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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.)
I’m good with it to be honest. One port that can do it all. Not proprietary.
The longer we keep including legacy ports the longer they’ll stick around on peripheral devices
Manufactures won’t change until forced. The transition period might be a bit painful, but worth it.
Almost everything I have has a USB A or a DE-9 plug. I don’t have a single peripheral that plugs into a USB C port. I don’t want to deal with dongles and I’m certainly not going to replace my perfectly good hardware.
Eh, it’s been a standard for nearly a decade now. We’d still be on DVI with this attitude.
You don’t have to replace anything, but you will have to buy a cheap USB-C -> USB-A dongle
USB-C is fairly open, and USB4 can do most things Thunderbolt 3/4 can do, but there are exceptions like daisy-chaining. Thunderbolt 5 is also out now, and it has no open counterpart. And Thunderbolt is very much proprietary, requiring licensing and certification from Intel.
The big issue in my eyes is that they cut down on ports period. Yeah sure you can do it all. Here’s 2 ports for your trouble. There’s not a meaningful amount of them after. My current personal laptop has 2 USB a, one type c, HDMI and microsd. My work laptop is the same, but flipped usba and c. That’s fine for a lot of people, including myself. But then you look at other machines like the xps 13 Plus which has like 2. Or a MacBook air. Which also has 2 but at least you get a headphone jack.
For sure, 3 on one side and 2 on the other minimum.
When a port is extremely high bandwidth, the number of them stops mattering much. I’m plugging everything into a dock via a single cable anyways, the rest go largely unused. We used to need a dozen ports because each one could only handle a single task and all were relatively low bandwidth.
But I already have peripheral devices with older connectors. This just forces me to buy dongles.
Also, USB-C can only “do it all” on paper. In practice you have multiple sockets on any given device that support different subsets of the standard. If you’re lucky, the capabilities are printed right on the device or in the manual. If you’re unlucky you’ll have to figure it out yourself.
But I already have peripheral devices with older connectors. This just forces me to buy dongles.
I already have a computer with USB-C - legacy connectors on peripherals force me to buy dongles.
Also, USB-C can only “do it all” on paper. In practice you have multiple sockets on any given device that support different subsets of the standard.
It’s definitely not as good as it should’ve been, but as long as PC manufactures include as many standards as possible it should play well with whatever standard the peripherals are using.
I already have a computer with USB-C - legacy connectors on peripherals force me to buy dongles.
That’s why I want my computer to have both.
It’s definitely not as good as it should’ve been, but as long as PC manufactures include as many standards as possible it should play well with whatever standard the peripherals are using.
Until it doesn’t.
You’re usually safe with Apple’s Type-C port supporting a lot.
Didn’t they have issues with previous MBPs where they’d charge slower on one side than on the other without apple acknowledging it?
But that aside Apple is pretty good ad supporting mostly everything. Other manufacturers are way worse in that regard.
All the other brands went along
(My 2020 G14 has 3 A ports and ethernet, but still…)
The new (not that new anymore) macbook PROs do have separate DC input, HDMI, SD card slot and HDMI. And to be honest, for an average computer user those ports are pretty useless, however if you do need them it comes at a rather steep premium.
That’s hot af
yea this is the way. is only they had more high end components
I’ll be in my bunk.
I will always upvote a relevant Firefly reference.
In case you’re not aware, that’s a Framework laptop.
One more reason for me to get one. Dammit.
Is it still owned by LTT? I don’t particularly like this LTT though.
Nowhere near owned. LTT made a small investment.
Okay good.
Owned? The kid just bought stock.
Yup. If you limited your purchases to companies not partly owned by people you don’t like, you couldn’t buy from any public company and would have a very small selection from private companies.
Buy products that make sense, screw whoever else invests in it.
I didn’t knew. I thought it was co founded by him or something.
ok but where’s the pcmcia slot! /sees myself out
It’s SDCARD since like 1999. Sheesh, get current mate! 🤣
Framework baby!!!
That’s the way to do it. I just wish Framework had a better selection of modules available and had more module bays on their laptops.
Is a dongle that doesn’t dangle even really a dongle at all?
Doubtful.
no body shaming please
I just wish the existing dongles had a bit more density to them. That’s a lot of space for a micro-SD slot, they totally could have fit a full SD card in there as well, and perhaps even a micro-USB or headphone jack.
I like being able to swap them, but each USB-C port can handle a lot more than a single-use dongle.
Right?! If you’re going through the all trouble of mass producing the modules, etc., make them worth it. As it is, it’s a bunch of expensive squares.
What module would you like to have.
I would like RS-232 and RS-485 modules and a full size SD card reader would be nice too. It’s probably something I would end up building myself if I get a Framework laptop.
