted as a Drone footage drive, it comes with 2-Month complimentary membership to Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC.

Specifications:

Read-Write Speed – 7200 rpm
Interface – USB-C
Body Type – Rubber Bumper
Size – 4.8 x 3.4 x 0.8 inches

Buy It From BestBuy

So these are some of the best USB-C external storage drive which you can get for your MacBooks. You have another option of customizing the hard drive by getting a enclosure of 2.5 inch SSD and buying an internal SSD seperatly. My preferred combination for this is Inatech USB-C 2.5 inch HDD enclosure with Samsung EVO 1TB internal SSD. Samsung EVO is SATA III internal drive with read-write speed of up to 540 MB/s and comes with 5 years limited warrenty.

So which external storage drive you prefer for your new MacBook’s? Are you using any of the mentioned drives?

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About Sanjeev

Sanjeev is an IT Consultant and technology enthusiast. He has more than 15 years of experience in building and maintaining enterprise applications. He is been with Android from T-Mobile G1 time but recently shifted to iOS. He loves to code and play with the latest gadgets.

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