The almighty MacBook Air, equipped with the latest M2 chipset is surely a great piece of equipment to work with. There are few more things you could do to make your MacBook Air experience better. Without adding those common items such as keyboards and AirPods, we made a nice list of accessories for you to take a look at. This list will surely satisfy most of your additional needs and will solve some of the most bothering questions you had with the MacBook Air M2.
1. Baseus 100W USB C Portable Laptop Charger
The main difference of a laptop from a desktop is the mobility. You could be a person who travels here and there a lot with your laptop, sometimes it may be hard to find a power source when needed. That is why we recommend buying Laptop Power Bank more than anything else.
Baseus is a well-known electronic brand, the Blade series is one of their most popular line of products. This power bank we are talking here is a 100W and has a capacity of 20000mAh. It only takes 90mins to fully charge a MacBook Pro. This has four outputs, x2 USB Type-C (both supports 100W output) and x2 USB Type-A, all supports fast charging. This can be used to several devices simultaneously. There is a very helpful LED screen that indicates the remaining power, voltage, and the remaining charging time. Baseus Blade Power Bank comes with a slick design, it is not bulky like other power banks and only weighs a little, super easy to put in a laptop bag and you will hardly notice any difference. This compatibles with a wide range of products so there is absolutely nothing that holds you back from trying it out.
2. Anker USB C Charger
Without a fast charger it will take more than an hour to charge your laptop to 50% (with a 30W charger). Not with a fast charger though, using a 65W charger will cut the charging time in more than half, it only takes 30mins to charge the laptop 50% (with a 65W charger). The reason for buying a fast charger should be now obvious to you. This charger is even sufficient for the power bank mentioned above (because it has a 65W input). It can be used with many electronics, especially smartphones and laptops, though this may not fast charge a MacBook Air or a Pro still it is sufficient for base level charging. Designed to be quite small but feels kind of heavy, easily portable. Anker is a famous for its quality so there is no double checking about whether you should get this or not. Remember you will not get a charging cable that compatibles with the charger, you have to buy your own cable separately.
3. Targus 16-inch Dual Fan Cooling Pad and Thermalright Thermal Pad
These are two totally different items which serves the same purpose.
As of now, you should know that the Apple MacBook Air does not include any fans to cool it down, it is one of the main reasons that makes it thinner than other laptops. No fans mean higher temperature level, which obviously needs to be cooled down in any efficient and safe way, especially when doing pretty heavy workloads the temperature can go sky high (more than 100 Celsius).
Using a cooling pad is a good way of getting rid of the heat, using a Targus cooling pad is even better. This uses a very low power (connected via a USB Type-A) to run and generates only a little amount of noise, most importantly it gets the job done significantly. It is made from a soft material so it does not weigh too much, also it doesn’t stand too tall from the desk level so there will be no problem with placing your hand on the lap (for typing).
The Thermal Pads are another effective solution for this matter. These thermal pads are good for not only laptops but also gaming consoles and desktop hardware. An overwhelming number of customers have said that these thermal pads work quite greatly rather than cooling pads or thermal paste. It is quite easy to use, less expensive and very durable (will last for years). The dimension of the original thermal pad is 85mm x 45mm and you can cut it into pieces according to your preferences. There are five different thicknesses for you to choose.
Combining these two items will take the temperature of the MacBook Air down significantly. It is a brilliant way to prevent your laptop (not only MacBook) from overheating. The decision is up to you.
4. MOFT Invisible Laptop Stand
A laptop stand come in handy for anyone that needs to look down on their laptops when working. Keeping your laptop as high as you can is always good because it really should be in your eye level (which is not quite possible unless you use a secondary screen). This MOFT laptop stand attaches to your laptop by an adhesive, it can be removed and replace several times without no worries. It is super thin (that is why the name says invisible), and someone could barely notice the difference. There are two different angles of adjustment, one is good for typing and such while the other suits for video conferencing and similar things. In addition to that, this has something called GCT – Graphene based Cooling Technology, which absorbs then divides the heat of the laptop evenly and disperse it. If you are willing to use this on something other than the MacBook Air M2, make sure that it doesn’t have any vent holes that will be covered up by the laptop stand when placed.
