Nothing wrong with USB-C and the big trackpad is fine too, and I would love to have touchID on my 2015MBP. But getting rid of mag power and the USB-A ports, HDMI port, and SD card slot was a big step back.
Maybe you don't ever need to present anything from your laptop, but if you talk to anyone who does, they will tell you how awful it is to not have an HDMI port. The USB-C to HDMI is the worst adapter I've ever seen.
And if you're a semi-pro photographer, the lack of an SD card slot is terrible. And of course almost all accessories are still USB-A.
I think they really needed a transition design for 3-4 years that included USB-C but still had the "legacy" ports—in quotes because when they announced the C-only model I hadn't even seen a USB-C port or cable in real life yet.
USB-A is nowhere near being on the way out yet. Especially when their own damn mobile devices still come with A cables. We're way into their attempt to push everything to USB-C but I went to Target to grab one for my work laptop (to be able to charge an iPhone or iPad from it) and the C cables that are anything other than C-to-A (for some android phones) are 100% Apple branded. Everything's still A and Micro-USB. A whole wall of that. USB-C? Only in a tiny Apple section. Flash drives? Mostly still A. Everything, really. Having only C continues to suck, and it looks like it will for a while. Apple's switch to C doesn't even seem to have changed things that much—everyone seems to just still do A and assume the poor Macbook users will plug in a hub or use an adapter.
USB-C is baffling. Suppose you buy into the dream of one cable type for everything. So you buy printers, scanners, optical drives, external hard drives and SSDs, and so on that have USB-C connectors, and you buy USB-C flash drives, and buy USB-C to USB-C cables to hook it all up.
But your computer only has two USB-C ports!
No problem, you think. You've run into the same problem before with computers with USB-A connectors. The answer was simple: buy a hub that connects to one of your computer's USB-A connectors and provides several USB-A connectors to hook up your devices.
You just needs a hub that connects via USB-C and provides several USB-C ports.
That's harder than it should be. There do not seem to be many of these available, and those that are tend to not have very good reviews.
> USB-C is baffling. Suppose you buy into the dream of one cable type for everything.
I may be mistaken but I think that was the original USB dream as well. It's been a source of immense irritation to me at times over the years to find that I don't have quite the right mini/micro/whatever[1] USB cable to hand to connect whatever device I happen to have with me. USB-C just adds to what is already a mess of a situation as far as I can see.
[1] Don't get me started with cables that have USB-A on one end and some proprietary connector on the other: I'm looking at YOU, Garmin, with the stupid cables for your Fenix line of watches (which aren't great, btw: learn from my mistake and don't buy one), and YOU, Nintendo, for the daft 3DS charger socket that would have been just fine if it were a micro-USB socket.
Mini USB? I haven't seen new devices with that since like 2004. All phones moved towards Micro USB <-> USB-A. The amount of devices I have which simply have Micro USB <-> USB-A is staggering and almost always are the cables compatible with each other. My main issue with Micro USB is that some of the endpoints on _devices_ are badly soldered, leading to the port coming out. Such occurred on the Nokia N900. I rather have my cable getting broken than the port on the (expensive) device.
What Apple did though with MagSafe was simple yet elegant. It is something I do as well with my Micro USB and USB-C cables (making them magnetic; I'm using TOPK cables for that). USB-C as replacement for MagSafe is a step backwards.
I bought a 4K Action cam last year and a dashcam this year that both used mini-USB. I've also seen a guy making some open hardware to adapt some retro something or other being proud of picking mini instead of micro since it's "less fragile"
It's not baffling to me. Usb-A isn't appropriate for small form factors. USB-C is. Why can't I plug the same things into my phone that I can plug into my computer? I'm already phasing out USB-A simply because I think a device you can only use on your phone with a single is limited. I used to carry around a laptop to do network diagnostics... I've realised you can literally do the same crap from your phone by using USB-C dongles... and the form factor is actually better.
