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What ports should make a return to the 2021 Macbook Pro?

  • USB-A

    Votes: 207 36.4%
  • HDMI

    Votes: 235 41.4%
  • SD Slot

    Votes: 242 42.6%
  • Magsafe

    Votes: 337 59.3%
  • None, just keep it USB-C only

    Votes: 135 23.8%
  • Ethernet

    Votes: 97 17.1%

  • Total voters
    568

senttoschool

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2017
2,626
5,482
Looks like HDMI and SD cards will make a return according to Kuo's newest report.

Hopefully, that means at least one USB-A will make it back as well because HDMI has a bigger height than USB-A.
 
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senttoschool

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2017
2,626
5,482
So far 36.1% of voters wants USB-A ?

What a joke.
That's a lot of people. Keep in mind that we're in an enthusiast forum which means we're more likely to adopt newer technologies such as USB-C. In the real world, I'm guessing that the 36.1% would be higher.

I just bought a brand new Apple Watch Series 6 and it came with a.... USB-A charger. You can't charge your latest Apple Watch on your latest Macbook without a dongle. Also, I was surprised to learn that Xbox Series X came with 3 USB-A ports and no USB-C ports. This tells me that USB-A is going to stay for a long long time.

If Apple's goal is to remove the need for dongles and hubs, then adding at least one USB-A port makes sense. And USB-A is smaller in height than HDMI which means if the chassis can have a HDMI port, it can contain a USB-A port.

Apple tried to push USB-C forward. The industry said f you. Now it makes sense for Apple to just admit that USB-A is still used way more than USB-C.
 
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Jorbanead

macrumors 65816
Aug 31, 2018
1,209
1,438
Looks like HDMI and SD cards will make a return according to Kuo's newest report.

Hopefully, that means at least one USB-A will make it back as well because HDMI has a bigger height than USB-A.

It could be mini or micro HDMI. They can still output the same resolution. I guess we will see though! A full sized port would be ideal of course.
 

Jorbanead

macrumors 65816
Aug 31, 2018
1,209
1,438
If it's mini or micro, then you'll just need a dongle again. What's the point?

To free up the other ports so you can still have 4 TB ports available on top of an external monitor. And you don’t need an adapter you just need a mini to full HDMI cable which are no more expensive than a full to full HDMI cable.

Like I said I would prefer a full sized but I’m just saying what we could get is a mini so they can save on space/thickness.

hardly see micro hdmi or mini hdmi in the market laptop
I don’t see why that matters. Apple can and will do what they think is best or a fair compromise. They may not have the room for a full sized port but they’ll compromise on a mini. I’m just saying don’t get your hopes up until it happens. I’d love to be wrong
 

crevalic

Suspended
May 17, 2011
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98
To free up the other ports so you can still have 4 TB ports available on top of an external monitor. And you don’t need an adapter you just need a mini to full HDMI cable which are no more expensive than a full to full HDMI cable.

Like I said I would prefer a full sized but I’m just saying what we could get is a mini so they can save on space/thickness.


I don’t see why that matters. Apple can and will do what they think is best or a fair compromise. They may not have the room for a full sized port but they’ll compromise on a mini. I’m just saying don’t get your hopes up until it happens. I’d love to be wrong
lol, at that point just add for another TB port which would be a way better solution (even though I believe that with the new tb4 hubs with 4 tb4 ports, a pretty acceptable price and daisy chaining support, 4 tb ports on the laptop should be plenty).
 

Argon_

macrumors 6502
Nov 18, 2020
425
256
Looks like HDMI and SD cards will make a return according to Kuo's newest report.

Hopefully, that means at least one USB-A will make it back as well because HDMI has a bigger height than USB-A.
Wrong, by a small amount. HDMI is shorter by .5mm.

apple-macbook-pro-13-inch-retina-display-2015-right-side-por_7svh.1920 copy.jpg


Note the thicker material above the HDMI vs the USB-A.
 

pshufd

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2013
10,151
14,574
New Hampshire
Apple tried to push USB-C forward. The industry said f you. Now it makes sense for Apple to just admit that USB-A is still used way more than USB-C.

And Thunderbolt, and Thunderbolt 2. I have the adapters, dongles and cables for Thunderbolt 2. Not terribly useful for upgrades to a new system. HDMI, USB-A and Magsafe will get me to upgrade. I don't need the SD card slot but it's nice to have. There are so many times when I'd like to plug in a Logitech mouse to a laptop and the two USB-A ports make that easy. I often like to use an external mechanical keyboard as well though not as often.
 

JMacHack

Suspended
Mar 16, 2017
1,965
2,424
Apple tried to push USB-C forward. The industry said f you. Now it makes sense for Apple to just admit that USB-A is still used way more than USB-C.
I think that there’s far more progress on thunderbolt 3 and usb-c than there was for 2 or 1. Look at the numbers of docks on Amazon.

Also going forward USB ports will be shaped like C, so there’s that.

Honestly just bring the sd card port back and I’d be happy. HDMI would be useful too. But a single USB-A port would just have people complaining still that there’s not more USB-A ports.
 

pshufd

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2013
10,151
14,574
New Hampshire
I think that there’s far more progress on thunderbolt 3 and usb-c than there was for 2 or 1. Look at the numbers of docks on Amazon.

Also going forward USB ports will be shaped like C, so there’s that.

Honestly just bring the sd card port back and I’d be happy. HDMI would be useful too. But a single USB-A port would just have people complaining still that there’s not more USB-A ports.

We went from three to two from the 2007-2012s to the Retinas. Did we complain? I'd prefer two myself. Just take the Retina models and replace the Thunderbolt 2 ports with USB-C.
 

