If Apple removes USB/SD ports on the new MBPro

[NickPhamUK]

I've never used the SD card slot, but I reckon passionate photographers might do.

An alternative would be to carry an extra dongle.

 

[leman]

Apple is quite well known for making radical changes and transitions. I am very surprised that there are any long-term Apple consumers that expect them to keep legacy IO.

 

[maflynn]

Apple is quite well known for making radical changes and transitions. I am very surprised that there are any long-term Apple consumers that expect them to keep legacy IO.

But SD ports are not legacy, they're used all over the place, there's no real replacement of such things and its by far the easiest way to get pictures from your camera into the computer.

 

[lambertjohn]

I use the SD slot on my 2010 Macbook Pro religiously. I truly hope they don't remove it from the new MacBooks.

 

[jerryk]

Apple is quite well known for making radical changes and transitions. I am very surprised that there are any long-term Apple consumers that expect them to keep legacy IO.

Very true. Remember the headphone jack and the iPhone 7. But, given that dropping this jack has not stopped the iPhone from selling out everywhere, I doubt Apple needs to fear any backlash if they drop the SD card slot.

 

[Macintosh IIcx]

Pros :

- A near future without having to manage 4 kind of different USB cables (Mini USB, Micro USB, USB B, USB B 3.0) by having cable be finally symmetrical. USB C on both ends. One cable to rule them all.

- Having a thinner and lighter laptop because USB C all around make a thinner form factor possible.

---

For me, the pros far outweights the cons.

Plus, USB C is not like Thunderbolt of Firewire, or even lightning (for the iPhone). It is really the direction the industry is going for lots of very legitimate reasons. Even on my gaming PC with a relatively cheap motherboard I have a USB C port.

This. Looking forward to this change even though I will need dongles for USB A+B, HDMI and even maybe a USB-C to Lightning cable. I will work through it.

What I'm really looking forward to is the ability to hook the new MacBook Pro up to a monitor with a single USB-C cable and getting power from the monitor while the display data travels the other way.

One cable/interface to rule them all. It is going to be great. In a year for two, granted.

 

[mctrials23]

Why would apple make a brand new macbook pro and keep all the legacy ports for the limited number of people who really need them.

Keep a single USB A port - people will whinge that they need more because they are a XYZ and couldn't possibly use dongles.

Keep a couple of USB A ports - in a few years everyone will be whinging that all their stuff is USB-C and they only have 2 USB-C ports and one is used for charging. Won't want to buy USB-A -> C connector for same reasons as above.

Do away with them entirely and move to 4 USB-C ports which is future proof and people just buy dongles. Vast majority of people don't use 3 usb devices plugged in at once.

Then put the updated internals into the old macbook pros so people who really really really must have those hdmi, USB-A ports etc can have the latest performance and their ports.

USB-C is becoming more and more ubiquitous and the more devices that use it the cheaper things like docks will be.

I wanted a thunderbolt dock for my 13" macbook pro but didn't ever get one because it would have cost half the value of my laptop for a decent one. Every time I went out and came back I ended up plugging back in:

USB for speakers, power cable, monitor 1 to hdmi, monitor 2 to thunderbolt, ethernet to thunderbolt. I would love to have farmed that off to a dock and just plugged a single cable in.