Mind you Apple seems to be missing one of the main practical advantage of USB-C by slapping a lightning port on their phones thus ensuring donglegeddon. This drives me insane. Apple for all the puffery about giving consumers what they don't know they wanted is instead giving consumers an inferior choice that ensures lock-in and keeps vendors happy.
I want a USB-C hub with at least 5 USB-C ports and no other legacy ports. Only USB-C. An added bonus would be alt-mode video transmission from my Mac and power. Does such a beast exist? Not that I can find!
Yes, it's somewhat surprising that all those USB-C hubs seem to focus on providing an interface to other connectors rather than just offering more of the same, as in more USB-C ports. Maybe it's a technological limitation?
In any case I'm grateful that the Mac Mini I upgraded to recently at least offers 4 generous Thunderbolt/USB-C ports.
I've heard this second-hand (or third-hand) and my EE knowledge is nowhere near good enough to say how accurate this is, but: Apparently the power delivery negotiation mechanism in USB-C is vastly more complex than for USB-A, so hubs with lots of USB-C ports would need new, more complex chips compared to equivalent USB-A hubs. It already took a few years for reliable hubs to turn up when we first got USB 3.0. I'm assuming the manufacturers might also be trying to hit USB 3.1 Gen2 speeds at the same time as supporting USB-C, which presumably further tightens reliability tolerances. I'm guessing with all that, they might not be able to hit the desired price points with this stuff yet, and all that complexity probably also takes a lot of power so bus powered USB3.1 hubs with USB-C downstream ports are presumably a tricky proposition too.
Not only that, but those two ports cant serve hubs properly. At work, I try two hubs connect power cable, two monitors, a keyboard and a mouse. It's too much data or power or something, and the mouse gets screwy.
IIRC correctly Firewire was Apple's baby and they policed their patents/trademarks on that until it suffocated. You couldn't even call it firewire, you had to call it "IEEE 1394". It was the superior technology and it loped along until USB 2 provided comparable speeds and it became obsolete.
That's because USB doesn't have daisy chaining (unless you count integrating a hub into the device). Thunderbolt has daisy chaining but it's so expensive that devices only use Thunderbolt if they really need it.
Buy into the dream deeper: lose as many wires as possible. Of course some things just need to be connected, but plenty of other devices sync or operate OTA.
I'm calling it - USB-A will still be around going strong 10 years from now. Take a stroll through a BIC Camera in Tokyo. How many USB-A accessories are still for sale? It's about 99% of the stock. I'm sure it's the same at a Best Buy in the US.
Apple and the fanboys calling it a "Legacy" port are completely out of touch with reality.
Best Buy has an inventory turnover ratio of approximately 6* - So clears its entire stock on average every 8 weeks. While there might be a large percentage of USB-A products currently, once a technology market shifts it's quite surprising how fast suppliers will also change their product supply and you see a fairly rapid change in stock even in big box stores.
Most of the devices I have purchased in the last year have been USB-C. Sony headphones, LG display, my car even has USB-C charge ports. Look at many manufacture lineups and the new flagships are USB-C. I do still have a bunch of USB-A devices, but they're older buys at this point.
I think there will be a few year gap, but 10 years might be a little too pessimistic. Time will tell I guess!
Well we're already 3 years in since the new generation USB-C only Macbook Pro came out. Let's call it 7 years for a total of 10. Not putting a lone USB-A port on it was an act of extreme arrogance imho
> Apple and the fanboys calling it a "Legacy" port are completely out of touch with reality.
It is now a legacy port on Apple laptops. I think it's the correct term to use in context, regardless of fandom. It is referring to ports that existed in the past, and are being phased out on the platform in question.
I've had USB C phones for almost 4 years now. Most micro USB cables have swapped to C with a few C to micro adapters around (1/2" dongles on a key ring). At work we just purchased USB C based drives for imaging/deployment process. If I didn't prefer displayport and had the cash to drop I'd see about USB C monitors at home too. It's taking over but the USB A standard is still in use.