5. Satechi Type-C Aluminum UHS-II Micro/SD Card Reader Adapter
For some reason, Apple got rid of the Card Reader Slot it had in previous MacBook Airs. The lack of such a slot might not be a problem for many but there are surely a group that is bothered by the Apple’s decision. For them, this is a good alternative to use, connected with a Type-C port and supports both SD and Micro SD Cards (both can be used simultaneously). This is actually faster than the Card Slot in Apple MacBook Pro. This will be compatible with most smartphones other than laptops. Build quality is super neat and the cable is really flexible yet strong, it is actually hard to find a better product for the same price in Amazon. This device is literally a no brainer.
6. Thunderbolt 3 External 1TB SSD
An external storage device is a must have for anyone regardless of what kind of PC they use. It could be either for backup or additional data space. There are few things that one should be concerned before buying an external storage device. This Sabrent storage fulfills them all. It is actually bit expensive but also provides a higher rate of data transfer, superior durability and compatibles with both Type-C and Thunderbolt. USB mode will allow you to transfer data at a 900MBps rate (as advertised) and the thunderbolt mode will amazingly triple that making the speed 2700MBps. The device tends to get hot easily because of the compact design but it is no reason to be concerned of. Absolutely worth every cent you spent. MacBook users with the base storage option have to get an external storage because going for some alternative is lot cheaper than upgrading the laptop from Apple.
7. SanDisk 256GB Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C
For those who do not care for lot more storage or speed and have a budget limit can go for this device. It is extremely tiny and has both Type-C and Type-A USB connectivity options in the same device. The speed is limited to 150MBps maximum, but it supports USB On-the-Go so you can even use it with your smartphone directly. Since the USB ports are retractable, you have to use it with care otherwise their might be issues with the casing of the drive.
8. Inateck USB 3.2 Gen 2 Speed, USB C to USB Hub with 4 USB A Ports
Apple has a USB Type-C to Type A converter on their catalog for around 20$ (or more). Why use it when there are alternatives that are lot cheaper and much faster than it. This Inateck converter is such a device, it even has 4 different Type-A ports and has a 10Gbps transfer rate (only when using a single port). You can use this with any external storage device regardless of their type, but you cannot use this for charging.
9. Inateck USB C to USB A, HDMI and PD Hub
The same design of the device mentioned above but with different ports. This includes three USB Type-A ports and one HDMI port with a Power Delivery port. USB Type-A ports has the same 10Gbps transfer rate while the HDMI port can be used to stream at 4K 30hz rate, the power delivery port support 100W of power so you can use any fast charger to charge the laptop.
10. USB C Docking Station Gen 2
If you are not satisfied with both items above, then you can try this. This one includes a HDMI port that supports 4K resolutions at 60hz, SD and Micro SD reader slots, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports that supports 10Gbps data transferring, a Gigabit Ethernet port, 3.5mm audio jack and also a 100W power delivery port for charging purposes. The major highlight of this is the 60hz compatibility because lots of other devices come with only 30hz 4K support.
11. MOFT Laptop Bag Sleeve
Another product from MOFT. This time, a laptop sleeve that can be also used as a Laptop Stand with two different adjustments. Using a laptop sleeve is good because it can save your laptop from scratches and spills, it is always good to use extra protection whenever possible. Additionally this sleeve has a part made from something like elastic that can be used to store something like an external storage or a power bank and also has a card holder. It is made from synthetic leather, has a nice build quality and very sturdy yet quite thin. There are four different colors to choose and can recommend for any laptop user without a hesitation.
12. Space-Saving Vertical Desktop Stand
A vertical stand is an equipment used to save up the space. There could be people who use their MacBook just as the system unit connected to a secondary monitor. They have to lay down the laptop in the desk even when it isn’t functioning which pretty much eats up your free space of the desk. If you are one of them you can use a stand like this to make the laptop stand vertically, just like a desktop system unit. This considerably elevates the laptop from the surface and holds it up firm and steady (made from aluminum).
13. 5 Port OWC Thunderbolt Hub
Last but not least, again a hub with Thunderbolt support. This hub has x1 USB 3.2 ports that supports 10Gbps transfer rate (also compatibles with USB Type-A 2.0) and x4 Thunderbolt 4 ports. You can literally multiply your MacBook Air Thunderbolt port by using this. These thunderbolt ports can be used to connect two 4K monitors or one 8K monitor. Can be even used to charge the laptop. The main good thing about this is it doesn’t take up the space that much because of its compact design.
So that’s all we got to tell you about the MacBook Air accessories. You’ll definitely find something worthy here.
Hope this article was helpful for you in some way. Just leave a comment if you have to add anything more to this article or for us, we will look forward to it.
