6 ms·

I guess I'm the only one that thinks USB-C is actually better? The biggest win is that now I can use a single dongle for power, displayport to my monitor, and

I guess I'm the only one that thinks USB-C is actually better? The biggest win is that now I can use a single dongle for power, displayport to my monitor, and connection to a USB hub. So if I take my laptop home or into a meeting room, when I get back to my desk it's just a single thing to plug in now instead of 3+ separate cables. And since this stuff is all standardized now and there's no longer anything Apple proprietary like Thunderbolt 1, I would guess other makers will follow suit eventually and most monitors will support it directly without even needing a dongle. Plus the MagSafe port was not without problems - every few months I would get like a little magnetic pebble or something stuck in there, and then it's plugged in but not charging charging and usually I'd realize when my laptop is almost dead and then have to find something small to try to pluck it out of there. The USB-C port doesn't have this issue and it's still a relatively small port with very low resistance to being pulled out. Tripping over the power cord just has never really been an issue for me, it kinda seems overblown (knock on wood though, I guess). I do miss the external LED that showed whether you were connected to power or not and whether it was fully charged, it would be nice if they found a way to add that back on the side of the laptop or something since it can no longer be on the cable itself with a standard USB-C cable.

stephenr 7y ago
It’s not just you. I don’t get the whining about lack of USB type-a ports or the sd card slot and hdmi port. One, ONE $30 adapter gives you all of those and you have 3 TB3 ports still to use, AND it will read more memory card formats. Edit: AND it will have more USB-A ports than the old MBP had! I saw a manufacturer a while ago had a little magnetic adapter for a USB-c power port, too. Oh and the common complaint about flash drives - I bought one with type a one end, and type-c the other for about $12 I think. The added functionality of TB3 far outweighs any of the small losses IMO. Edit2: sd card not ssd card.
- graeme 7y ago
  >One, ONE $30 adapter gives you all of those That's not how TB3 works though. Those cheap dongles don't necessarily pass through correctly, and this can lead to all manner of problems when you have sensitive equipment connected. Lots of reports of audio issues on USB C Macs when using external dongles, for example. The actual TB3 hubs cost $150 minimum iirc. This may not cause trouble in your own use case, but it's definitely potential cause for concern for people that need a lot of I/O
  - stephenr 7y ago
    > That's not how TB3 works though. The USB/hdmi/memory card adapters for $30 aren’t TB3, they’re USB-C. If you want “a lot of I/O” then going back to 2 usb3 ports isn’t going to help you. A single TB3 port will handle the same external I/O the previous MBPs had across all ports barring TB2.
  - pfranz 7y ago
    > That's not how TB3 works though. I don't believe that's how TB3 works, either. I might be mistaken or out of date, but I've looked. At any price I haven't seen an actual TB3 hub that gives you more ports than you start with. The ones that do aren't TB3, they're extra power-only or USB-only USB-C ports. Everything I've seen is just a passthrough TB3 port with additional accessories that are generally USB or HDMI tunneled through. > Lots of reports of audio issues on USB C Macs when using external dongles, for example. If you're talking about audio production...that tends to go with everything computer related for 30+ years. Which port you plug in, the brand of cable you use, the minor software release--all are potential problems. Everyone tends to have a unique setup, too.
simlevesque 7y ago
You can even have a MagSafe USB-C cable.
dmitryminkovsky 7y ago
I also enjoy the USB-C more. I don't know when or why, but at some point the MagSafe got annoying.
awinder 7y ago
I do miss the external LED that showed whether you were connected to power or not and whether it was fully charged This reminds me of the battery button that displayed a range of leds to show charge percentage when closed. Seems like Apple could have kept MagSafe and added the usb-c ports w/ option to charge through usb-c or MagSafe. it probably wouldn’t have been a very Apple-like thing to do and then you don’t have nice clean symmetric ports, but that little cable definitely saved lots of repair dollars over the years for me
ben-schaaf 7y ago
I was initially sceptical of USB-C, but was looking forward to having less things to plug in. Then I learnt that USB-C only supports up to 100W of power, and even worse the MBP included charger is only 87W. All high performance laptops draw more power than that at high load (think gaming, rendering, etc.). I just don't see USB-C ever replacing a proper charging cable if it can't even supply enough power to run the computer! The computer you leave to render overnight will drain the battery to flat and subsequently shut down/throttle. How is that in any way acceptable?
- msoad 7y ago
  What was the wattage on the older models?
  - kalleboo 7y ago
    The most powerful MagSafe adapter is 85W. GP must be talking about some PC gaming laptop
- stephenr 7y ago
  > All high performance laptops draw more power than that at high load You’re going to need to qualify what you mean by “high performance”.
  - ben-schaaf 7y ago
    I'd classify any laptop with 6 or more intel cores and a dedicated gpu >= rx560/gtx1050(ti). Not so sure about mobile, but a desktop RX560 on its own uses 80-100W[0] which doesn't really leave any headroom for a 6 (yet alone an 8 core) cpu. [0] https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-560-4gb,5254-14.html https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-560-4gb,5...
    - stephenr 7y ago
      Recent MBP15s have 6 or 8 cores, and at least Radeon pro555, 560 or some variety of Vega. They run on an 87W charger fine.
pfranz 7y ago
I feel the same way. I do really miss magsafe (and the charging light), but I really like plugging in 1 cable for power, monitor, and accessories. There are USB-C cables with a charging light on them. I'm a little dumbfounded why Apple doesn't offer this--their USB-C cables already come in one flavor for charging and another for high speed data. It's made worse because Apple also took off the white LED /and/ battery charging indicator on the case. https://www.amazon.com/Moshi-Integra-USB-C-Charging-Cable/dp/B07CHJYPCC https://www.amazon.com/Moshi-Integra-USB-C-Charging-Cable/dp... I haven't used them (there might be other brands), I hear they can be slightly weird depending on the computer+power brick because they seem to observe the power draw for the LED color.

