OWC DEC – The dock that gives your MacBook Pro more storage space

Lack of ports aside, one of the more frequent complaints about the new MacBook Pro is the inability to upgrade the notebook’s storage space. However, much like the port problem, a third-party company has a solution for that, and it comes in the form of a dock.

Developed by storage maker OWC, the OWC DEC is a dock that comes with NAND flash storage modules. Once the MacBook Pro is docked above the DEC, it will gain access to the dock’s flash storage modules, greatly expanding the storage capacity of the MacBook Pro.

OWC has mentioned that the DEC can have up to 4TB of storage space, which probably means that the dock will be available in sub-4TB configurations as well. OWC also stated that they are currently looking into models that offer mini-DisplayPorts as well as a battery module.

Besides functioning as a surrogate storage device, the DEC also comes with some additional ports such as:

• SD card slot
• Three USB 3 Type-A ports
• Gigabit Ethernet port

While the nature of the DEC means that it’ll most likely be used on a desk, OWC has mentioned that the dock itself is portable. When the MacBook Pro is docked onto the DEC, the entire setup will have the thickness of a 2012 MacBook Pro while still weighing lighter than the 2012 MacBook Pro with an optical drive.

Pricing and availability of the DEC have yet to be announced, but OWC has mentioned that the 4TB variant will cost less than “what Apple charges to go from 256GB to 2TB on the MacBook Pro.” Considering the fact that such an upgrade costs USD1,400, we could hazard a guess that the DEC itself might have a hefty asking price of its own.

Source: Gizmodo