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how much suffering does the lack of old ports/ SD card slot really cause you? (owners only please)
- Thread starter Sun Salute
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I picked up USB-C cables for all of the items that I have. That said, I haven't plugged anything in.
So:
1 USB-C -> USB-A adapter (just in case someone with a flash drive needs a file from me)
1 USB-C -> Lightning cable (I honestly don't know why, maybe charge my iPhone on the go?)
1 USB-C -> Micro-A (I think, for my external hdd.)
That's it.
So:
1 USB-C -> USB-A adapter (just in case someone with a flash drive needs a file from me)
1 USB-C -> Lightning cable (I honestly don't know why, maybe charge my iPhone on the go?)
1 USB-C -> Micro-A (I think, for my external hdd.)
That's it.
Lack of ports? I hardly use ports these days, but the only times I do are to an external HDD/iPhone sync. Minor hinderance since both of these still use USB-A, but I suspect that'll change in the future.
SD card really annoys me. I use my camera a lot, but don't want to shell out the £45 apple are asking for one. So I just plug my camera into the USB cable, which I then attach the USB-A dongle to, which I then connect to the MacBook.
Other than this, I am really excited for the future of USB-C as it really is better than any other port in the market when it comes to power and adaptability. Just need to wait for everyone to catch up!
SD card really annoys me. I use my camera a lot, but don't want to shell out the £45 apple are asking for one. So I just plug my camera into the USB cable, which I then attach the USB-A dongle to, which I then connect to the MacBook.
Other than this, I am really excited for the future of USB-C as it really is better than any other port in the market when it comes to power and adaptability. Just need to wait for everyone to catch up!
I have never needed to look for one, but there should be cheaper 3rd party options, no? I agree that £45 seems a bit steep.
You're right, cheapest one at apple is £45. Found a couple other ones online £15-20, but they look quite cheap. I might give one a shot!
I wonder if the write speed will be slower on the cheaper ones? No idea on that.
I needed 2 USB-C cables for an external HDD and an External CD/DVD read/writer. I also bought a USB-C to A adapter, but haven't needed it.
I don't really see those as drawbacks for a couple reasons:
1. I only need them at work and leave them t home if I'm going anywhere else
2. I would still have them if I was buying a competitor's computer or a 2015 MBP model.
None of this stuff really bothers me in the least. Actually, the thing that "bothers" me the most is that Apple includes an adapter with the iPhone 7, but doesn't with the MBP. I bought a $3K machine, a $20 adapter would be out of the question?
I don't really see those as drawbacks for a couple reasons:
1. I only need them at work and leave them t home if I'm going anywhere else
2. I would still have them if I was buying a competitor's computer or a 2015 MBP model.
None of this stuff really bothers me in the least. Actually, the thing that "bothers" me the most is that Apple includes an adapter with the iPhone 7, but doesn't with the MBP. I bought a $3K machine, a $20 adapter would be out of the question?
I will be the first to grumble I guess. for me its pretty annoying at minimum, now hear me out, I travel all over with my units so on the average I pack around and need sometimes a few and sometimes all at once.
2 x USB-C to USB-A ( USB BD writer and a clients USB drive at minimum )
1 x USB-C to digital Multiport ( power cable in, HDMI Out and an external drive that has a fixed cable )
1 x USB-C to Display Port to hook to a color grading external screen.
1 x USB-C to SD card reader. or at times another C to A adaptor and a CF card reader.
these 4 I have plugged in quite regularly at client sites, now sometimes I also need:
1 x USB-C hub because I ran out of ports
1 x USB-C to VGA ... because lots of old projectors still out there.
1 x USB-C to LAN ... some places don't let you on wifi
now when you Lose an adaptor or the damn things quit working ( Im looking at you Apple Digital AV multiport and Belkin Gb LAN ) it can really screw up your day. I know I am a non typical user but the more crap I have to plug in the more of a chance I have of having a really bad day.
packing around extras of half those adaptors because its impossible to just borrow a cable or adaptor from most anyone is NOT going to happen at this point in time, in the future who knows. When you need something as dumb as a working display port or VGA output for a high end projector, for a business presentation and find out that oops adaptor decided to not work again and then you have to rush to shift everything to another machine that has commonly used ports its a headache.
