5 Ugreen Accessories That Can Improve Your MacBook

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If you have a light workflow consisting primarily of activities like web browsing, typing documents, or streaming video, you’ll find that the MacBook’s out-of-the-box experience will suffice. But if not, you can definitely take it to the next level with a few accessories. There are several things you can improve. For example, at some point the trackpad may slow you down or be imprecise. Additionally, its non-ergonomic nature may start to show, forcing you to look for a more comfortable pointing device.

You might also find the MacBook’s USB-C ports and internal storage limitation non-upgradable. And even though it comes with a USB cable, you may find that your bandwidth needs are more aligned with a Thunderbolt cable. These are just examples of areas where the MacBook experience can be improved. And popular accessories and electronics brand Ugreen has what you need, including a mouse, stand, Thunderbolt 5 cable, high-speed SSD enclosure, and USB-C hub.

These accessories address several areas of MacBook improvement, including comfort, typing, connectivity, and storage. We’ve made sure to list Ugreen items that have at least four out of five stars with hundreds of ratings on Amazon, ensuring these accessories have real-world benefits.

The MacBook’s trackpad is widely popular for handling everyday tasks, such as browsing, window management, organizing files, and even creating short presentations. However, Apple Silicon MacBooks being their powerhouse, it’s not uncommon to use them for long sessions of photo and video editing, vector art illustration, and music production. You might even want to game on your MacBook, and it can be quite difficult to perform rapid mouse movements with a trackpad.

Some scenarios make the trackpad inaccessible, like when you connect it to an external monitor and then put it into clamshell mode. That’s when a mouse like the Ugreen Wireless Ergonomic Mouse comes in handy, and it only costs $21.99. The Ugreen Wireless Ergonomic Mouse has a 2.4 GHz receiver, but it has a USB-A connector. Since MacBooks don’t have USB-A ports, you’ll need a USB hub or USB-A to USB-C adapter to make it work.

Luckily, it also has Bluetooth if you just want to use it right away without any additional accessories. It has four settings per inch (DPI) that allow you to adjust your sensitivity level. Its ergonomic design is what lends itself well to use for long periods of time. You grab it like you’re giving someone a handshake. This design aims to minimize rotation of your wrist, which can occur during long editing sessions. Additionally, its five-button layout helps increase productivity.

If you’re constantly massaging your neck and shoulders due to pain after a long session using your MacBook, ergonomics is the problem. An ideal accessory for this is the Ugreen Laptop Stand for Desk, which costs $29.99. It has a wide base that can support all types of MacBook, from MacBook Neo to 16-inch MacBook Pro or Max. It can raise your MacBook from about 4cm to 30cm and tilt it so you can find the perfect viewing angle to avoid neck and shoulder strain from poor posture. Also keep the 1-2-10 rule of ergonomic viewing in mind, as this will help you avoid eye strain when using your MacBook.

The portable stand’s top-to-bottom aluminum construction, which includes the axle and reinforced swivel joint on the base, gives it great stability. It is capable of supporting up to 5 kg; with a 16-inch MacBook Max M5, for example, weighs only 2.15 kg. It also has rubber grips on the base and stop bars that prevent the laptop from sliding around. Under the base, vents help with heat dissipation and can really improve its cooling. The stand is also foldable, so you can easily store it in your desk drawer or bag when you need to carry it with you.

Your MacBook has a Thunderbolt port for high-bandwidth activities. It would be a shame not to take advantage of it, which is why you will also need to bring the Ugreen 240W Thunderbolt 5 USB-C Cable. Being a Thunderbolt 5 cable doesn’t mean you should expect Thunderbolt 5 performance on MacBook models that don’t support it. The only MacBooks that can take full advantage of its capabilities are the MacBook Pro and Max from 2024. So if a MacBook only supports Thunderbolt 3 and 4, it will only run at that level, which is still incredibly fast.

The $26.99 cable supports up to 240 watts of USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) 3.1 fast charging. It can charge a 16-inch MacBook Pro from 0% to 56% in 30 minutes. It offers data transfer rates of up to 80Gbps, which is ideal for transferring files between the MacBook and high-speed storage devices such as SSDs. It also has a maximum video output of 16K/60Hz. All these high bandwidth capabilities make it a great upgradeable cable, considering it also supports USB4. Additionally, the cable is made from durable nylon braiding that ensures it does not fray easily and has been rated for up to 10,000 bends.

There may come a time when you need to expand your MacBook’s storage, but there’s no way to upgrade its internal storage because it’s soldered directly to the motherboard. You can, however, use an external drive. It is highly recommended to use an NVMe SSD, although it may be a bit more expensive than its SATA counterpart, as it can offer speeds of up to 4,000 Mbps per lane. This is significantly faster than the 600 Mbps via SATA SSDs.

But taking advantage of these high speeds requires the right enclosure, which the $21.99 Ugreen 10Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure can handle. It has a USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, which is why it is capable of reaching speeds of up to 10 Gbps. It even comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable that supports these speeds. The best part is that everything is backwards compatible with older USB standards.

It is covered in aluminum and has a thermal pad that effectively moves heat to the surface to dissipate it. This is important when it comes to transferring data at such high speeds. It also has a specialized chip for overcurrent and short circuit protection. To extend the life of the SSD, the enclosure enters sleep mode after 15 minutes of inactivity.

The problem with modern MacBooks is that they lack many necessary ports, making it difficult to fit comfortably into a setup using older USB devices. These include USB drives, external hard drives, cameras and even printers. MacBooks also don’t have an Ethernet port, and while Wi-Fi 6 and later can deliver blazingly fast gigabyte-per-second speeds, those who prefer the reliability of Ethernet may not be able to just plug in the cable and get to work.

But with the Ugreen Revodok 7-in-1 USB-C Hub, you can easily add additional ports to the MacBook for broader device compatibility for $39.99. With this USB-C hub, you have two USB-A 3.0 ports for connecting accessories and peripherals. It also has a USB-C port for direct charging, but it doesn’t power peripherals or transfer data. It can deliver up to 85 watts of current, which is enough to quickly charge a MacBook Air, but not a MacBook Pro or Max (those will charge slowly).

It also comes with an SD card reader and a microSD card reader, as well as an RJ45 Ethernet port supporting Gigabit Internet up to 1000 Mbps. If you have a MacBook without an HDMI port, like a MacBook Air or Neo, the USB-C hub has one, extending the functionality of your computer. This brings the total number of ports to seven.

Instead of filling this list with multiple USB cables and hubs made by Ugreen, we opted for variety to address the different issues users encounter while using the MacBook. We also made sure that every product we selected is available on Amazon and in stock. We also made sure it had a minimum of four stars out of five. In addition to ratings, we’ve made sure that each product has at least hundreds of ratings provided by people who purchased the product on Amazon. Since the MacBook provides a portable experience, we chose products suited to that rather than a NAS. Luckily everything seemed to cost less than $40.