Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Percentage of time you connect to an external monitor?

entatlrg

entatlrg

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Do you connect your notebook to a monitor?

If so what percentage of time are you connected to a monitor?

Is plugging/unplugging much of an inconvenience?
 
I have a new macbook. I spend all day using it at the office, I spend all day connected to a really nice Dell 24" monitor. It works pretty well. The plugging in is no big deal, as I have to plug in a usb hub, and power cord as well.
 
Whenever I'm home, my MBP is connected to my monitor. I don't think I could live without it. And plugging/unplugging is no problem for me, since it generally only happens twice a day...
 
Probably 90% of the time.

Plugging in is no big deal at all. At work I have a display with the DVI-MiniDP adapter and at home I use a DP-MiniDP cable for my 30" display.

What sucks is that you can't run the MBP in clamshell mode on battery. It just won't come out of sleep even though there is no real technical limitation for that.
 
I have my 13" MBP plugged into my external display all of the time i'm at home, i only use it without when i take my laptop to college with me. It works really well the the external display, and plugging into it really isn't a problem that would put you off 😀 :apple:
 
90% of the time for me. I have a dell 2405 monitor which has served me well for several years and I typically keep my laptop on my desk for the majority of time.
 
MBP, 90% of the time hooked up to 23" ACD. It travels to the sofa occasionally. Rarely leaves the house due to our Blackbook fulfilling the road-warrior role. The Blackbook (no monitor) splits its time between my wife's office and the bedroom.
 
rarely up to a few days ago, but the purchase of a 32" HD made me break out me dvi > hdmi leash to give it a twirl lol
it's funny how the built in gfx card will drive a 32" at 1920x1280 resolution but the max available on the MBP screen is only 1440x900 🙁
 
I have a job where I work from home and travel a lot.
- If i'm at home, my MacBook Pro is connected to my external monitor about 90% of the time. I appreciate having a dedicated keyboard and mouse, and it feels like a desktop setup - plus I get two huge monitors, one of them being a huge Dell.
- If I'm traveling, the laptop flies solo, and I'm connected to an external monitor pretty much never, unless you count when I have to give presentations and plug into a projector.
 
My MacBook Pro is connected to an external monitor 97% of the time. My MacBook Air on the other hand has never been connected to an external monitor.
 
entatlrg said:
Do you connect your notebook to a monitor?

If so what percentage of time are you connected to a monitor?
Click to expand...
It's not much for me anymore. I'm using the portability more these days.

entatlrg said:
Is plugging/unplugging much of an inconvenience?
Click to expand...
No not really especially if you keep it plugged in most of the time. If you are constantly plugging in and out throughout the day then it might be annoying but it's usually just twice a day. You unplug it once when you leave your desk and then the second time when you come back to your desk.

It also depends on your personality tolerance because some people find any kind of work inconvenient. I actually don't have much plugged into my computer to begin with so I never found the whole plugging and unplugging that inconvenient. All I have plugged in is my power cord, ethernet internet cable, and USB external mouse. Everything else I plug in when I use them.
 
I use a Dell 3008WFP at home and a Samsung 24" at work. I only open the laptop when I sit in front of the TV to browse, etc.

Sleep is flakey for me when used with an external monitor and running in clamshell mode. Sometimes when I disconnect/reconnect with an external monitor and try to wake up the MBP it won't, or it'll wake up but not output any video. I have to force reboot it several times a week because of this. This problem finally went away with Snow Leopard, but has since reappeared in 10.6.1 and gotten worse with 10.6.2. Very annoying. I don't think it is a problem when not using clamshell mode.
 
entatlrg said:
Do you connect your notebook to a monitor?

If so what percentage of time are you connected to a monitor?

Is plugging/unplugging much of an inconvenience?
Click to expand...

I used to keep my late-2006 MBP connected to an ACD23 most of the time. The machine was also connected to external FW800 drives, sometimes to eSATA drives, some USB hubs, and the odd speaker or mouse. Unplugging it from everything was less than convenient.

I have a Mac Pro for all that now, and my MBP is portalicious again.
 
Almost 100% of the time after I got an iPhone. This is why I'm now waiting for my new 27" iMac to show up. I just don't need a laptop functioning as a desktop replacement.
 
My MacBook Pro is connected to my external display at least 98% of the time. I disconnect every once in a great while just to exercise the battery because disconnecting is a total PITA because of how my desk is built. I've also got something plugged into every port except the microphone and FW800 port (I only have FW400 devices). Its not a big deal though because I've got my Powerbooks for on-the-go use. I'd have gotten rid of the MBP and replaced it with a quad G5 if 10.6 had supported PPC.
 
entatlrg said:
Do you connect your notebook to a monitor?

If so what percentage of time are you connected to a monitor?

Is plugging/unplugging much of an inconvenience?
Click to expand...

Great questions and thread! I'd ask one or two others:

If you are plugged in more than 50% of the time? Why not go a 15/17 Pro or an iMac?
 
<1% of the time, including projectors. Actually, I'm not sure if my MacBook has ever been connected to an external monitor within its 3+ year life.
 
Until I finally bought one, it spent very little (if any) of its time connected to an external monitor. Now, whenever I'm at home, it's connected. No inconvenience at all, I just leave the connector unscrewed so plugging and unplugging is very quick.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back