I’d tend to agree, although look at the success of new connection technologies Apple pioneered when they were coupled with things that already did similar things.
FireWire, all speeds: was always coupled with USB or other tech that possibly didn’t carry data as fast as FW, but was “good enough” for lots of things. FireWire never really took off aside from digital video cameras, and that got phased out over time, too.
DisplayPort: nope.
Compare that to the original iMac, which dropped the serial and SCSI port. People gasped, but in not too long (at least now, looking back in it), USB was everywhere.
And now USB-C. Would it have been as popular as it currently is - on lots of chrome books, many phones, even the Nintendo switch - if Apple has not been so gung ho on it? Possibly, but a bit of me doubts it.
I REALLY don't see Apple as leading the charge on USB-C. I see them as a laggard given their refusal to put a USB-C port where it's most useful - on their phones. They also weren't the first to put the ports on their laptops.
Just because they ship a laptop with 4 USB-C TB ports and nothing else doesn't mean they're driving USB-C adoption nearly as much as say Samsung or Huawei. If anything because they literally don't use the same port across different types of devices unlike other phone/laptop sellers... They're discouraging USB-C adoption and making dongles more appealing since you will still need dongles if you're using all Apple even if you have USB-C native stuff.
Apple aren't pushing people towards expensive new standards they're just making consumer unfriendly decisions. Making it so you can't use USB-A does not mean you're making it easy to adopt USB-C... They make adopting USB-C unnessecarily painful.
USB C in Chromebooks pre-dates apple's usage. And several other manufacturers were putting USB c in their devices before apple even announced. And apple still isn't using it in their phones.
Their tech is 2019 appropriate if you don't have an Apple laptop, is the thing. And they even provide some USB-C stuff for Apple devices, but only from Apple, I assume because the demand is nearly nonexistent. Just like if it were a proprietary Apple port—though I think they actually have some lightning cables from other manufacturers, at least, unlike USB-C.
[EDIT] I just think they whiffed well ahead of the ball on this one, is all. No USB-C ports to 100% USB-C ports was premature. I think the percentage of their market that was like "oh good now I can plug all my USB-C stuff into this, which is most of what I have!" rounds down to zero, while all my geek friends and co-workers' reactions were closer to "so... there will be zero things in my home or office I can plug into this without an adapter? And for this I gain... maybe 1mm more of thinness?" with actual experience quickly confirming that concern as valid, as #donglelife continues without end in sight.
If you remember the original iMac, they did the same thing with USB-A.
Everybody was concerned that the iMac's only I/O port was USB (when others had serial, parallel, and maybe SCSI/USB as an afterthought), and it was completely incompatible with legacy peripherals. For many years USB accessories were considered specialty items for the Mac market.
It kinda sucked at first... but it's not clear if USB would have even caught on if Apple didn't do that. In the long term, Apple clearly made the right move.
At the very least, this isn't outside of Apple's usual playbook.
> but it's not clear if USB would have even caught on if Apple didn't do that.
Here's the problem with that argument; Macs are a pretty small percentage of the computer market, and always have been. Consumer peripheral companies are driven by what people will buy, not moving the market forward.
USB was always going to be what it is, and if you want evidence of Apple's lack of power here just look at FireWire. They pushed it hard, but consumers didn't care so it died.
USB had been out for a couple of years at that point, and it had no traction. I remember finding PCs with dusty, unused USB ports next to the PS/2 plugs and serial ports.
Macs are definitely a small portion of the computer market, but it’s a big enough market for companies to target. You’ll find Mac-specific keyboards from big-name companies like Logitech, for example. With the iMac, USB went from “weird connector nobody uses” to “we have a guaranteed pool of millions of customers with no alternative.” And because of the U in USB, those products worked with PCs too, if they had USB ports and drivers to make them work. It kicked off a virtuous cycle where more peripherals meant more computer supporting them meant more peripherals.