stephenr 7y ago

It’s not just you. I don’t get the whining about lack of USB type-a ports or the sd card slot and hdmi port. One, ONE $30 adapter gives you all of those and you have 3 TB3 ports still to use, AND it will read more memory card formats. Edit: AND it will have more USB-A ports than the old MBP had! I saw a manufacturer a while ago had a little magnetic adapter for a USB-c power port, too. Oh and the common complaint about flash drives - I bought one with type a one end, and type-c the other for about $12 I think. The added functionality of TB3 far outweighs any of the small losses IMO. Edit2: sd card not ssd card.

graeme 7y ago
>One, ONE $30 adapter gives you all of those That's not how TB3 works though. Those cheap dongles don't necessarily pass through correctly, and this can lead to all manner of problems when you have sensitive equipment connected. Lots of reports of audio issues on USB C Macs when using external dongles, for example. The actual TB3 hubs cost $150 minimum iirc. This may not cause trouble in your own use case, but it's definitely potential cause for concern for people that need a lot of I/O
- stephenr 7y ago
  > That's not how TB3 works though. The USB/hdmi/memory card adapters for $30 aren’t TB3, they’re USB-C. If you want “a lot of I/O” then going back to 2 usb3 ports isn’t going to help you. A single TB3 port will handle the same external I/O the previous MBPs had across all ports barring TB2.
- pfranz 7y ago
  > That's not how TB3 works though. I don't believe that's how TB3 works, either. I might be mistaken or out of date, but I've looked. At any price I haven't seen an actual TB3 hub that gives you more ports than you start with. The ones that do aren't TB3, they're extra power-only or USB-only USB-C ports. Everything I've seen is just a passthrough TB3 port with additional accessories that are generally USB or HDMI tunneled through. > Lots of reports of audio issues on USB C Macs when using external dongles, for example. If you're talking about audio production...that tends to go with everything computer related for 30+ years. Which port you plug in, the brand of cable you use, the minor software release--all are potential problems. Everyone tends to have a unique setup, too.

simlevesque 7y ago

You can even have a MagSafe USB-C cable.

dmitryminkovsky 7y ago

I also enjoy the USB-C more. I don't know when or why, but at some point the MagSafe got annoying.

awinder 7y ago

I do miss the external LED that showed whether you were connected to power or not and whether it was fully charged This reminds me of the battery button that displayed a range of leds to show charge percentage when closed. Seems like Apple could have kept MagSafe and added the usb-c ports w/ option to charge through usb-c or MagSafe. it probably wouldn’t have been a very Apple-like thing to do and then you don’t have nice clean symmetric ports, but that little cable definitely saved lots of repair dollars over the years for me

ben-schaaf 7y ago

I was initially sceptical of USB-C, but was looking forward to having less things to plug in. Then I learnt that USB-C only supports up to 100W of power, and even worse the MBP included charger is only 87W. All high performance laptops draw more power than that at high load (think gaming, rendering, etc.). I just don't see USB-C ever replacing a proper charging cable if it can't even supply enough power to run the computer! The computer you leave to render overnight will drain the battery to flat and subsequently shut down/throttle. How is that in any way acceptable?

msoad 7y ago
What was the wattage on the older models?
- kalleboo 7y ago
  The most powerful MagSafe adapter is 85W. GP must be talking about some PC gaming laptop
stephenr 7y ago
> All high performance laptops draw more power than that at high load You’re going to need to qualify what you mean by “high performance”.
- ben-schaaf 7y ago
  I'd classify any laptop with 6 or more intel cores and a dedicated gpu >= rx560/gtx1050(ti). Not so sure about mobile, but a desktop RX560 on its own uses 80-100W[0] which doesn't really leave any headroom for a 6 (yet alone an 8 core) cpu. [0] https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-560-4gb,5254-14.html https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-560-4gb,5...
  - stephenr 7y ago
    Recent MBP15s have 6 or 8 cores, and at least Radeon pro555, 560 or some variety of Vega. They run on an 87W charger fine.

pfranz 7y ago

I feel the same way. I do really miss magsafe (and the charging light), but I really like plugging in 1 cable for power, monitor, and accessories. There are USB-C cables with a charging light on them. I'm a little dumbfounded why Apple doesn't offer this--their USB-C cables already come in one flavor for charging and another for high speed data. It's made worse because Apple also took off the white LED /and/ battery charging indicator on the case. https://www.amazon.com/Moshi-Integra-USB-C-Charging-Cable/dp/B07CHJYPCC https://www.amazon.com/Moshi-Integra-USB-C-Charging-Cable/dp... I haven't used them (there might be other brands), I hear they can be slightly weird depending on the computer+power brick because they seem to observe the power draw for the LED color.