Review: Satechi’s Stand and Hub is even more of a Mac mini and Mac Studio essential with new NVMe SSD slot

January 25, 2024

6 min read

Satechi’s Stand and Hub is easily one of my favorite Mac mini accessories ever, and now it’s getting an upgrade. Earlier this year at CES, the company refreshed the aluminum-clad stand to feature improved NVMe SSD support. I’ve been putting it to the test with my Mac Studio since, and am happy to report it’s even more of a must-have than before.

For the past several years, there really has been only a single top contender for the best Mac mini accessory. At least for me. Satechi’s Stand and Hub has become something of an entire product category in its own right over since its debut. Its iconic design has inspired quite a few knock offs in the past, but none have been able to get that signature Apple-adjacent design quite right. I loved the original release back when I reviewed it closer to the start of the 2020s, and now a new version is back.

So I had to get my hands on one and see if my thoughts about the Mac accessory have changed.

The new Satechi Stand and Hub arrives with the same, beloved design as before. The aluminum exterior has the exact same footprint as any of Apple’s headless desktop Macs, supporting either the Mac mini or Mac Studio. It tackles the same approach of bringing some I/O out from the back of your machine into a far more accessible front-facing design, all while adding some extra storage thanks to a hidden SSD slot.

But new for the just-refreshed version is support for NVMe SSDs. It’s a feature that was lacking all the way back in 2021 when I reviewed the previous-generation model, and something that is even more of a must-have in 2024. Being able to take advantage of newer drives unlocks a lot of potential, and elevates the whole experience beyond just being a convenient USB hub.

Satechi was kind enough to send over one of the new Stand and Hub for me to check out. This time around, I am doing something a bit differently though. My last review looked at the accessory through the lens of an add-on for Mac mini, and this time I am busting out my Mac Studio to see how it fairs as an upgrade for Apple’s higher-end desktop macOS experience.

The SSD upgrade really is the key feature here, and it’s what I want to dive into first. Being able to take full advantage of an NMVe drive over the M.2 SATA drive compatibility from before really changes the game for why I can recommend the Satechi Stand and Hub. Before, it was all about the convenience factor – something that I am going to circle back to a lot here. But now, there’s far more utility. It used to just be that you could add a slower drive that’s perfect for things like Time Machine backups or having an archive data always connected to your Mac.

Now, you can actually edit footage right from the SSD. In practice, that means I was looking at very consistent transfer speeds in the ballpark of 900MB/s. You can see the speed test results above for a full breakdown of what that looks like, but it was very solid performance time and time again.

Of course, there is still all of the convenience of the form-factor itself. After all of these years, I still love just how good the Stand and Hub looks docked underneath a desktop Mac. I’m a sucker for a clean and minimalist setup – even if my workstations always end up decked out with tons of toys and trinkets – and Satechi makes it easy to keep up that kind of simple aesthetic. In true Satechi fashion, the build is just as premium as with many of its other products, offering a metal finish to the plastic interior. There’s plenty of little rubber pads on the top and bottom to keep your Mac safely placed on top, as well as the whole package securely seated on your desk.

The I/O on the front also remains just as handy as before. Given that this is a USB-C hub and not one with the newer Thunderbolt spec, I don’t see an issue with this version of the Stand and Hub including the same ports as before. I do wish there was a second USB-C slot on the front to go alongside the three USB-C ports, but the micro and SD card readers, plus the 3.5mm headphone jack, remain a very versatile mix of ports. All of this connects over just a single USB-C cable on the back of your Mac mini or Mac Studio, which is at least nice because it keeps all of your machine’s other I/O free.

In my actual use, I really didn’t find myself needing to plug in more than a single USB-C device at a time that wouldn’t otherwise already be a more permanent fixture of my workstation. Maybe the next version will give us an entirely refreshed roster of ports. But for now, Satechi gets a pass with maintaining the status quo from the previous iteration.

Satechi’s new Stand and Hub clocks in with the same $99.99 price tag as before. You can buy it now on Amazon, as well as directly from Satechi.

9to5Toys’ Take

After spending the past few weeks with the Mac Studio on my desk and the Stand and Hub right underneath, it’s safe to say that Satechi has done it again. The upgrades this time around may be small on paper, but they offer serious benefits for anyone looking to add a speedy SSD into the mix without sacrificing on the clean designs of their Mac mini or Mac Studio. I mean, that’s one of the whole benefits of Apple’s latest M2 Macs, and Satechi preserves that with some of its signature stylings.

At $100, it’s still going to be an essential accessory for any new desktop Mac owner. It’s just too good now with the NVMe support not to recommend, and with the same price tag as before, you don’t have to pay a premium for the added tech.

The only way I can really see this being better would be if Satechi decided to release a Thunderbolt 4 version of the Stand and Hub in the future. That is something I would absolutely love to see, but even that would come with a cost bump that would change how easy the accessory is to recommend.

Satechi strikes a very good balance right now on features and price that keep the Stand and Hub affordable enough to recommend with something as low as a $500 M2 Mac mini, while providing enough value for higher-end M2 Mac Studio machines.