2 x USB-C to USB-A ( USB BD writer and a clients USB drive at minimum )
1 x USB-C to digital Multiport ( power cable in, HDMI Out and an external drive that has a fixed cable )
1 x USB-C to Display Port to hook to a color grading external screen.
1 x USB-C to SD card reader. or at times another C to A adaptor and a CF card reader.
these 4 I have plugged in quite regularly at client sites, now sometimes I also need:
1 x USB-C hub because I ran out of ports
1 x USB-C to VGA ... because lots of old projectors still out there.
1 x USB-C to LAN ... some places don't let you on wifi
now when you Lose an adaptor or the damn things quit working ( Im looking at you Apple Digital AV multiport and Belkin Gb LAN ) it can really screw up your day. I know I am a non typical user but the more crap I have to plug in the more of a chance I have of having a really bad day.
packing around extras of half those adaptors because its impossible to just borrow a cable or adaptor from most anyone is NOT going to happen at this point in time, in the future who knows. When you need something as dumb as a working display port or VGA output for a high end projector, for a business presentation and find out that oops adaptor decided to not work again and then you have to rush to shift everything to another machine that has commonly used ports its a headache.
No problem at all, in fact, my life got much easier with USB-C only Mac. I can now connect to all my desk peripherals (including power) with a single cable, which might seem minor, but is actually a significant quality of life improvement. Also, the fact that I can now charge from both sides makes cable management much easier. The only way how it can get any better is going full wireless 
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Most of these can be replaced by a single USB-C minidock (which has HDMI out and card readers). For Display Port you don't need an adapter, as its natively provided by USB-C (only need an appropriate cable, although its true that these cables are fairly rare and you likely won't find them on site). I'd suggest you try a minidock though, it could replace most of the adapters you are carrying.
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Most of these can be replaced by a single USB-C minidock (which has HDMI out and card readers). For Display Port you don't need an adapter, as its natively provided by USB-C (only need an appropriate cable, although its true that these cables are fairly rare and you likely won't find them on site). I'd suggest you try a minidock though, it could replace most of the adapters you are carrying.
@Kcetech1 why did you buy the MBP in the first place? Have you looked at the other multiport adapters (some include a NIC too)? Those might cut down on the amount of separate items you have to carry and if you take 2 of those you also have a backup.
If you are using many devices at your desk I'd recommend buying a docking station (it's what they are used for over the past 20 years) no matter what notebook you are using. It is just so much nicer and easier to just plug 1 (or 2) cables.
If you are using many devices at your desk I'd recommend buying a docking station (it's what they are used for over the past 20 years) no matter what notebook you are using. It is just so much nicer and easier to just plug 1 (or 2) cables.
I don't mind USB-C and love my MBP, but absolutely ZERO excuse to remove the SD slot. These are machines with a heavy base of content creators, and almost every device on the planet that uses removable media uses SD or MicroSD. Sure, the ALEXA Mini uses CFast and RED uses proprietary media, but if you're a hobby or professional videographer or photographer, this is a direct burn and inconvenience for nearly no benefit. There's tons of free space in the chassis of the 15".
Don't go offtopic, stick with the "you"-part of the title. If you want to rant about how YOU need the SD card reader then fine but don't go offtopic on ranting about how others need it. With that kind of logic we can go into various rants about something not being on the new or old MBPs. This topic is meant as an experience topic for those using the MBP 2016 model and peripherals. It is to answer the question how USB-C is working out in the real world (and thus not the one of the forum trolls).
I purchased the 2016 unit to see how well it might work in my workflow, and as an experiment so I no longer needed a high power hackintosh laptop for certain things, its power is fine, its connectivity I find however is an issue at this point in time. and have gone back to a larger machine with an OSX-VM
I have tried the docks and other multiport adaptors, I have gone through 9 docks/multiport adaptors that have totally failed and so I lost every port on them all at once. at least the spaghetti nightmare I don't lose them all simultaneously. I have been in regular contact with a couple of the manufacturers trying to figure out how to toughen them up for rough transport but none as of now seem to be designed for desk or minimal transport outside of their packaging.
