Following the announcement of the new Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, OWC, the premier zero-emissions Mac and PC technology company, and a respected provider of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions, and performance upgrade kits, has responded with a range of innovative storage and connectivity solutions optimised for use for these next generation machines and others. Here’s our roundup.

Who Are These Products For?

The Apple MacBook Pro continues to be a weapon of choice for creative professionals the world over, but for those working with dynamic media such as video and audio, laptops rarely provide a self-contained solution owing to their connectivity and finite storage options.

Using a dock with your machine is the time honoured way of expanding its connectivity, either by upping the number of available ports, or by ‘shape-shifting’ existing ones to fit existing peripherals’ physical connectors. Thunderbolt ports especially carry the potential to move any manner of data around including that of video and audio peripherals as well as high speed connectivity for storage.

Post-production and music creatives especially will benefit from the expanded connectivity that a docking solution will bring, either for peripheral gear or drives.

From The Developer

Take Your Apple MacBook Pro Connectivity to the Next Level

With the new Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max, key ports are back, and by adding a dock or hub, you can turn the new MacBook Pro into a mobile powerhouse. For connectivity, OWC offers a range of dock and cable solutions to help you build the perfect on-the-go, at-home, in-studio, or on-set workstation for the new Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max.

OWC Thunderbolt Dock

Three Thunderbolt 4 ports and four USB ports empower you to connect to past, present, and future devices. Up to two 4K displays or a 5K/6K/8K display, high-performance storage including NVMe SSDs, A/V mixers, phones, tablets, even desktop accessories like a keyboard or mouse. With the OWC Thunderbolt Dock, an entire world of USB and Thunderbolt accessories is ready for you to connect and expand your capabilities.

OWC 14 Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock

Through a single cable, the OWC 14 Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock brings an unprecedented combination of ports, convenience, and power to your new Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max. With its 14 ports of connectivity thoughtfully placed, the OWC 14 Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock delivers convenience while keeping desktops clutter-free. The OWC 14 Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock front is designed to easily connect your portable devices, headphones, and media cards, while the rear features many ports for your static devices, so cables stay out of sight.

“Well worth the investment” was Production Expert’s PJ Gibbs’ verdict when he used it to connect two different generation Macs in the studio.

OWC Thunderbolt Hub

The OWC Thunderbolt Hub lets you consolidate and simplify the connectivity between all your devices with all the Thunderbolt ports you've always wanted. The OWC Thunderbolt Hub's four Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports and one USB port massively expand your connection possibilities. Now you can do more effortlessly on your Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max.

OWC Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C Cable

Take the guesswork out of what cables you need for your entire technology setup. The OWC Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C Cable is a plug and play safe solution for connecting any Mac, PC, iPad, Chromebook, or Surface tablet with a Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, or USB4 port to any device, display, or power supply with Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, or USB4 port. With lab test certified 100% universal USB-C compatibility and performance, whatever your devices – this Type C to Type C connection solution ensures you'll always have the right cable that works.

Blazing Fast External Storage for Apple MacBook Pro

The new Apple Macbook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max offer endless power possibilities. OWC is ready to support these machines' new workflow capabilities. From on-the-go, working from home, tracking in the studio, or on-set editing, OWC has you covered for your high-performance storage needs.

OWC Envoy Pro Elektron

The fastest, toughest mini-sized SSD in the universe, the OWC Envoy Pro Elektron is crushproof, dustproof, and waterproof for transferring gigabytes of data in seconds anywhere with your new Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max.

“It took a bad tumble and survived unscathed. It’s fast enough to run my session off of and small and light enough to carry 3 (4) of them without having to increase the weight in my upper body work out. It’s gonna be a great addition to my toolset.” said Production Expert contributor Charles Dayton in his article How to Create Portable Boot Drives in Your Studio.

OWC Envoy Pro SX

The OWC Envoy Pro SX is a Super-fast Xtremely rugged portable SSD for daily storage and backup tasks to production-level audio, design, and photography workflow needs. It delivers Xtreme real-world speeds up to 2847MB/s with today’s and tomorrow’s Thunderbolt and USB4 equipped Macs and PCs while being dust/drop/waterproof for transferring gigabytes of data in seconds anywhere.

OWC ThunderBlade

In a fast-paced, professional environment, time is money, so performance means everything. The success of your project depends on the fast and efficient handling of uncompressed, high bandwidth content streams. The OWC ThunderBlade delivers the performance to match – capable of unbelievable transfer speeds up to 2800MB/s.

OWC ThunderBay

When it comes to needing the highest level of external storage capabilities, our ThunderBay storage solutions are perfect for professional workflows performed with the new Apple Macbook Pro. OWC ThunderBay 4 is designed with performance in mind and engineered to harness the power of Thunderbolt 3. ThunderBay 4 is an incredibly flexible external drive with the throughput to support multi-stream compressed 4K video and other bandwidth-intensive operations. It’s highly configurable to match your performance need so that you can use each drive independently or in the RAID configuration of your choice for the optimal balance of performance and data redundancy.

OWC ThunderBay 8 is like a high-performance personal data center that offers multiple configuration options to suit ever-expanding storage needs. Photo, film, and video editors can take advantage of the largest capacity desktop RAID storage solution OWC has ever offered to handle the voracious drive space appetite of RAW, 4K, large format, and VR workflows.

Production Expert’s Mike Thornton added the OWC ThunderBay 8 to his own set-up when replacing his ageing Mac Pro 5,1 with a Mac Mini – read more about it in our article OWC ThunderBay 8 Tested - Thunderbolt 3 Storage Solution - Our Verdict.

OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 is a groundbreaking workflow solution for digital imaging, VFX, video production, and video editing professionals from the world’s leading Thunderbolt accessory manufacturer. ThunderBay Flex 8 offers eight drive bays that support a mix of SATA/SAS and U.2/M.2 NVMe drives for up to 144TB of storage capacity. Next, there are many ports, including two Thunderbolt 3, one USB-C, and two USB-A for device docking and charging. There’s two frontside card readers for fast media card ingest. Lastly, there’s a PCIe expansion slot for adding an audio/video capture, networking, SSD storage, hardware RAID card, or I/O card.

As a leader in Thunderbolt integration and accessories, OWC is proud to offer these innovative solutions for the new Apple MacBook Pro's with M1 Pro and M1 Max technologies", said Larry O'Connor, CEO and Founder of OWC. "It's terrific to have this kind of power added to the new Apple Macbook Pro's. M1 Pro and M1 Max technologies open up a whole new world for more devices revolutionizing workflows for pro audio, video, and beyond.

Pricing & Availability

• OWC Thunderbolt Dock MSRP $279.00

• OWC 14 Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock MSRP $299.00

• OWC Thunderbolt Hub MSRP $179.00

• OWC Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C Cable is available in 0.72m, 1.0m and 2.0m on MSRP $24.00

• OWC Envoy Pro Elektron: 240GB to 2TB MSRP $99.00

• OWC Envoy Pro SX: 240GB to 2TB MSRP $179.00

• OWC ThunderBlade: 1TB to 32TB MSRP $749.00

• OWC ThunderBay 4: 0GB enclosure (add your own drives) or from 4TB to 72TB MSRP $369.00

• OWC ThunderBay 8: 0GB enclosure (add your own drives) or from 16TB to 144TB MSRP $649.00

• OWC ThunderBay Flex 8: 0GB enclosure (add your own drives) or from 32TB to 144TB MSRP $1,199.00

All solutions from OWC are available now over at Macsales.