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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 | 1 comments | 18 Oct 24 19:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.212s | 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. boricj ◴[18 Oct 24 20:41 UTC] No.41883302[source]▶
The laptop I'm currently using (Acer Chromebook Spin 13) has two USB-C ports, one USB-A 3.0 port, one audio jack and one microSD slot. Additionally, I carry in the sleeve a USB-A to USB-C adapter, a USB-C to USB-A adapter and a USB-C dongle with a smattering of ports (4x USB-A, audio jack, Ethernet, SD, microSD, HDMI, VGA, USB-C).

Except for one ancient HP Z24 screen whose USB-C port is infuriatingly finicky, I'm docking with one USB-C cable without issues with all of my modern equipment (plus USB-C switchers to switch between the desk PC and a mobile device). On occasions where I need the extra I/O, the added weight and volume of the adapters and the dongle inside the sleeve are negligible ; I always have them on hand and can't recall the last time I had an issue with them.

If anything, it's actually cables I usually have problems with.