FireWire wasn’t the same scenario since there was no pressing need to support it. USB was good enough for 99% of what people needed. Unless you needed high speed storage or high end audio, you didn’t need it, and USB versions were cheaper anyway. FireWire was never pushed so hard that it was the only thing available on many popular computers.
I’m not sure if it carried over to hardware, but Macs and iOS have always punched above their weight in terms of money spent by people using them vs using other platforms. More money is made by apps sold on iOS than on Android, for example.
Disagree wholeheartedly. I bought a USB-C to Video adapter from Amazon that has DVI, VGA, HDMI, and mDP and it only takes up one space on my MacBook and the only time I ever need to use it is when I'm presenting so I can just keep it in my laptop bag. That also means that I don't have to worry about what tech is being used at the place I'm presenting because I have all the options covered as opposed to just having 1 port or multiple ports on my machine.
At my desk, I have a USB-C hub that's connected to both monitors, storage, power, and my keyboard/mouse and it's also 1 cable and 1 slot on the MacBook. I can hook either up to whatever port on whatever side I want to. The flexibility is way more worthwhile than a dedicated HDMI port to me.
I get the appeal. At my (home) desk, I have the same (minus power), except it's Thunderbolt, which my 2014 MBP has. For a couple beautiful years I could switch monitor/headset/kb/mouse between work and home laptops with 1 simple plug. Now that the work lappy is USB C though things aren't simple anymore.
Wouldn't an USB-C enabled monitor provide the same functionality? Whenever you plug in either laptop the USB-C connection would provide video, an USB hub (on the monitor) and even charge your laptop. What am I missing here?
Well, unless you don't use an external display. And in that case why not just get an USB-C hub with video out? Your Thunderbolt-enabled Macbook should work regardless.
I'm not sure why they wouldn't be simple. Thunderbolt has a USB-C variant. Just get a USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter and keep it plugged in on the end at all times. You'll be in exactly the same situation you were in before and now future-proofed for other, newer Thunderbolt devices.
So, on the power side of the equation, I have come to understand why they chose to go the direction they did.
With the previous generation of MagSafe/MagSafe II power supplies, if the cable gets frayed, you have to replace the entire power supply. If the MagSafe connector gets hosed, you have to replace the entire power supply. Basically, if anything goes wrong beyond the AC input side, you have to replace the whole power supply. I ended up buying a whole bunch of these things over the years, so I am particularly sensitive to the amount of money I've spent.
With the USB-C power supplies, if something goes wrong with the cable, you just get a new cable. If something goes wrong with the connector on the cable, you just get a new cable. The only time you need to replace the entire power supply itself is if something goes wrong internally, or if something goes wrong with the USB-C connector on the power supply. And since cables are engineered to break before cable connectors, that is much less likely.
Don't get me wrong, the MagSafe connector has saved my machine on several occasions. But I understand why they want to be able to cheaply and easily replace just the cable part, because that's the part that is most likely to have hardware failures.
I do wish they had figured out some way to have a standardized cable interface on the power supply itself, and a MagSafe-like connector on the other end. That would have been the best of both worlds. But failing that, I think I will grudgingly take the second-best solution, which is to have a standard USB-C connector on both ends.
Now, this whole concept of mixing USB-C, USB-C Power Delivery, and Thunderbolt 3, that's a whole 'nother Gordian Knot that I really wish they had not created.
> if the cable gets frayed, you have to replace the entire power supply
This is true for the existing design but it would have been easy to redesign the power supply to avoid it.
Just look at the other end: the wall-plug end has long been replaceable; it slides out so you can put on a different plug or a longer cable. This could be true on the MagSafe side as well -- then any Mac power supply could be used with any generation Mac, just by switching out the MagSafe/USB-C end.
But the MagSafe cable would serve exactly one purpose, whereas the usb-c cable does not. And now I can charge from Either side of the box too – great stuff! When my cable broke it wasn’t a big deal, I had an extra (shorter) cable I could use, and then go get a new one later. I’d be hard pressed to buy extra MagSafe cables to carry around just in case one broke, but the extra usb-c cables are actually useful or other things too.
