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Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?

7 points johnnybzane | 2 comments | 18 Oct 24 19:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.58s | source

I'm on the market for a new laptop (with windows OS) and I've noticed quite a few laptops are USB-C ports only now.

I even saw one laptop that only had 2 USB-C ports, with 1 of them to use for charging. (Dell XPS 13 for example)

It's very important for me to connect my laptop to a monitor, and to use earbuds, be connected to ethernet, and to have a charger going, all at the same time. I have an old laptop with an HDMI output port, USB, and direct audio jack for earbuds.

I'm struggling to accept that dongles are fast enough or reliable enough. What if I get a HDMI dongle or audio dongle and the connection keeps dropping on my video calls? A direct connections feels "safer" to me than a USB-C splitter.

What do you think. Should I still look for laptops with direct HDMI/Audio/USB connections, or are USB-C only laptops still reliable enough even if you need a dozen different dongles?

1. johnnybzane ◴[18 Oct 24 19:39 UTC] No.41882756[source]▶
Forgot to mention: I have my laptop connected to a USB keyboard and USB mouse
replies(1): >>41907668 #
2. solardev ◴[21 Oct 24 19:37 UTC] No.41907668[source]▶
Those are simple and should work fine, unless you have some super special USB gaming mouse with a very high polling rate. It's really video (especially) and ethernet (especially gigabit) that are more demanding.