2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
I've been using a MacBook 12 with a USB-C port for a year now. What has changed during this time? Can USB-C replace other ports now? What is it like to live with the laptop of the future in the present? The answers are here.
How it was
Last year, the MacBook 12 made a lot of noise: one port, weak hardware, that's it. Apple invited us to step into the future. And not just somehow, but through pain and suffering. No magnetic charging, HDMI and USB 3.0. All of this replaces USB-C, here and now. I do not like? Wrap with adapters, and you will be happy. The strategy is in the spirit of Apple, which is why people put up with it and dubbed the MacBook a pioneer and a guide to the future. These horror stories did not scare me much. The laptop is compact, with a great screen and a comfortable keyboard (yes, a comfortable one). The most important thing is to carry with you on business trips.
One port did not bother me, since I have been storing all the information in the clouds for a long time, the mouse is Magic Mouse, and there is nothing else to connect. And of course, I was interested in the new USB-C port, which was predicted to have a great future. A year has passed, the future has come. I tell you how you live in it.
Return MagSafe
Replacing MagSafe with a fancy USB-C seems odd to say the least. For charging, it is absolutely inconvenient and inferior to the magnetic connector a little more than completely.
At first, the USB-C port is very small, so it's not that easy to get into, especially in the dark. I have to crawl with the plug on the laptop case, which is unpleasant. If earlier it was enough to bring the cable to the connector and it would magnetize itself, now this is a whole docking process that takes time and nerves.
Secondly, there is no charge indication. To find out if the laptop is charged or not, you have to open the lid. This approach is appropriate for the iPhone, where you just press a button to check the charge level. But why do the same thing on a laptop?
Thirdly, look under your feet more carefully. If you hit a wire, 10 out of 10 times your MacBook will fly to the floor and nothing will save it. MagSafe has saved thousands of laptops from meeting the floor, but now all hope is only for your attentiveness.
Captured by adapters
Nothing has changed in a year. Many smartphones and laptops with USB-C were introduced. And not with one, but with two or even three ports at once. But what is the point in them? You can count on your fingers the accessories that support this connector, and the most popular of them are adapters. I would love to buy a monitor for my MacBook, but it's not there. In winter, several models from Acer and LG were presented, but I still have not seen them on sale. Many manufacturers ignored the new connector, realizing that it is too early to give up the usual USB and HDMI.
What can I say, Apple itself introduced the USB-C to Lightning cable only a year after the presentation of the laptop. And then it becomes clear why the MacBook 12 has only one connector: no longer needed.
Everything will change this year
But this year everything will change, it cannot be otherwise. The reason for this will be the new MacBook Pro. On the owners of MacBook 12, you can experiment, because they do not need to edit videos on a large monitor, draw with a graphics tablet. Therefore, the absence of the periphery is insulting, but not critical. But professionals will not forgive such mockery, so it's time for Apple to change something.
June 13 at WWDC 2016 should present a new MacBook Pro with four USB-C at once. In addition, the long-awaited Thunderbolt Display update will be shown, which will apparently be called USB-C Display. Thanks to the new port, it will be possible not only to display a picture on a 5K screen (and this is the resolution the monitor is likely to receive), but also to charge the laptop at the same time.
Yes, the lack of familiar ports will complicate the work of many, because all the old equipment will remain out of work. I think some users will squeeze everything out of their cars to the last, and the most daring will get adapters and patience. The main thing is that there are many more MacBook Pro owners than MacBook 12, which means that manufacturers must move. For example, I'm waiting for a new tablet from Wacom with USB-C, since working through an adapter is pornography.
I hope this year everything will get off the ground and next year I will not have to write the same sad post about disappointed expectations.
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