Common sense and good design will not rule over sales generation thru designed in obsolescence. I had to buy new adapter with mag-safe for my 2013 Air. Got a new MBP at work a few days later and the replaceable cable makes so much sense. Now just needs a cable maker to produce a USB-C to MagSafe cable.
Funny how other laptops (and I've owned PC laptops and macbooks) have cables that don't fray. Only Apple's old magsafe cable has that fine rubbery material that disintegrates with time, and no strain relief on the connector.
On my cables the material starts to crumble and crack. Something about that particular type of rubber. But maybe it depends on the market or where it is manufactured. I seem to remember some lasting longer than others, I think it didin't happen on the 2014 model, but did on my original 2011 charger and on the replacement I had to buy (within the first year). But the 2016 usb-c cable doesn't really have this issue I think. Maybe it's the climate, warmer summers?
I found that this happened if you are around cigarettes. Once I moved away from that family member, I’ve not had another one die in that fashion since.
Happens all the time with any cables really. I've had many cables succumb to the good ol' lemme just adjust may chair right over your cable there type situations. Particularly when you have to run the cable to an awkwardly placed outlet.
You can certainly damage a cable, but I'm sure those old thick black PC charging cables with a barrel connector are way sturdier than the flimsy but aesthetically pleasing macbook ones.
That's such nonsense. I've never had a thinkpad cable wear out on me. I've got a whole box sitting around somewhere full of them because they never break. But thinkpad cables aren't unusually robust; Dell cables last just as long. Most cables last effectively forever unless you slam a door on them or something unreasonable like that.
The only cables I've seen reliably fall apart after no more than a few years are Christmas tree light strings from the dollar store, and Apple charging cables.
Every other consumer electronics manufacturer just figured out how to make cables that didn't fray, and it's nothing to do with the magnet...
The boon from the USB-C is that you can charge with a borrowed commodity cable when you've left your adapter at home and aren't in an office full of Macbooks. But it's been left to third parties to implement the concept of combining USB-C and a magnetic joint in the same cable.
(I'd have been tempted to get into the manufacturing business if they hadn't...)
I always hated the MagSafe connectors because I almost always used my laptop with the power connected but not on a table or other hard surface (eg a bed), and it would invariably fall off constantly.
I had this problem too on my 2015 MPB, when Apple went from Magsafe 1 to Magsafe 2, which was (vertically) thinner. The Magsafe 2 easily disconnected when there was even a little vertical torque.
I bought a Snuglet, a thin metal shell that inserts into the Magsafe recess on the MBP. It reduces vertical and horizontal clearance between the Magsafe connector halves. In my case, this has completely eliminated unwanted disconnects.
Disclaimer: no connection with Snuglet or NewerTech, just have found the product useful as advertised.
USB-C is not making it better, my t480s cable is too heavy and you can see it tugging on the connector and it's not sitting straight but tilted. I already managed to break one USB-C socket on my 2016 macbook pro, I can see it breaking soon on the thinkpad if I don't caress it, which means not letting the cable hang and making sure not to bump it with my knee.
I was annoyed by the MagSafe removal but I've had 5 of these [0] since the change and I have zero complaints. My Neato has eaten them multiple times and they are still kicking and if they ever die, it's just a cheap cable rather than a new power supply. I went through multiple of the old magsafe power supplies despite ample application of Sugru [1]. Overall I think moving the magnetic disconnect to the cable is a good move.
> With the previous generation of MagSafe/MagSafe II power supplies, if the cable gets frayed, you have to replace the entire power supply. If the MagSafe connector gets hosed, you have to replace the entire power supply. Basically, if anything goes wrong beyond the AC input side, you have to replace the whole power supply. I ended up buying a whole bunch of these things over the years, so I am particularly sensitive to the amount of money I've spent.
