Best MacBook Neo accessories: Chargers, hubs, stands and more

We think a 45W charger is the minimum you should be looking at with any MacBook (or even iPhone for that matter). Keep the Apple 20W Power Adapter as a spare, and buy the Anker 45W Nano Charger with smart display and 180-degree dual foldable plug pins that are designed to adapt to any outlet angle while keeping the screen clearly visible and/or USB-C port easy to locate.

Not only is it more powerful than Apple’s weedy 20W Power Adapter, it’s smarter too. It has a front display that gives you real-time updates on power, temperature, and charging modes. The Apple 20W charger is just a plain white brick with non-foldable plug pins. It measures 1.63 x 1.67 x 1.06 inches (41 x 42 x 27mm). The Anker Nano is smaller at 1.34 x 1.38 x 1.57 inches (34 x 35 x 40mm). It’s not just the super-compact body that’s cute in its four colors—Black, White, Orange and Misty Blue—the display can show playful animations for every charge.

Anker has another 45W Nano Charger without the display and only single foldable plugs that is available in the U.S., U.K. and E.U. that you might find even cheaper at Amazon / Amazon UK.

Two ports are nice but how about a couple of ports—one USB-C and one legacy USB-A—plus a built-in retractable USB-C cable so you never have to go looking for that lost cable again?

The Ugreen Nexode is a multiport wall charger available in 65W (2 ports) or 100W (3 ports) models, each with the integrated 2.5-foot cable.

Connect this cute hub to the spare USB-C port—make sure it’s the fast 10Gbps one near the end of the Neo’s side—and you instantly get access to a range of ports denied to non-hub users. Many of these you don’t get even with the top-end MacBook Pro. It’s magnetic so can clamp to metal objects and comes with a magnetic adhesive ring that you can stick to the front of your Neo.

The OnTheGo 7-in-1 is a portable pocket-sized hockey puck shape (65mm diameter) with a coiled braided USB-C cable and seven varied ports; 2x legacy USB-A ports, SD and MicroSD card readers, HDMI 2.0 for connecting an external display (up to 4K/60Hz), and Gigabit Ethernet for when you need to access a stable, fast wired network. You can supply up to 80W of passthrough power via the hub’s USB-C PD port so leaving the Neo’s other port still free.

What might interest Neo owners are the card readers that are ideal for adding cheap, portable storage. You can pick up a 512GB microSD card for $50, and 1TB for around $150, although storage prices can be very volatile.

The Curve SE is super affordable and raises your MacBook 6.5 inches off your desk so you can sit up straight and look directly at your screen—and so feel less tension in your neck and shoulders. It also keeps your laptop cool with air flowing underneath it.

The Curve SE is available in Silver only. An alternative fixed laptop stand, the $49 Rain Design mStand (direct or from Amazon) is another sturdy option, and is available in a wider range of colors: Black, Gold, Midnight, Silver, Space Gray and Starlight. There’s even a rotating version, the $59 Rain Design mStand 360.

Satechi’s low-price USB-C aluminum M1 Bluetooth Wireless Mouse comes with a twiddly scroll wheel rather than the trackpad that you get with the Apple’s own Magic Mouse. Compared to sticking with Neo’s trackpad, using a mouse such as the M1 offers faster and more accurate scrolling and tracking.

The cursor fairly flies around the screen as I move the ergonomically curved M1—much faster than my Apple mouse, and almost disconcertingly at first. It feels like it floats across my desk, and allows for more accurate scrolling than Apple’s.

Its aluminum body is good for both left- and right-handed users, and is available in Silver, Space Grey, Blue, Gold, and Rose Gold colors.

Satechi has two other affordable mice you might consider: the squarer, higher battery capacity Slim EX Wireless Mouse and even more accurate and three-color vegan leather OntheGo Bluetooth Mouse, both of which can be connected to up to three devices at the same time so work with your iPad, phone or another laptop.

If you want both an even greater choice of colors for your mouse—or a bright mouse-&-keyboard combination—take a look at the Logitech Pop Icon Mouse, available in eight colors.

The INIU P62-E1 20000mAh (65Wh) Power Bank may have a dull name but it stands out a mile with its colorful looks—it’s available in six bold colors—and dare-to-be-different compact shape. Its removable USB-C cable creates a handy carrying loop.

Not just fun to look at and easy to hold, it performed excellently in our tests, with the ability to recharge a MacBook Neo around one and a half times. While 65W is a little lacking for the Pro MacBooks it’s ample for the MacBook Neo or Air.

This large (27-inch) IPS monitor has a maximum resolution of 2K, a brightness of 350 nits and a decent color gamut. If all that technical jargon means little to you, then rest assured we consider it a very able budget monitor.

Connect it via the Neo’s spare USB-C port (choose the 10Gbps one) and also get 65W of power delivery for the MacBook. The integrated hub offers three legacy USB-A ports.

The monitor features Low Blue Light Plus technology, which filters out blue-violet radiation harmful to the eyes, and automatic adjustment of screen brightness. A display coating is designed to reduce glare. The monitor can be rotated 20 degrees in any direction, tilted 5 degrees downwards and upwards, and the entire screen can be rotated 90 degrees into portrait format.

The monitor has built-in speakers and a microphone optimized for video conferencing, equipped with noise filter and noise cancellation.

This lightweight 16-inch QHD display ‘floats’ above your MacBook’s screen via a clever built-in stand that is simple to setup. This Stacked mode more than doubles the Neo’s screen space—yet doesn’t feel like a second screen, just an extension. You can keep it physically attached to your laptop with the included magnets but this is an option rather than a necessity.