I prefer a Thunderbolt dock as those are very stable (and fast). My current Thunderbolt dock is one from the first generation (TB1 dock from CalDigit) but still works perfectly fine. I bought the TB2-TB3 so I could still use it until I replace it with a TB3 dock then I can use the TB2-TB3 adapter for its other purpose: connect my other Mac with the MBP...10Gbit network connection for transferring vm's and other data .
If you have to connect a lot of peripherals then notebooks aren't very suited devices because they have a limited amount of ports. The amount of cables and adapters you are carrying with your MBP sounds very familiar to me. I did that at school and later at work as well. Alas, that's what you get when you're a technician. You have to be able to connect every possible exotic piece of hardware. Luckily this has improved since USB, Firewire and Thunderbolt (read: less proprietary stuff).
.If you have to connect a lot of peripherals then notebooks aren't very suited devices because they have a limited amount of ports. The amount of cables and adapters you are carrying with your MBP sounds very familiar to me. I did that at school and later at work as well. Alas, that's what you get when you're a technician. You have to be able to connect every possible exotic piece of hardware. Luckily this has improved since USB, Firewire and Thunderbolt (read: less proprietary stuff).
I got lazy .... needed the portability and ports so have gone back to using a true PCIE dock which clips to the bottom of a couple of my laptops for that kind of work ( its bloody nice to daisy chain 6 external displays off of a pair of DP ports ). I do wish someone would come out with a GOOD flat plate base dock/ extended battery for the 15" but I cant have everything unless I can convince my husband to build and 3D print one.
and oh yes it is far better than when I needed 10 different FW cables a few USB and even some old SCSI
For me its not suffering, but rather an annoyance, that is fairly easy (at least for me) to resolve. I guess its the principal of the thing that I spend close to 3k and yet the machine doesn't do what I need it too, but the prior generation was able too. I may gripe about it, but at the end of the day its easily solvable.
If I forget to bring any adapter or even the charger, I am generally ****ed because I can't borrow one from anyone else as in most cases others are using an older model. It's a problem that goes away eventually but at the moment it is annoying to have to worry about it when on the previous models this was a non-issue, I could expect to connect that one HDMI or USB port when needed.
Plenty of people suffer for lack of usable ports on the 2016 macbook pro, but thankfully, knowing they would suffer, many of them did not buy it!
That problem is not going away as I've seen demonstrated today and many times in the past. People do forget their charger sometimes and in those cases it seems to be rather difficult to find a replacement. Either because they are hard to find or because someone else needs to use their own just as badly or both.
Things will only get a little bit better of all the other manufacturers also switch to USB-C power adapters so the availability goes up tremendously. No more looking for a specific power adapter for a certain notebook model. Now if Dell and HP would do that, it would make life for many IT departments soooo much nicer.
As a photographer, it's a big deal to have to use (and keep track of) an SD card reader adapter... with the SD slot, I could just pop the card out of my Nikon into the MBP and offload my photos. Until the DSLR cameras come equipped with wifi capability for offloading photos, it will continue to be a pretty significant PITA. Thanks for nothing, Tim. Here's your computer back.
No issues at all for me. The only adapters I use regularly are usb-c to Ethernet and usb-c to HDMI (which is no different than thunderbolt to the same) and plug my camera in with a usb-c to mini usb cable (again, no different to before as I never used to take the memory card out)
I use a usb-c to usb-3 cable for an external hard disk, a usb-c to lightning cable if I want to plug my iPhone or iPad in and a usb-c to usb-c for any usb-c peripherals so I don't see any difference to what I had before
I do have a usb-c to usb-a adapter in case I need to plug something in with a fixed usb-a plug but only use it very rarely
I use a usb-c to usb-3 cable for an external hard disk, a usb-c to lightning cable if I want to plug my iPhone or iPad in and a usb-c to usb-c for any usb-c peripherals so I don't see any difference to what I had before
I do have a usb-c to usb-a adapter in case I need to plug something in with a fixed usb-a plug but only use it very rarely
I replaced the cables for a few bucks each and use the same equipment. Being able to plug in cables without worrying about which way I'm plugging in, being able to charge on either side of the laptop with any USBC charger, full port flexibility and 1 cable docking are far more useful to me than any of the drawbacks I've faced.