This is a design issue that doesn’t require a USB-C cable to fix.
When I do presentations in my department's conference room, I just AirPlay to the AppleTV connected to the projector. It was a great solution because it allows anyone on the team to do presentations. All they have to do is mirror their screen and bring their mouse or trackpad into the conference room. It's been a godsend.
If I have to do presentations in other buildings on campus (about every other week), I bring my USB-C to HDMI dongle. It's super small, weighs nothing, and always works.
I've heard that there are some off-brand USB-C to HDMI adapters from Amazon that are flaky, but the Belkin one that the IT department got me is rock solid. I've used it probably 30 times so far.
I doubt anyone who really had to do presentations minds carrying around a tiny dongle, compared to all the other things they'll bring to a presentation.
if you're a semi-pro photographer, the lack of an SD card slot is terrible
The pro photographers in my company's Communications department all say they hate built-in SD card readers. They all use standalone units. I don't know why, though. I'll have to ask.
And of course almost all accessories are still USB-A.
That's the same moaning people did about parallel and serial ports.
Just that I have never been in a conference room with an Apple TV attached to the projector. They are a pretty expensive addon considering that I rarely see other Macs at the business meetings I attend.
AirPlay is great unless it isn't. It would often not work correctly in my last office. There was something about the network that caused it to drop, freeze, or refuse to connect. When possible we'd use HDMI instead of fighting with it.
Screen cast dongles are pretty much a dime a dozen these days though. Maybe I’m lucky but in he past two years or so I haven’t been anywhere that still relies on hdmi for presenting on big screens. Except conferences.
Amazon has a bunch[0] but couldn't really vouch for any of them, I mainly use Apple TV (not just for airplay.) I've also seen these things in pretty much any electronics store I've been the past couple of years, particularly ones in touristy areas – I guess plenty of people like to cast video to hotel room TVs maybe?
A buddy of mine used a dongle for his big screen pre-streaming features era TV. He mainly used it to stream games from his phone or iPad to the TV, and Netflix. I think it was chromecast though, not airplay, but same difference really.
I'm not sure I'd put a lot of credibility in the reviews on apple.com. Especially for a device like a display adapter which is frequently connected to a finicky and/or cheap device like a projector or display.
No, I think that people who have had bad experiences with their adapter are more likely to go the manufacturer's website and post comments about how it didn't work for them. If Amazon wasn't a wasteland of fake reviews, I might actually trust it more than Apple's website.
So don't trust Amazon because fake reviews, don't trust Apple reviews cause users are dumb and confuse adapter issues with third-party devices issues, I think you just don't trust reviews regardless.
but if anything Apple adapters tend to be higher quality than third-party ones?
Actually the Apple HDMI adapters seem to be very fragile. They continue to stop working after moderate use. I have two dead ones on my desk and plenty more that we bought with MacBooks. The offerings of MonoPrice seem to be solid though. Apple's entry also seems to have problems with budget TVs unlike others, it is very weird.
I'm not an Apple fan and I never had any of their products, however I think this is still the right direction,even if it's super painful. I've got Dell Xps 13,which only has USB-C ports and SD card slot. Initially you get annoyed you can't connect your usb stick,hdmi cable and etc.,but then you start thinking like screw them.There are endless variations of cables,ports and standards and it's just mad. I just hope that over the next few years we'll get to the point where it's much more unified and you don't need to carry 20 different adapters..
Yes, USB-D is supposed to do that. 1 port for all applications. You will be able to daisy-chain your screens, keyboards, printers and projectors, but also power supply, and it also adds TouchID compatibility. One port to rule them all. USB-D is the future!
> Maybe you don't ever need to present anything from your laptop [...]
I do, almost daily. I even bought the HDMI dongle thinking I might need it when doing presentations outside of my usual workplaces but I have literally never used it. The presentation problem was solved years ago by airplay and chromecast, and the only thing I use HDMI for these days is to hook up things permanently, not temporarily.
