Sacrificing the Ethernet Port

[Ice Dragon]

I know it has been done with the Air though can it be done with the Pro and Mini and at what cost. Would Apple do it for thinness?

 

[maflynn]

I hope not, I use the ethernet port. wifi's bandwidth comes no where near the speeds of gigabit ethernet.

 

[thundersteele]

yes, they can do it. Maybe they invent something new, like a mini-ethernet port, to screw people up a bit more.

For the Air it seems that one can use a Ethernet to USB adapter... the same will work on a Pro and any other computer

 

[NeedMoreVideo]

Except that USB is is 400mbps (peak) and usually 1/3 of the sustained while Gigabit Ethernet is 1000mbps sustained sure...

I could see them make it a thunderbolt dongle though in the future for the non-pro models.

 

[sunnyj]

I hope not, I use the ethernet port. wifi's bandwidth comes no where near the speeds of gigabit ethernet.

+1
I use mine all the time and using wifi would be a huge step back in speed

 

[thundersteele]

Except that USB is is 400mbps (peak) and usually 1/3 of the sustained while Gigabit Ethernet is 1000mbps sustained sure...

I could see them make it a thunderbolt dongle though in the future for the non-pro models.

I'm not saying that it's a good idea to get rid of the ethernet port. But they removed it from the air, and if they really want to make the MBP thinner, then it will have to go.

The next MBP is expected to have USB 3.0, since it's natively supported by the Ivy Bridge CPUs. So the speed wouldn't be a problem, unless they only give us one 3.0 port and you want to use it for an external HD.

 

[ray648]

I could see them removing it from the macbook pro, but I don't think there is any way it will disappear from the mini any time soon. Ethernet ports make a lot more sense on desktops anyway and the laptop people will be able to get it via thunderbolt if they want to.

 

[grahamnp]

I've been to places where WiFi is not an option, I definitely need ethernet. The MBP is thin enough, making it thinner won't squeeze it anywhere it couldn't go before. No need to remove any ports and achieve nothing.

 

[theSeb]

I hope not unless there is an alternative that works with Gigabit Ethernet. USB 2 Ethernet 100 Megabit adapter is not an alternative.

 

[negativzero]

MBP is a pro machine. Wouldn't make any sense to sacrifice performance for space, not to mention there isn't muh more you can save out of removing the Ethernet port. If I want to save space, I would have gone for an Air instead.