An Iron Man suit for your Apple MacBook Pro? Well, here it is.
Odds-and-ends accessory maker Yando Design has made a name for itself, creating some pretty interesting gadgets out of some unlikely shells, such as an LED light built into a Rubik’s cube, a Bluetooth speaker that looks like a showerhead, and, of course, a magazine holder built inside a decommissioned cathode tube PC monitor.
With that said, every once in a blue moon, the creative minds at Yanko decide to come up with something a bit more ordinary in looks, yet still worth a look.
Product designer Ack Lin has come up with a solution to the issue some 2015 MacBook Retina users began lamenting, in regard to the laptop’s lone USB Type-C port.
A number of USB Type-C multi-port dongles has surged since the 12 inch MacBook’s inception, but Lin and his team argues that wired dongles are not only inconvenient and impractical: they make your MacBook look ugly.
By this token, the logical solution to the problem is to do away with all the wires, and create an “exoskeleton” for MacBooks, which incorporates all the ports users miss from older Macs, as well as an extra battery pack, providing the MacBook with 50% additional power, without sacrificing looks.
The Boost case, is an accessory that envelopes the 12 inch MacBook Retina, in a shell providing an array of ports that include USB 2.0 and 3.0, USB Type-C, mini HDMI, and two flash memory card readers.
As mentioned earlier, the Boost case features an extra battery pack, while still keeping a relatively low profile, which is a main selling point for Mac users who don’t like to add too much bulk to their laptops.
With that said, the black plastic material used for the base of the unit seems a little too dark and heavy by MacBook standards, although the lid cover on top compliments the design by breaking into a pleasant blue pattern, even if the end result looks more like a Chromebook than a MacBook. A crystal clear material is also available for the top.
It seems that a lot of work went into making this accessory as thin and light as possible, and while Lin comes in a little strong in his pitch (“...Where Apple fails, dongles take over. But where dongles fall short, you have the Booster...”), the math is sound. This case is definitely built in a way that protects the MAcBook from scratches, while making available multiple ports without having to detach and reattach wires.
While the price tag of $129 seems a little high for an accessory of this kind, one must consider the extra battery, extending the daily life of a 12 inch MacBook Retina, way past the advertised 10 hours.
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