That’s a shame, because they are such great monitors, that should outlive the usefulness as a main computer.
This is a very true statement. I am still using my 2013 MacBook Air which I bought as a “bring your own device” for work and it’s still serving me fine. I could not think of any excuse to replace it except for its non-retina screen.
It turns out the 27" is pretty great and that user replaceable RAM is super nifty, but the price… that totally blow my budget out. And the 21" which I was eyeing - I realise I was looking at the lowest end 21" which is not even 4K.
I feel a sudden splash of cold water on my face :(
Maybe I should just continue to use the Air and think of upgrading the PC instead.
After a weekend of use here are my MacBook Pro annoyances:
(1) Cannot connect your iPad to the device without new cable or converter.
(2) Can’t use iPhone headphones with lightening connector with laptop. Not even a converter or cable that works as far as I can tell.
(3) All of the thunderbolt 3 docks seem to have some sort of major quality issue, don’t do everything you need, or don’t charge at the wattage required for the 15 inch MacBook.
(4) Some cables/converters use USB 3.1 and others use USB 3.0. Have to pay close attention.
(5) The LG 5K monitor has some of the worst reviews I’ve ever seen for a product on an Apple store page.
The message I am getting from Apple is - buy a USB-C monitor because that is your only reliable docking solution. The ASUS Designo MX27UC 27 seems like a good choice for this and I can almost buy three of these 4K monitors for the price of one LG 5K.
Did you somehow buy a touchbar macbook pro without being aware of #donglelife? It’s not like that hasn’t received any attention, to say the least.
I have the LG 5k monitor and it’s fine. I assume the poor reviews are for the first revision which didn’t work nearby a wireless router, which was… not great.
That Asus monitor looks great. Obviously check out reviews first. Even if it doesn’t output the full 87w the 15" tMBP wants, even 50w or so will keep up with active use and still charge while idle.
I was aware, but not as aware about the variation that exists. I don’t mind using dongles, but I do mind that I have to study computer science in order to figure out which dongle works with what. I guess I could just buy all Apple products and call it a day. That’s what I will probably end up doing, hehe. Before my purchase, had no idea what USB IF is or was!
So it turns out I was wrong about the RAM on the 21 – it is not super easy to upgrade, but it is no longer soldered-in!
https://apple.insidercdn.com/gallery/21640-25066-21622-24977-IG1JLCr6OejKtfEx-l-l.jpg
Via iFixit.
The biggest issue I ran into when looking up dongles and such was finding ones that supported HDMI 4K @ 60Hz instead of 30. There are some, but for example the official Apple dongle doesn’t. I ended up ordering this HDMI adapter to use on my 3440x1440 monitor. Getting it tonight:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R7QMXN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_XA.rzb2D9V1DZ
Also, I bought this thing- I’ll report back how it is when it arrives:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N5PX0DH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_lA.rzb7N3TAJC
That mini dock is really cool - a lot of functionality packed into a tiny package. The only thing that would be cooler is if those ports were in the MBP in the first place (this msg typed on a late 2013 work MBP, back when they still made 'em with some ports. RIP ethernet.)
The great thing about USB-C is that it supports so many kinds of protocols over one cable.
The TERRIBLE thing about it is that the standards bodies have done a bad job of explaining the details and, even worse, the manufacturers have done a awful job of implementing the tech into standard compliant designs.
A google engineer (and others since) have done a REALLY good job of researching the issues. https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung
Can you tell i fell down the same rabbit hole when I went to replace a bunch of dying laptop and iOS device charge cables yetsterday?!
Diego
Not sure what you guys are looking for, but I bought this for my wife back in October and it has worked great
https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Select-USB-C-Multiport-Adapter/dp/B01J6JE9BQ
Been using this mini-DisplayPort adapter with my Touchbar MBP for about six months now and it works flawlessly. 60Hz 3440x1440 on the Dell 34" UWS.
Be curious to hear how well that hub works, @Vesper, as I’m currently using individual USB cable adapters. Though I don’t see you can go wrong with CharJenPro. :)
Why a mini-DP adapter? Does that monitor have a mini-DP port, or did you already have a mini to fullsize cable lying around from a previous mac?
Anyway, I’m using this USB-C to full-sized DP adapter. Works fine going to a 1440p dell monitor.
Then hanging off the LG thunderbolt monitor I have this multi-port adapter, an ultra-cheapo USB3 hub hanging off that, and an ethernet adapter. And off of those, of course my mouse, keyboard, a lightning cable, a USB 3.0 backup drive, and a bunch of other stuff I’m forgetting about right now.
The #donglelife sounds a bit ridiculous but it’s actually only two cables going to the laptop; thunderbolt for the LG monitor and USB-C for the displayport adapter.
Yeah, I am going to aim to use a USB-C monitor as my main dongle hub. Just not sure which monitor yet. On the one hand, I am sad that I missed the LG 5K when it was $995. On the other, it seems most of them had issues.
Yep, already had the mini-DP cable from my MacBook Air, so why change? No disadvantage vs. a full-size DP, plus my kid can pull the adapter and use his Air on it if he wants to.
So the USB-C to HDMI adapter I linked above runs 3440x1440 at 50Hz rather than 60Hz, FYI. Looks great though. I briefly looked for some sort of DisplayPort switch and didn’t come up with much, so that’s why I ended up getting this. Gaming PC is plugged into DP of course.
I was going to create another thread but figured I’d just ask here. Are USB-C external drives worth the investment over a standard 3.0 USB drive? Something like this. It is $80 more expensive than this.
USB-C, no. USB-C is just the form-factor. Converting USB-C to USB-A is very easy and cheap as balls.
Both USB-A and USB-C ports can support USB 3.1 gen2 speeds at 10Gbps, which are theoretically twice as fast as USB 3.0 5Gbps. Just to be extra confusing, USB 3.0 5Gbps is also called “USB 3.1 gen 1”. However it’s pretty rare to see USB-A ports supporting 10Gbps while USB-C is somewhat more common.
All of this is largely academic of course unless your drive can transfer data over 5Gbps. That’s 625 megabytes per second, which while close to the theoretical maximum of consumer SSDs is unlikely to make any difference at all unless you’re attaching a RAID array of SSDs and doing sequential reads.
Or, of course, if you plan to attach a hub with tons of devices hanging off it all sharing the bandwidth.
Hmm, so as far as I can tell, this $350 4TB external drive is one of the few that will run at the higher speeds? Or are you paying for the convenience of connecting multiple ways for USB 3.0 speeds (since you can connect via TB3). My head hurts, lol.
Thunderbolt3 can transfer up to 40Gbps. It uses the USB-C physical plug but is an entirely different connection.
On the USB side that drive is USB 3.1 gen1, which is the same as USB 3.0, so you’ll be “stuck” at 5Gbps if your computer doesn’t support TB3.
But again, the actual drive inside that enclosure is a 7200RPM magnetic hard drive. So it’s not like you’re going to be transferring data anywhere remotely close to 5Gbps anyway.
The advantage of that drive is that if your computer only has a single TB3 port you can daisychain off it to other devices. Beyond that it’s a complete waste of money compared to something like this.