These are the best external hard drives and SSDs for Mac

Adding more storage while purchasing a new Apple product can be incredibly pricey. This is true for all Apple computing devices, especially the Macs. The new 2021 MacBook Pro notebooks, for instance, have 512GB SSD storage as a standard for the base configurations. Upgrading to a 2TB SSD storage from there adds as much as $600 while adding 4TB storage adds an eye-watering $1,200 to the overall cost.

Creative professionals and power users including photographers and video editors need that kind of storage to save piles of footage and RAW files. Well, if you need more storage for your MacBook then we recommend buying an external storage drive to instantly have more storage at your disposal. Depending on your budget and use case, you can choose to go with either an external hard drive or an SSD. These external storage drives for the best Macs also come in handy to move files from one location to another.

Choosing the best external hard drive or an SSD isn’t a complex task. Here are a few things you need to consider before buying an external drive:

• Capacity: It boils down to how much storage you need to save your files. We recommend buying a drive with at least 1TB capacity to get the best value for your money.
• Storage type: You can either buy a solid-state drive (SSD) or a hard disk drive (HDD). SSDs are all the rage right now mainly because of their speeds. They’re much faster than conventional mechanical drives. However, SSDs are also relatively expensive and are limited when it comes to maximum capacity.
• Portability: Irrespective of the storage type, you can either buy a portable or a fixed desktop drive. Portable drives are smaller in size and some of them can fit in your pockets. Fixed desktop drives, however, need more space and they need their own power source. These are cheaper and often have higher capacities.

Now let’s take a look at some of the best external hard drives and SSDs for MacBook Pro:

Best external hard drives for MacBook Pro

Final Thoughts

You’ll find a lot of external drives for your MacBook Pro, but these are our picks for the best drives on the market. We’ve included both external hard drives and SSDs, so you can choose the right for you based on your budget and requirement. If you want a portable hard drive, then we think nothing beats the simplicity of the Seagate Ultra Touch HDD. But if you want something more compact and faster then you can’t go wrong with the Samsung T7 portable SSD.

Which external drive are you planning to get for your MacBook Pro? Let us know in the comments below. Also, check out our recommendations on the best MacBook Pro cases if you feel the need to add some protection to your notebook.