So, you’ve bought yourself one of those shiny new 24-inch iMacs. It runs like a turbo-charged greyhound thanks to the latest Apple M4 silicon and yet there’s something about it that just doesn’t feel right.
Having the ports at the back of the iMac just where you can’t see them is a pain. You end up fiddling around with your fingers trying to find the right port and then you realize there are no old-school USB-A ports for your thumb drives or dongles. What is an iMac owner to do?
Don’t despair! There is an easy and elegant fix to this little problem and it comes in the shape of Satechi’s USB-C Slim Dock for 24-inch iMac. This cute dock is designed exclusively for the new 24-inch Apple iMacs and it slips over the Mac’s pedestal foot and adds plenty of extra ports which are easy to access. What’s more, it even has a space for adding extra high-speed storage for your Mac so you can offload data and save precious space on your iMac’s internal SSD.
Made from aviation-grade aluminum and designed to perfectly match the new iMacs, the Satechi USB-C Slim Dock is available in silver or blue colorways. There’s also a high-speed USB Type C cable in the box which connects the dock to one of the high-speed USB-C ports on the back of the iMac. This lets you expand your iMac’s connectivity.
As well as having a primary 10Gbps USB-C port, the Slim Dock also has a 10Gbps USB-A port for plugging in peripherals like an external hard drive or SSD. There are also slots for reading SD and microSD cards so you can load up your photos or videos. At the back of the Satechi’s USB-C Slim Dock, there are two USB-A 2.0 ports with slower transfer speeds for peripherals like mice or keyboards.
Perhaps the most exciting feature of this slim dock is visible when you turn it over. On the underside, there is a small door that detaches to reveal a slot for an M.2 format SSD. The slot can accept a SATA or an NVMe SSD so that you can have a permanently mounted second drive on your iMac’s desktop. The slot runs at 10Gbps and has a maximum capacity of 2TB, which is a very handy amount of extra storage to supplement an iMac’s standard 512GB SSD.
The dock won’t fit iMacs from 2020 and earlier and the enclosure is compatible with M.2 2242/2260/2280 SSDs with both SATA and NVMe interfaces. The USB-A ports don’t support charging or CD readers, including Apple’s SuperDrive. Satechi recommends only attaching one bus-powered device at a time.
Verdict: The Satechi USB-C Slim Dock for 24-inch iMac is the best and most elegant way of adding more ports and storage to Apple’s new generation of iMacs. As well as full-speed 10Gbps USB-A and USB-C ports, there are card slots, two USB-A 480Mbps ports and space for installing an M.2 SSD up to 2TB with an NVMe or SATA interface.
Pricing & Availability: The Satechi USB-C Slim Dock for a 24-inch iMac is available now and costs $149.99.
Tech Specs:
- Connector: USB-C 10Gbps.
- Dimensions: 27.9 x 11.4 x 1cm.
- Weight: 300g.
- Cable length: 42cm.
- Ports: 1 x Type-C Upstream (Host), 2 x USB 2.0 (480Mbps), 1 x Micro SD slot (UHS-I), 1 SD Card slot (UHS-I), 1 x USB-A (10Gbps) (Data only – no charging support), 1 x M.2 SSD Slot (supports NVME & SATA)(up to 10Gbps speeds max) (2TB Max Capacity), 1 x USB-C (10 Gbps) (Data only – no charging/video support).
