What Happened to Right Angle MagSafe Plugs?

[smirking]

For a few years, Apple bundled right angle MagSafe plugs with their laptops. These were by far my favorite versions of the MagSafe adapters. The right angle plug was a lower profile so it was less likely to get accidentally dislodged and also (for me at least) was likely to get bent so it'd be less likely to fray at the plug from cable stress.

I'm disappointed to see that with the return to MagSafe, Apple is using a normal straight MagSafe plug. Anyone have any insight as to why we don't see the right angle plugs anymore?

 

[RedTomato]

Wild guess: Maybe the right angle plugs were a bit too good at staying on (when pulled in line with the cable), and led to a few macs being damaged? You kind of need a MagSafe plug to release at any angle before pulling the laptop over, that's the whole point of the design.

(I agree the right angle ones are more tidy though.)

 

[smirking]

Wild guess: Maybe the right angle plugs were a bit too good at staying on

Yeah I think you're right about this. The right angle plugs if pulled directly from behind and with enough force, could potentially send a laptop off of a table before it disconnects.

 

[miamialley]

I imagine the magnet will be strong on the new MBPs. The magnet that holds the plug into the new iMac is really strong...probably stronger than they'll put on a laptop, for the reason @RedTomato is saying.

 

[MacDevil7334]

IIRC, Apple only started selling/bundling the right angle plugs in the later years of the MagSafe 1 laptops because they were forced to do so by a class action suit. The original plug design (similar to the MagSafe 2 and and now MagSafe 3 connectors) was prone to failure (don’t recall exactly what the issue was). So the right angle connector was the fix. With later versions of the MagSafe connector, Apple was free to revert to the old design since they were technically new products. I guess Apple fixed whatever the issue was because it does not appear they were ever sued over the MagSafe 2 variant.

I agree with the OP though, the right angle MagSafe plug was the best version!