I bought a UGREEN 2.5″ Aluminum SATA SSD/ HDD Enclosure. This enclosure can be used to turn an internal 2.5″ SSD drive into an external SSD drive with a USB 3.1 / USB-C connector.
You can buy the UGREEN on Amazon. The price is $20. At the time, I’m writing this, there is also a 10% off coupon that you can apply to your order on the Amazon page.
The Amazon full name for this item is UGREEN USB C Hard Drive Enclosure for 2.5″ SATA SSD HDD, Aluminum USB C to SATA Adapter USB 3.1 Gen 2 Support UASP SATA III Compatible with MacBook Pro/Air, WD, Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung, Hitachi. Kind of rolls right off the tongue, no. I think sellers title their product listings this way so that they appear in more search results.
Over the years, I’ve accumulated a stack of internal 2.5 SSD SATA drives. I want to connect these drives to my 16 MacBook Pro that uses USB-C ports. I have some older enclosures that use Thunderbolt or USB A connectors, but my MacBook Pro has USB-C ThunderBolt 3 ports, not USB-A or Thunderbolt 2 / Mini Display ports.
The UGREEN enclosure is made has an aluminum top and and sturdy plastic bottom. The enclosure is tool-less, meaning you can insert and remove drives from the enclosure without the need for a screwdriver or any other tools. The top cover slides on to the the bottom on rails. To open the case, you slide your thumb across the bottom cover. The UGREEN also includes a short USB-C to USB-C cable for connecting the drive to your Mac or PC, provided your model has USB-C ports.
The UGREEN does not require external power, the USB-C port delivers enough power to run an SSD or spinning hard drive. USB-C is faster than the SATA-3 interface that most current SSD drivers use, so expect to see speeds at or near the speeds your drive can deliver.
I recorded an unboxing video, and I hope to post it to youTube soon.
I also bought another USB C 2.5″ SSD enclosure, so I’ll be comparing the performance.
Check back soon for more details.