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2021 MacBook Pro Rumored to Feature More Ports: Here's a Look at What Previous Models Offered

now i see it said:
at least we can draw comfort in the knowledge that apl employees have to eat their own dog food too.
I bet someone high up in the echelon of managers finally got fed up with it and said "Why the F#%* are our laptops so F#%*# hobbled?"
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It bothers every day at work that they didn't give me a 2015 model cause I have to spend time screwing with the video output dongles. Apple employees must feel it too. The 2016 one was a huge downgrade in every way possible other than the CPU speed.

Imagine after feeling the crappiness of the new keyboard, you slap an external keyboard on top, only to find it requires a dongle. It's a one-two combo.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
I haven't used USB-A in several years. It's a legacy port and not needed by most people, and the number of people still needing it goes down every month. USB-C is the standard now used for USB sticks and for power. Bluetooth is used for external keyboards and mice.

It's reasonable to ditch it.

I agree that HDMI should be built in. Just one. Just for the scenario I said previously - for a brief presentation in school or at work. If you're going to also be plugged into power at the same time, you should have a combo dongle that includes both HDMI and Power (and USB-A... that's the dongle currently plugged into my Mac. The Power and HDMI are both used. The USB-A port is there but I've never touched it.)
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Lack of HDMI is a constant frustration on my work computer. I still don't know what you mean by stuff using USB-C, seems quite rare still, but I'd consider it fair if they took out USB-A and kept HDMI. On the go, I don't need USB-A usually.
 
jz0309 said:
don't understand why apple would bring back ports? maybe TB licensing is so much more expensive with their own silicon so they can save some cost? having moved away and now bringing it back - doesn't make sense from a technology perspective
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TB licensing costs for Apple Silicon would be my guess too. But TB3 will be a part of USB 4 standard.
 
senttoschool said:
Apple (2016): We're going to simplify everything with just one type of port: USB-C!

Apple (2016-2020): We're going to ship USB-A cables with iPhones and iPads so you can't charge them with your Mac unless you use a dongle.
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USB C cables are more expensive than USB-A cables. That’s why.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
I haven't used USB-A in several years. It's a legacy port and not needed by most people, and the number of people still needing it goes down every month. USB-C is the standard now used for USB sticks and for power. Bluetooth is used for external keyboards and mice.

It's reasonable to ditch it.

I agree that HDMI should be built in. Just one. Just for the scenario I said previously - for a brief presentation in school or at work. If you're going to also be plugged into power at the same time, you should have a combo dongle that includes both HDMI and Power (and USB-A... that's the dongle currently plugged into my Mac. The Power and HDMI are both used. The USB-A port is there but I've never touched it.)
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Go to a university or public school, and try your local library, find me a computer lab or office that is USB-C friendly.

If you visit the FBI and give a presentation, you think they will support USB-C for projector and USB-C for a clicker?
 
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WoodpeckerBaby said:
Go to a university or public school, and try your local library, find me a computer lab or office that is USB-C friendly.

If you visit the FBI and give a presentation, you think they will support USB-C for projector and USB-C for a clicker?
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No, I expect they'll have HDMI, which I said should be included on the computer. Reread my post.
 
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axantas said:
You are dreaming. Not going to happen. It would make the new models at least 1 mm thicker. No one would buy such bulky laptops nowadays.
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Nobody cares if you can have a mm thicker laptop if it reflects positively on the battery life and allows everyone to live a dongle free life :)
 
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Probably just me but I prefer a dock with my laptop. I don’t pull it out of its cradle much but I don’t want 6 wires sticking out of it. Docks make everything look much nicer and they give you more ports than Apple is ever going to be able to put in the laptop.
 
WhoDaKat said:
Probably just me but I prefer a dock with my laptop.
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...and nobody is talking about depriving you of that choice. MagSafe and USB-A coming back doesn’t mean that TB3/USB4 have to go away (just look at the iMac, Mini and Mac Pro).