Edit: It looks like they have an SD card module now, nice.
What would you do with RS-232 and RS-485?
And what the hell, add RS-422 while you’re at it. And a parallel port! And the left side expansion port they used to have on the Amiga 500 and 1000!
And some ISDN BRI ports. And ATM and FDDI. And something I can do X.25 over. Oh, and Token Ring.
Hook up my US Robotics 56k modem and dial up to the internet, where I can chat with hot babes
After your training to become a cage fighter, I presume?
404
Hot babes not found
Time travel
I have a 485 adapter in my bag for BACnet and Modbus communications.
UART consoles and model train control systems come to mind.
-485 is superior. Everyone knows it
You’d be surprised to know how much of the world’s manufacturing infrastructure still uses it.
I 3d printed a dongle that has a Logitech receiver in it. All their design files are online, so you can make your own pretty easily.
Oh, damn, that’s a game changing idea there.
Why are the modules so wide?
I guess they have to be the same, so they all have to be the maximum width of anything you might want to put in there.
Framework users: “Yeah, but my USB-C ports are recessed!”
Eh, I’d much rather have a USB-C dongle built-in to the laptop than in a separate bag that I’m definitely going to lose.
That also means we can still use the expansion cards for the Framework in any other device that also has a USB-C port. Need an SD card reader or a 2.5Gb LAN adapter? Not a problem, I’ll just grab one from my laptop.
I have a framework, and while this system is pretty cool, I don’t change the cards often and I only have 4 cards. I’d rather have some more built-in ports too.
I don’t change them ever. But I have the exact set of ports I need now
That’s one of the cool things about the framework, though, just the fact that you can, because I swap my ports all the time. I use it to game on my big TV at home, but I almost never need an HDMI port on the go, so I pop it out and pop in another USB-C or something.
This is the way
still only 4 ports thou
Love mine.
Oh my god
What a waste of chassis space.
Yeah, I wish they had 2 dedicated USB-C ports (one on each side) and had the four swappable bays. The RJ-45 port also look really dumb, I think they could have done something a bit more clever there.
to be fair, the bandwidth of all the ports on the bottom laptop probably fit in 1 (maaaaybe 2? Just spitballing here) Thunderbolt 5 ports depending how fast the ethernet port is. BTW, why would you want a port that isn’t reversible like USB C lol…
The sb part of the acronym means Serial Buss which is what all external peripherals used to connect to the system. The u part means Universal as in one size fits all. Every iteration of the spec has led up to this point. We had A,B,Micro, and now C. Everything could also be wireless today if there were enough spectrum available
Wow is that firewire? Haven’t seen that in a while
I dunno - I’m pretty sure I’d choose the modern MacBook Pro’s ports over any of these other options.
We’re mindlessly bashing Apple here, we don’t need your sensible reasoning!
From my personal experience Apple products aren’t as great as the fanboys claim but are far far better than they haters say they are.
Continue bashing, they use apple maths and only have ports on expensive models.
That picture is from the tech specs page of the base 14-inch
Where do you see Apple bashing? Most comments are about the general state of notebook ports.
Power, HDMI, a few USBs, and headphones, all you’ll ever likely need.
There’s no doubt a dongle for anything else.
Yes, and it’s better to be downgrading USB-C ports with adapters than to be stuck adapting a USB-A port to USB-C or ethernet.
Cause I live toting a do gle around and risk breaking the laptop because of it.
I did enough of that in the 90’s, TYVM
in the ’90s*
Username checks out.
Cause I live toting a do gle around and risk breaking the laptop because of it.
I did enough of that in the 90’s, TYVM
in the ’90s*
Unless you want a desk setup. I have 2 monitors, kb, mouse, external dac, usb extension for thumbdrives, ethernet, usb soundcard for my mic and a kvm. That’s dp, hdmi, 6 usb-a, ethernet and I still sometimes plug-in 1-3 devices to charge them.
With that many connections, using a dock or a monitor with thunderbolt seems more practical than having a ton of stuff plugged into your laptop.
It’s not about it being practical. It’s about if it’s actually doable or not and how well it would work. Having the native ports will always be better that using a hub/dock.
Strongly disagree. I use a laptop with a thunderbolt dock. Being able to plug in a single cable to provide power, connect my monitor, all of my input devices, Ethernet, and anything else in a single cable is awesome. If I had to plug 10 things in manually it would be quite cumbersome. I disconnect the laptop daily as I bring it between work and home, as well as use it, well, as a portable laptop.
Kudos to you.
What you could do now is step out of your bubble and consider that other people have different use cases and might need or prefer to have more native ports.
You literally lose nothing by having more connectivity options.
Except the device inevitably ends up bigger and chunkier.