I did think at first that I’d miss MagSafe, but I’ve never had an issue with the cable sticking in the port such that I yank my laptop of the table, and I’ve yanked that cable out a number of times. As another commenter rightly pointed out as well, the move from MagSafe actually meant when my cable got damaged because someone put a chair on it I didn’t have to swap the whole power supply, just the cable. Huge win and since I had extra I could solve it right then and there.
I’m no photographer though, so can’t really say for the SD thing. Maybe that does suck.
Maybe for your personal monitors. A far more annoying problem is connecting to conference room projectors. My or still has conference rooms with nothing but VGA cables plugged in to the projector.
This is exactly why I'm 100% for the USB-C switch. I have 1 dongle that handles every video type to USB-C - VGA, DVI, HDMI, and even mDP. There's no reason for all 4 of those ports to be built into the computer on the off chance that I need one of them.
I have the opposite perspective. I'd like my $3000 device to have all the ports I'm likely to need over the lifetime of said device. Dongles and specific adapter cables are a pain.
But then we're back at the beginning of this conversation and you're saying you'd rather have a larger, bulkier, laptop that can accommodate several of these single-use ports. The entire conversation was related to why USB-C was a good/bad decision. I think it was a good decision because I have infinitely more flexibility than I'd have with what you're suggesting. Anything that needs to work over the "lifetime of said device" needs to be able to handle future technologies and having dedicated HDMI ports, for example, is not useful for that because even the HDMI spec has changed multiple times in the last few years.
Your HDMI argument falls a bit flat, since even the brand spanking new USB-C in the latest macbook pros don't support HDMI-2.0 in alt-mode. Instead you need to run them in Displayport and actually run a converter, which is hot and bulky, or you can't get 4k60.
Besides, I'm not fundamentally against dongles, if you REALLY need one because tech has changed or whatever then sure, but let's not require 5 just to operate your computer normally straight out the box.
I really don't see any disadvantage to having an HDMI port, a Type-A USB port and an SD card reader around for making the transition period to USB-C easier. Considering the compromises made to the keyboard, I don't buy that the ports were the thickness limit, either.
Then we'll have to agree to disagree. I've run several hundred presentations over HDMI with the dongle that I have and have been able to do several hundred more via VGA, DVI, etc. without that. Other than that, I don't have 5 dongles. All my devices and cables are USB-C now and it's of great benefit to me that I can be flexible and plug them in anywhere, chain them, get power from them, and essentially run them all off of 1 hub that only takes 1 cable to the computer. For me, USB-C is amazing.
Define 'pro'. My Sony A7iii uses SD cards. My Blackmagic pocket cinema writes to USB-C. If anything C-Fast is a dying medium. SD cards are tremendously cheaper, and at this point likely as fast.
The D810 came out in 2014, Nikon have since favoured XQD over CF. The D5 was available with both, but the D500 and D850 both take an SD and XQD card - and their new mirrorless line is XQD only.
Of course, the next CF standard, CFexpress, is XQD-shaped and devices will be backward compatible.
I prefer the ability to easy replace my usb c cable if it gets damaged, compared to buying a new 80$ brick with MagSafe. Also the ability to charge my laptop from either side is awesome too.
Also once iPhone new iPhone will have a type c charging you will be able to use a cable from your MacBook to charge your phone, so you will only need to carry MacBook charger without worrying about a separate cable for your iPhone
> Maybe you don't ever need to present anything from your laptop
I present all the time, but I can't remember the last time I had to plug in. The problem with trying to plug in is that the other side could be anything from VGA to DP. Should VGA ports be stuck back onto the MBP?
> And if you're a semi-pro photographer, the lack of an SD card slot is terrible.
What about the CF, XQD, or mini-SD slot? I'm an enthusiast photographer (maybe even semi-pro as I have been paid for my pics before), and soon I will not have a need for an SD card slot.
> mag power
Mag safe was nice, but I recently took a trip where I needed a single power brick and cable for my MBP and iPad. Once the iPhone goes USB-C it will make traveling even that much easier.