Heck, I was docking with a LED Cinema Display in 2010 although, credit to first-world problems, plugging that 3-way cable into adjacent MagSafe, minidp and USB ports took an eternal 3 seconds... Thunderbolt reduced that to two. Great thing was, though, the extra ports were still on my Mac when I needed them so I didn’t need a $1000 display or $300 dock on every desk I used.
 
scartart said:
You seem out of touch with the enterprise world. Any client I go and see will have presentation capabilities using HDMI or a USB-A clickshare dongle. We share files via USB-A flash drives etc.
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What about the clients that I have that use old VGA projectors? Should we add VGA ports too?
 
axantas said:
You are dreaming. Not going to happen. It would make the new models at least 1 mm thicker. No one would buy such bulky laptops nowadays.
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Not with flat edges, which will increase the height of the sides without increasing the thickness of the machine. And besides, the rumour is already in, which if true, USB-A is coming back!
 
baryon said:
As someone who paid WAY too much for a 16 inch MBP after 6 years with a Retina (which I was fairly happy with except for the extremely unreasonable and premature battery replacement price and process) I feel like it's a step back in many ways. Yes, it's faster. But that's it. That's literally the only advantage.

  • The touchbar is annoying to use (goes out after a minute so it's useless as a display of information or status, but also inconsistent because it changes depending on applications, you HAVE to look at it because it keeps changing, gestures on such a small thin screen are annoying, etc).
  • Battery life is only a little bit better, no significant improvement (6-9 hours vs. 6-8 hours).
  • The computer is hotter and louder than the Retina, the fans are always audible and the computer is always quite warm
  • USB-C sucks. Nothing I own has USB-C. Nothing I buy has USB-C. Everything uses USB-A and the only thing I can plug into this machine is a dongle, of which I only have ONE, so why are there 4 ports on this macine when you'd only ever used them for a dongle which has many ports anyway? This computer is almost entirely useless as professional device if you forgot your dongle.
  • No HDMI – use it all the time
  • No SD card reader – use it all the time
  • MagSafe was better than no-magsafe
  • The keyboard is almost identical, which is fine – but people praise the keyboard only because it's better than the Butterfly which I never used.
  • The trackpad is so big you can't type without constantly moving the mouse and randomly causing the insert-point to change while typing
  • The screen is slightly laggier with more image retention than the Retina
  • The computer is about the same size as the Retina, not much thinner or lighter.
  • It cost about 2 times what I paid for the Retina and is a similar notebook if you account for the time of release. It's not twice as good. It's exactly the same when accounting for relative time of release.
  • Dongles are an annoying, much hated extra cost. Paying for something you don't even want to need is annoying. You pay because you have no choice, but it brings you no joy whatsoever. In fact dongles suck. Not having to use dongles is always better.
  • You HAVE to use discreet graphics if you want an acceptable performance because integrated graphics cause constant lagging when typing – something even my Commodore 64 did faster.
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OMG, I didn't realise it was THAT bad! I still rock my 2015 rMBP 15", largely because I am still waiting for Apple (or anyone) to make a machine that's actually better than the one I have. I was tempted by the 16", but not tempted enough. Looks like 2021 might actually be the year.
 
Mark Holmes said:
Please please please let this be true. It will finally be time to retire my mid-2012 MBP 15”.
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I am in the exact same boat. Still waiting for a worthy replacement that's actually an improvement. Even have been poking about seeing if any non-Apple laptops are worthy (they aren't).
 
WoodpeckerBaby said:
Go to a university or public school, and try your local library, find me a computer lab or office that is USB-C friendly.

If you visit the FBI and give a presentation, you think they will support USB-C for projector and USB-C for a clicker?
Click to expand...

Bingo - spot on
I often wonder what workplaces some of these people frequent, because I see USB-A constantly -- all over the place...

On other computers, projectors, in cars, on TV's - on and on and on
 
I am cool with MagSafe as long as it somehow is a USB-C port. From a port perspective a MBP 16 should have USB-C x4 and nothing else. While I did like MagSafe, USB-C is the future and provides so much more flexibility.
 
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