Yeah, because plugging in one thing is way harder than plugging in six.
This is a classic use case for a laptop dock.
That’s a very lazy, short-sighted and first world problem way of looking at this issue.
Why would having the option of using either a hub or plugging things on separately be worse than only being able to use a hub?
Because I don’t want a chonky boi laptop to carry around.
It sounds like you need a desktop computer or a docking station.
That’s a use case for a laptop dock if ever there was one.
Like I already said to another user: No. There are more than a few use cases that require a mobile set up for demos for example but that you’d also want to use in a desk setting. For example, architects or sw dev.
Why are you making an effort to justify getting shafted by corporations?
In this situation a hub is still better. You can pack all the stuff away plugged into the hub for easier set up. If your plugging that all into your laptop, you’ll need to plug it all back in again when you move.
Which might be an issue for you but it’s not for me. Also, I prefer the flexibility to have all of the ports I might need, natively.
We aren’t justifying getting shafted by corporations. What I and the other person are saying is that at some point as your connections and cables multiply, you need to consolidate and streamline your setup for it to be more practical and actually mobile. I’m all for having all the basic necessity ports on my laptop, but when your desk ends up as a mess of cables and pulling out and putting back your laptop becomes bothersome with having to attach/re-attach everything every time, having a dock makes it much simpler. Subjecting yourself to setting up all those cables on both ends instead of just one end is the opposite of having a mobile workstation for quick setup and cleanup.
You’re still missing the forest for the trees.
There’s no real reason why you’d have to choose having a few ports + a hub or tons of ports + the option of using a hub.
If you prefer to “consolidate” your devices to a single poinf of failure on an external device then by all means, go ahead. I just think that it’s pretty crappy that options are being artificially limited and users of all people are making excuses for it.
SD card reader is nice to have if you fuck around with cameras and microphones.
Yeah, that can stay too.
An ethernet port is essential for any computer.
It’s really not. I have one on my work laptop and have never plugged an Ethernet jack into it. That stays permanently in my dock and gets transferred to the laptop via USB-C. All other non-desk work is done via … WiFi. Shock! Literally can’t tell the difference when making money.
Exactly! What are you going to do if your router dies (or you mess something up fiddling w/ things)? I may only need it once/year or so, but when I do, it’s really important and I most likely can’t find the dongle.
An RJ-45 port could totally fit on there if they used one of those flip-down things that Dell has on their professional line.
I just this … https://a.co/d/ijxaPae
Only issue I have is max 65W PD, which should be fine for most laptops, but some laptops can charge at 100W.
Yeah, props to Apple for bringing back the card reader and HDMI. When I bought my early 2015 MBP I specifically went with the older model because these ports were removed on the newer one which also came with the shitty butterfly keyboard as well which they’ve also since discontinued.
If you got that kind of money to spend on a laptop, sure. I really don’t.
Edit: to be clear, I know this is a stack of Mac’s in OPs picture, but the development that the entry models have basically no ports at all is a more recent development. Having to pick the pro just to be able to connect your stuff without dongles or hubs is a bit insane considering the price (and price difference).
It really depends on what you use your laptop for. My 2013 MBP lasted 9 years and was how I got my work done. That comes out to 76¢ per day, and I make a fair bit more than that per hour.
But if you’re looking for a personal computer to surf the internet, yes, that could be cost prohibitive. But then it also matters less what device you buy.
As for ports, I’ve never needed a dongle on the 2013 model. I did need one for a USB A drive on the newest model, but this little thing has solved that problem easily. I didn’t even have to buy that since my monitor has USB A ports – I was just too lazy to reach around the back to use it every time. I’m not sure I understand all the complaints about the occasional need for a dongle.
I have an M2 Air, and all mine is missing from that is the SDXC slot, third TB4 and HDMI, and honestly, it’s fine. A third TB4/USB would be nice for when I’m doing my radio show and have to plug in my controller and mic while also charing my phone, but I already have a hub so it doesn’t bother me.
That said, the limited ports on my M1 mini are quite problematic. Two TB3/USB and two USB3, but one of them is lost to a DisplayPort cable for my second monitor. So I have a desktop computer that functionally has three USB sockets, which ain’t great. But again, I have a hub, so it’s not a huge problem.
Zero USB-A ports? Hell, no…
Yeah M1+ Macs are great. I say this as a diehard Apple hater
Yes, they should totally bring back the firewire port!
Look how they massacred my boy.
Asus G16 2023 has 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C (one of them supports Thunderbolt), Ethernet, HDMI, 3.5 mm jack, and a micro-SD slot.
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Dude if you need that many ports just buy a P50 workstation
Yeah, but at least they permit you to use the right mouse button.
