I have a dock that has all the connectivity options I need (an entirety of which can’t possibly fit in a portable device) while stationary, and it also charges my laptop. While on the go, I can pick dongles for what I need at the time. Most of the time it’s either nothing or a memory card reader.
The need for memory card reader becomes increasingly rare, as devices have AirDrop, cameras have Wi-Fi, and for larger files like CinemaDNG footage I’d have to use a portable SSD anyway which connects over USB-C.
Besides, memory card dongle dies and I buy a replacement for $20; built-in card reader dies and part of my laptop is dead weight until I send the whole thing in for service.
I can’t come up with anything I can imagine being useful as far as extra I/O is concerned, considering how blazing fast TB 2 and USB 4 already are; perhaps there are some novel connectivity options though.
> built-in card reader dies and part of my laptop is dead weight until I send the whole thing in for service.
Is this a frequent occurrence for you? I have a 6 year old MBP and all of the ports still work great. I would naively guess that P(port breaking) << P(dongle breaking).
Card reader in my old MBP died from what I presume is small debris stuck inside, and can’t be resurrected by manual cleaning anymore. For a time it was possible to use by inserting an SD card in a particular way, but that did not work reliably.
Ironically, that reader didn’t support microSD cards used by my audio recorder (Tascam DR-05), so once I lost the microSD to SD size adapter (which happened very quickly) I had to use a universal memory card reader dongle anyway.
I never sent it for repair: this was my daily driver so I had to have a backup machine in meantime, but when I got another laptop I simply switched to it.
My latest USB-C SD/microSD reader dongle feels surprisingly sturdy, though admittedly it is liable to getting lost (it’s been a year and it did not happen yet, but I’m sure it will at some point).
I’d say definitely P(port breaking) < P(dongle breaking or getting lost), but on the other hand port breaking has higher cost.
The need for memory card reader becomes increasingly rare, as devices have AirDrop, cameras have Wi-Fi, and for larger files like CinemaDNG footage I’d have to use a portable SSD anyway which connects over USB-C.
Besides, memory card dongle dies and I buy a replacement for $20; built-in card reader dies and part of my laptop is dead weight until I send the whole thing in for service.
I can’t come up with anything I can imagine being useful as far as extra I/O is concerned, considering how blazing fast TB 2 and USB 4 already are; perhaps there are some novel connectivity options though.