> Mag safe was nice, but I recently took a trip where I needed a single power brick and cable for my MBP and iPad. Once the iPhone goes USB-C it will make traveling even that much easier.
I didn’t even realize how much this would matter to me until I went traveling. All of a sudden I don’t even need anything but the brick, because I’ll just either hook it up to my phone directly with a ubs-c to lightning cable (and it charges crazy fast) or I’ll use the laptop as a hub. I still carry a sugar cube with me just in case, but I never use it really.
Get a USB-C Lightning cable. One brick, two cables, and you can charge the iPhone on the other devices. Yes it’d be better if the iPhone was USB-C too but that basically has been my strategy: get a set of USB-C to A/B/Mini/Micro/Micro3/HDMI/Lightning cables (not that I lug all of them around, they’re merely plugged into my accessories). There exist USB-C magnet thingies too.
Agreed. I'm an enthusiast photographer and previously semi prod. The SD card slot is nice to have some times, but most of the time I use a dedicated card reader for CF, SD, and micro-SD cards.
> And if you're a semi-pro photographer, the lack of an SD card slot is terrible.
If you're a semi-pro photographer you should stop wasting your time with a built-in SD card slot and get an external USB 3.1 Gen 2 card reader. Fstopper running the numbers:
> Even if you don't want to spend the money on a more expensive memory card, buying a nicer ProGrade card reader is still worth it.
>Nothing wrong with USB-C and the big trackpad is fine too, and I would love to have touchID on my 2015MBP. But getting rid of mag power and the USB-A ports, HDMI port, and SD card slot was a big step back.
All of the above plus a thicker battery.
95% of the time I use my MBPr plugged in, but the few times I need to run it on battery power it would be nice to have longer than 2hr run time (late 2013 MBPr 15" w/ Iris Pro/GeForce GT 750M and brand new battery).
The 2013 MBPr 15" models have the largest li-ion battery allowed to be brought onto an airplane by the FAA, so you're not going to get anything bigger than that. My complaint is that they've made the batteries smaller than that maximum on the new models (starting 2016)
At least with USB-C Macs you can bring a separate standard USB PD battery pack and charge off that. There was no such option for the MagSafe Macs (there was a third party company that made one but Apple sued them to death)
The users who want/need all those ports are pretty niche, even among power user developers and graphic designers. I think Apple did their market research on this.
It only has one DVI port and the USB-pass-through. Funny as it is, I am writing this post on a Dell 30" screen connected via this very adapter to a 2015 MB Pro. Yes, this was one of the worst contraptions of a dongle ever made, but in this case, it was the only way to create dual-link DVI ouptut (needed for resolutions larger than 1920x1080) from a Displayport.
I present. Adapter is a bit big but don’t carry it unless I need it. Happy with all the changes except: the keyboard is completely broken.
When I first got a new air I loved the new keyboard - I really like the feel - but now I have repeated keypresses I have fallen out of love with apple.
So you are saying: having a built-in hdmi port would have been useful.
There is very little reason not to have all ports - hmdi, mini display port (+display port) readily available; connected straight to the video card. There is plenty of room.
I don't recall a lot of people crying about the loss of a DVD drive. That was the moment where everyone outside techdom was forced to realize that everything goes over the network.
Also, as someone who still has a iMac with an optical drive, their failure rate (Apple or any other brand) has always been atrocious.
Professional photographers should (IMHO) either shoot tethered or get an external USB 3.1 (>5Gb/s) external card reader. Fstopper recently did some quick benchmarks, and the transfer times were significantly faster:
Maybe you don't ever need to present anything from your laptop, but if you talk to anyone who does, they will tell you how awful it is to not have an HDMI port. The USB-C to HDMI is the worst adapter I've ever seen.
And if you're a semi-pro photographer, the lack of an SD card slot is terrible. And of course almost all accessories are still USB-A.