Jorbanead

macrumors 65816
Aug 31, 2018
1,209
1,438
hardly see micro hdmi or mini hdmi in the market laptop
lol, at that point just add for another TB port which would be a way better solution (even though I believe that with the new tb4 hubs with 4 tb4 ports, a pretty acceptable price and daisy chaining support, 4 tb ports on the laptop should be plenty).
Because you can’t just add another TB port without adding another TB controller to the chip. It’s easier to just stick an HDMI port and call it a day.
 

537635

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2009
1,154
1,041
Slovenia, EU
Because you can’t just add another TB port without adding another TB controller to the chip. It’s easier to just stick an HDMI port and call it a day.
You do know, that HDMI isn't just some magic wireless port, but also needs some space inside the chassis?

cZDGfiZosbWksbbF.large.jpeg


The red thingy.
 
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crevalic

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May 17, 2011
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Because you can’t just add another TB port without adding another TB controller to the chip. It’s easier to just stick an HDMI port and call it a day.
That's completely wrong, in Macs with 4 TB3 ports, there are actually only 2 TB controllers and 2 ports on the same side share a controller. Now, 3 port TB3/4 controllers are widely available and you can find them in the practically all new TB4 hubs and docks where 1 TB port is split into 3 TB ports + other stuff. In reality, adding HDMI is way more trouble than adding another TB port because it still needs sizable circuitry (see the post above) and needs dedicated PCIe bandwidth and video lanes, which then cannot be dynamically allocated across TB ports, leading to issues, non-spec behavior of TB ports and situations like with the m1 mac mini, where 2 external monitors cannot be plugged it in any combination of ports like with 4 port MBPs, but one needs to be plugged into a TB port and another has to be plugged into the HDMI port.
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,522
19,679
That's completely wrong, in Macs with 4 TB3 ports, there are actually only 2 TB controllers and 2 ports on the same side share a controller. Now, 3 port TB3/4 controllers are widely available and you can find them in the practically all new TB4 hubs and docks where 1 TB port is split into 3 TB ports + other stuff. In reality, adding HDMI is way more trouble than adding another TB port because it still needs sizable circuitry (see the post above) and needs dedicated PCIe bandwidth and video lanes, which then cannot be dynamically allocated across TB ports, leading to issues, non-spec behavior of TB ports and situations like with the m1 mac mini, where 2 external monitors cannot be plugged it in any combination of ports like with 4 port MBPs, but one needs to be plugged into a TB port and another has to be plugged into the HDMI port.

I agree with everything you say, but at the same time the common practice of wiring multiple TB ports to a single controller is something I personally consider to be misleading. I know that everyone does it (Apple included), but I just don't think it's an honest thing to advertise four high-speed ports if what you get in reality is two ports worth of bandwidth which furthermore depends on which ports you use. With M1 Apple at least seems to be moving in the right direction: giving each port it's dedicated controller. If they continue this with other Macs, we will probably see more TB controllers than in any other currently shipping computers. So from that perspective, adding another TB port might end up being quite costly.

But as you rightfully say, adding HDMI bring its own bag of issues. You need to integrate a USB-C hub into the logic board, you need to decide from which TB controller to "leach" the video signal, adding complexity and creating asymmetries and unpredictable behavior. From the design standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to delegate those things to an external USB-C dongle or cable.

As a quick remark (I am sure that this has already been mentioned): Apple was able to easily add HDMI to the M1 mini since they leverage the dedicated video link of the SoC. In the M1 laptops that link is hardwired to the internal display, in the mini it is wired to a HDMI output instead. Maybe one way how Apple can add an additional HDMI port while avoiding all the TB woes is by implementing two dedicated SoC video channels (one for internal display, one for HDMI), but that seems quite wasteful...
 
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alien3dx

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2017
2,193
524
I agree with everything you say, but at the same time the common practice of wiring multiple TB ports to a single controller is something I personally consider to be misleading. I know that everyone does it (Apple included), but I just don't think it's an honest thing to advertise four high-speed ports if what you get in reality is two ports worth of bandwidth which furthermore depends on which ports you use. With M1 Apple at least seems to be moving in the right direction: giving each port it's dedicated controller. If they continue this with other Macs, we will probably see more TB controllers than in any other currently shipping computers. So from that perspective, adding another TB port might end up being quite costly.

But as you rightfully say, adding HDMI bring its own bag of issues. You need to integrate a USB-C hub into the logic board, you need to decide from which TB controller to "leach" the video signal, adding complexity and creating asymmetries and unpredictable behavior. From the design standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to delegate those things to an external USB-C dongle or cable.

As a quick remark (I am sure that this has already been mentioned): Apple was able to easily add HDMI to the M1 mini since they leverage the dedicated video link of the SoC. In the M1 laptops that link is hardwired to the internal display, in the mini it is wired to a HDMI output instead. Maybe one way how Apple can add an additional HDMI port while avoiding all the TB woes is by implementing two dedicated SoC video channels (one for internal display, one for HDMI), but that seems quite wasteful...
if normal vendor said yes why consider wastefull. unless..
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,522
19,679
if normal vendor said yes why consider wastefull. unless..

I am not sure what “normal vendor” means in this context or what you are trying to say in general, but it’s wasteful in the sense that you are adding additional circuitry and data buses to your chip for the sake of a niche feature. This stuff has implications for price, cost and energy consumption.
 

alien3dx

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2017
2,193
524
I am not sure what “normal vendor” means in this context or what you are trying to say in general, but it’s wasteful in the sense that you are adding additional circuitry and data buses to your chip for the sake of a niche feature. This stuff has implications for price, cost and energy consumption.
Normal people doesn't care all those gizmo word. People just want to plug and play hdmi. Moving forward is great but .
 
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