this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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I'm no Apple fanboy (never owned a product of theirs and never will) but to be fair, those two USB-C ports can do everything the old, removed ports can do and more. The real crime here is not putting enough of them on the laptop.
Edit: The only port I'll lament the removal of is the headphone jack. USB-C headphones are rare, adapters get lost, and bluetooth headphones compress the audio and have input lag. Everything else can go, though, and won't be missed. (Okay fine ethernet can stay too.)
But my existing mice, keyboards, monitors, printers, and more don't use those ports.
So now people get to carry around an external hub just to plug in damn thumbdrive.
Or just permanently put a c to a adapter on the USB cable of the mouse?
Those threads are so funny. One day, we see people talking against planned obsolescence and the environmental impacts of the tech industry. The other day, the same people are cheering for removal of backwards compatibility and happy to throw away their stuff to buy new ones, and even making peer pressure on the ones who don't do the same so they feel "antiquated".
USB-C keyboards & mice have been around for years. I switched to USB-C almost half a decade ago and haven't looked back.
Regardless, you can easily mod your existing gear to USB-C with just a screwdriver and a soldering gun (or electrical tape if you're lazy like me).
So your solution is for people to either throw away perfectly-good products (Logitech mice still don't have USB-C receivers btw), or learn to hack something together?
My laptop from 2018 ago is no thicker than a modern laptop and managed to have 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C, a power adapter port (though it also supports PD), an SD card reader, and a headphone jack.
Now that PD is a better standard and power bricks had no standard, I can see dropping the power port for another Type-C port for a lower-power laptop that can't draw more power than PD can deliver, but there's no justification for dropping the other ports that are "still" standards being used by new devices.
For some yes, for some not.
My ideal minimum is this: 3x USB-C with support for slow 5V charging, 3x USB-A, 1x RJ-45 Ethernet (not some shit like ThinkPad Ethernet extension), 1x HDMI or 1x DP++, 1x DB9 serial port, 1x MicroSD or 1x SD slot (flush when inserted), 1x 3.5mm combo jack.
Apple’s MacBook Pro includes HDMI and a third usb/Thunderbolt port alongside an SDXC and headphone jack (the latter of which is on all their laptops albeit on the other side). This seems like the perfect balance for most users.
It’s nonsense they don’t include HDMI on the Air, but then “it’s kinda thin and kinda light”.
I was not sad to see FireWire and mini-DisplayPort replaced with usb-c/thunderbolt.
Current port line up on “pro” machines:
Add 3-4 more USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and that is a perfectly adequate setup (especially since one will be taken up by the charging cable if you don't have a dock, and even then I could get by). I'm actually impressed that there are so many ports on it...for an Apple laptop.
It's a laptop, do you really need 7 USB C / Thunderbolt ports on a laptop? You can always plug in a dock and get multiple other ports when you're set up at a desk.
When I'm not at a desk I rarely have anything at all plugged in. Maybe power if I'm going for a long time, but the Pro has its own power adapter. Maybe a USB stick for a minute or two.I can't imagine having 3 things, in addition to power and headphones, plugged in while I'm not at a desk. At a desk it's probably more convenient to have a dock so you can have a bunch of things permanently plugged into the dock (keyboard, mouse, screens) that require just 1 plug to the laptop before they're ready to go.
The sd card reader is cool too
what about hdmi?
like i get it, displays work ovee typec. but most monitors you're gonna find in the wild still use hdmi and being able to just plug your laptop in is a godsent
The new MacBook pros do have a HDMI port.
My work laptop is a dell xps and it's the same, 3 USB c and that's it. One gets used for charging. It came with a c to HDMI and A adapter. Basically forces you to need a dock at the desk and carry a bunch of adapters for anywhere else. Even just 1 type A for the mouse receiver would be nice because logitech still don't make type C receivers.
You monitor is the dock. Just a simple USB c 40gb/s connecting monitor and PC and everything is connected to the monitor, like mouse, keyboard, cam, etc.
I like it more like this.
I know it sucks to buy another thing. But a Bluetooth mouse would fix your issue. I had the same problem and evenually had to cave and buy a wireless Bluetooth mouse.
To connect to a device that's 100 meters away at an appreciable speed (and beyond that at lesser quality), one still kind of needs Ethernet. Can be accomplished with an adapter, though.
Did you read my edit?
Nope, I think I must have written my reply while it hadn't propagated here.
Can USBC be used for audio if headphones start using a USBC plug?
Yes, and it works with every pair of headphones. Like I said, all you need is an adapter. It isn't difficult to cut and splice some wires to make your own USB-C headphones, either.
There's a headphone jack on the other side. I don't think Apple make a computer without a headphone jack. Most models have more than two USB-C ports as well and all current models have a dedicated "Magsafe" charging port.