Friday, March 13, 2015

11 USB-C Cables and Adapters for Apple's New Macbook

Apple's new Macbook is one of the first laptops to use the new USB-C standard. Here are the best cables and adapters.

Belkin USB-A to USB-C Cable
$19.99 - $29.99
Belkin has a slew of USB cables coming this summer. This one is male on both ends and will connect USB-A devices to USB-C devices. It transfers 15 watts of power, which isn't enough to charge the new MacBook. There are two varieties of this: a faster USB 3.1 cable for $29.99, and a slower USB 2.0 model for $19.99.








Belkin USB-B to USB-C Cable
$19
You will need this to connect your MacBook to your printer, because printers still insist on using the weird, squarish USB-B port.

 

  





LaCie Porsche Design Mobile Drive
LaCie is coming out of the gate with the first native USB-C compatible hard drive, a sleek, aluminum device which will come in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB sizes. It doesn't support the full speed of USB-C—it's a USB 3 device, not 3.1—but it'll be a perfect Time Machine backup for the new laptop. LaCie says it's coming in the next few months, but hasn't listed a price.







SanDisk Dual USB Drive Type-C
$49
The first USB-C flash drive available will plug into both USB-C devices and standard USB-A ports. It doesn't appear to be a passthrough adapter, but you can transfer files onto its 32GB of storage to move them from other laptops, tablets, and phones over to your MacBook. It's coming by June.


Belkin USB-C to Micro USB-B Charge Cable
$19.99
This one is for charging and syncing standard MicroUSB devices from the USB-C port. It'll charge your phone from your MacBook's battery.

Belkin USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
This will be critical for anyone using a new MacBook to connect to a wired, corporate network. Coming in "early summer," it's a native USB-to-Ethernet connector that will work on the new laptops. For now, you can use the existing MacBook Air USB-to-Ethernet adapter with Apple's USB-C to USB adapter cable.

For more, see PCMag's hands on with the new MacBook and the video below, as well as New Chromebook Pixel vs. New MacBook: USB-C Laptops Compared.

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