As well as Stacked (‘floating’) there are two other viewing modes: Free Standing (not floating and separate from your MacBook), and Presentation (the screen is flipped to share content with the person in front of you). The QHD (2.5K) screen sets it apart from many of the HD portable screens reviewed here.

There is a non-Pro version, the Mobile Pixels Duex Float 2, with a slightly smaller 15.6-inch HD screen.

The simplest one-function multiple monitor Neo solution is the affordable Plugable USB-C Dual HDMI Adapter (USBC-6950M) that uses DisplayLink to enable dual 4K 60Hz displays with two HDMI ports.

There’s a slightly pricier (but still cheaper than a dock) version, the Plugable Dual 4K DisplayPort & HDMI Adapter (USBC-7400H4) that supports four external 4K displays at 60Hz and features 90W passthrough charging to the laptop.

With Plugable’s UD-6950PDH docking station (plus free-to-download DisplayLink software) you can connect two extra 4K/60Hz displays to your MacBook Neo, plus add an impressive bank of handy 13 ports, including Gigabit Ethernet, SD and MicroSD card readers and five spare USB ports.

You won’t get data transfer any faster than 5Gbps so if you crave the Neo’s full 10Gbps bandwidth you should instead consider the more powerful Anker Prime Triple Display 14-in-1 Docking Station, which offers the 10Gbps Neo connection as well as three 100W USB-C ports and super-fast 2.5Gb Ethernet. That dock is also available in the U.K.

The attractive design of this keyboard immediately catches the eye. It come in Graphite & Green, Graphite & White, Lilac & Off-White, Off-White & Orange and Rose & Off-White.

But it’s not just looks: Logitech makes some of our favorite keyboards. We like the contoured, flat keys that feel comfortable when typing and are quiet, which is, of course, less of an attraction for fans of mechanical keyboards—if you prefer the clickety-clack, look to Logitech’s $99 Pop Keys mechanical models. 

Thanks to its slim design, the Pop Icon keyboard is also easy to position and has all the keys you need. The Pop Icon keyboard also offers all the usual shortcut key combinations, such as for muting, an emoji menu or taking a screenshot. The four action keys can be customized using the Logi Options application, which is available to download free of charge.

The keyboard has a battery life of up to 36 months, using standard AA batteries rather than being recharged via USB.

You can buy a $69 Logitech Pop Icon Combo of keyboard and mouse, or Pop Keys Combo if you prefer a clacky mechanical keyboard.

Keep your MacBook Neo looking like new in this bright laptop sleeve, available in ten different colors. The padded laptop compartment will reassure you of the Neo’s safety when carrying it around or storing it at home.

Other sleeve options include the STM Origin, STM Kin, Bellroy Laptop Sleeve, and lovely Mari Kondo-inspred Orbitkey Hybrid Laptop Sleeve (pictured below) that folds out to a comfortable desk mat for Neo.

Orbitkey

Buy a sleeve suited for a 13-inch or 14-inch laptop to properly fit the Neo.

Ok, it costs about a third as much as the MacBook Neo itself but it’s called the Neo Backpack so we had to include it. It’s also a lovely laptop backpack, available like the MacBook Neo in four different shades: Rust, Bronzed Olive, Charcoal Black and Basalt.

Troubadour’s lightest and latest laptop (and most affordable) backpack is the 22L Neo, built for the daily commute or whenever you need it. Inside the waterproof and durable FortiWeave fabric—woven from 100% recycled plastic bottles—are lighter-colored compartments that make it easier to spot your tech, hydration and quick-access essentials via a discreet front pocket with a gracious magnetic closure.

A CrashPad Cocoon laptop sleeve suspends and cushions your namesake MacBook Neo.

Apple has given the MacBook Neo a decent wired data transfer bandwidth of 10Gbps—20x faster than the 480Mbps (0.48Gbps) USB-C cable that it includes in the box. If you want to take advantage of this significantly increased wired bandwidth, you’ll need a cable like this one from Cable Matters that also supports 10Gbps and can be used to connect the Neo to a USB-C monitor. Connect it to the first USB-C port on the side.

It can also charge at up to 100W—more than enough for MacBook Neo, and could be used to charge your iPhone (15 or later) or USB-C iPad, too.

Sadly, not available in Citrus or Blush, this able cable available in black or white and 3ft / 6ft / 8.2ft lengths.

This USB-C cable retracts into a neat pocketable shell for tangle-free portability. It’s a good choice for charging but not so great at data transfer so won’t connect your Neo to a monitor or do your storage drive many favors.

It’s available in black, blue, purple or white.

This is a smart MacBook USB-C charging cable that includes a 15W wireless pad for iPhone or AirPods case plus an adjustable 5W Apple Watch charger. Built of aluminum, it’s quite chunky but is probably all you need on your travels alongside at least a 65W USB-C charger, and it folds up on itself for easy transport.

It’s rated at 140W so is easily up to powering a MacBook Neo—indeed it can fast-charge even the 16-inch MacBook Pro—and just as adapt at either wired or wirelessly charging Apple’s recent USB-C devices.

If you don’t own an Apple Watch—and have no intention of doing so—Zens has a version (the $49.95 Zens USB-C to USB-C Charging Cable Pro 2) without that module, and just the iPhone/AirPods wireless pad in the middle of the 140W cable.

It’s available in white or black from Amazon, and from the Apple Store in an exclusive Dark Cherry color.