I'm glad he feels like it's an upgrade but the whole thing feels a little disingenuous. I have one of the new Touch Bar MacBook Pros and I need exactly 1 "dongle"/adapter for it that includes a USB port, an HDMI out, and a VGA adapter. With that single thing, I can use the computer exactly the same as my last MacBook Pro and I have the added benefit of all the new high-speed USB-C capture devices and hard drives. How that isn't an upgrade is beyond me. I can access far more devices now than I could with the old MacBook and I can change or move whatever port I want and charge all at the same time.
You know—I want to agree with you, but it's not one or the other.
They could've very easily left all ports alone but 1, and replace 1 USB port with an USB-C one.
I bought my laptop for the keyboard—which is great although dirt is a major problem, but I really wish they'd made the thing half a centimeter thicker but with all ports like they used to have.
Like I said, I can perhaps see the advantage of having an USB-C port, but it doesn't justify losing all the other ones. It is NOT and upgrade at all.
Well, for me, I'd rather have the USB-C ports. Eventually, all cables and devices will use USB-C and I'm not one to buy a new computer every year. I want this thing to last me as long as possible and if I have to use an adapter for a little while until USB-C adoption is the standard, then I'll gladly trade that. I don't want a bunch of old ports on the computer that will be obsolete sooner than later. I already had that happen with Firewire and Mini DisplayPort. Especially when it only worked one direction as far as compatibility went.
Dongles still don't provide MagSafe. It's possible to find dongles with an SD card reader and USB, or HDMI and USB, or Ethernet, but rarely all of them together.
I really liked MagSafe but the ability to plug my laptop in on either side and the ability to use whatever USB-C cable I want for charging kinda negates that. Besides, if I really want it that bad, I can get an adapter that adds MagSafe capabilities (although I don't know how great the adapters are; I just know they exist).
I have three older MacBooks (all of them several years old) with the ports I need and use (HDMI, Thunderbolt, USB), and zero interest in ever "upgrading." I will just get them fixed as they break. To me Apple really messed up with both Touch Bar and USB-C only.
This feels to me like just one of a million ways to write "I'm getting older and my preferences change." Author no longer wants things that are new just for newness' sake, instead preferring something that works the way it always worked and is, above all, convenient.
