I still don't understand the point of all this... What is wrong with simple barrel connector... It's not like a phone is gonna need to draw 240 watts... Just keeps making the spec more and more complicated... Also are the small contacts in a USB-C connector even reasonable to run with this much current? Is there enough cross sectional area on these contacts?
How exactly am I going to charge my phone, headphones, gamepad, tablet and bunch of other devices from a barrel connector? USB-C has pretty much eliminated forlorn MacBook users shambling around our office and looking for another soul to give them a compatible proprietary charger. Let's keep it this way.
None of those devices you listed need 240 watts... That's quite a bit power to just trust some protocol to negotiate correctly.
And every time I buy a new device and think I'll be able to use my existing USB-C cables I'm met with a new standard. Bought a new external GPU enclosure? My macbook charging cable wont work I need a 40gbps thunderbolt THREE(not 2) cable. Bought a new Oculus Quest? Neither my egpu or macbook cables work I need an $80 LINK cable.
I wonder if the the committee have looked at integrating colour or some other indicator into the standard so that cable/port capabilities are clear visually. Though ofc the design challenge is for users to feel comfortable that putting red into blue won't break anything, it just might not give the expected features.
Or! We could go one step further, and change the connector to make sure that people use them correctly. Wouldn't that be clever!?
On the other hand, I would love to use an M1 chip that makes use of 240 watts. Could you imagine the power? Give me the option to trade efficiency for horsepower. When I hear things like "My M1 mac never turns on the fans" I wonder why the system isn't clocking higher if the cooling system is running so comfortably.
For most users the M1 is fast enough that a nicer user experience (no fan noise) is more worthwhile than slightly better performance. My friend recently purchased a MacBook Air with M1. There's no fan at all. It's incredible. It's a block of metal that just works.
I think most users would at least appreciate the option. For example, windows has power settings where you can adjust the clock of the CPU to however you like when plugged in or unplugged. Consider also that gaming has never been a silent prospect, on a desktop, or a laptop, and especially a game console. The switch is silent, but gamers know nintendo is compromising on graphics fidelity compared to competitors to make a silent handheld device, and it does get hot during use. I don't think people would mind if their fans spooled up when they are getting good frames at high graphics setting from their games, or at the very least had the option to select a more performant clock speed if fan noise didn't bother them. Fan noise doesn't bother me, I game with headphones like most enthusiast gamers. Apple gives you nothing right now like that, that I know of.
At the same time, I have no idea if the cable I have is a thunderbolt or usb-c cable. There is no standard marking.
Thunderbolt cables generally have a lightning bolt mark, and are expensive and short and thick+inflexible. And because of that, you likely don't have any except for the one coming out of a thunderbolt dock or external GPU enclosure etc.
My apple cable I believe is thunderbolt but I'm not sure. It's white with no marking.
At the same time, I have no idea if the cable I have is a thunderbolt or usb-c cable. There is no standard marking.
Your Thunderbolt cables don't have the lightening bolt logo on them? I didn't think it was a 'requirement' but every TB cable I've seen always has the thunderbolt icon.
The leaks say MagSafe is coming back on the MBP 14" and 16" laptops coming, possibly, at WWDC next month.
I've sworn off the past 5ish years of Apple laptops, but if they bring MagSafe back, ideally along with a non-Touchbar option, that just might be enough to bring me back!
The rumors are indeed that Touch Bar won't be on the new 14 and 16in either. I won't miss it, but I certainly don't mind it.
At the same time, I have no idea if the cable I have is a thunderbolt or usb-c cable. There is no standard marking.
You might not know in advance which is a problem but it seems pretty trivial issue. Just test it and see if it works, if it doesn't return it and get a different one. Then repeat the process until you get the one you need.
Or you could look at the cable from the getgo and read a simple marking and not have to do this song and dance.
Are there cheap devices that measure USB cables? So that user plugs the cable into it (both ends) and it will list what protocols/bandwidth does it support. And electrical resistance of course.
Maybe with an attached labelling machine to print the results in a way that could easily be affixed to the cable? ;) Oh, and please with an integrated wirecutter that automatically destroys cables if their results are too bad?
Heh I had a cursed micro-USB cable at the office that only carried power, no data - had fun debugging why my board did not work.
I don't know, the flipside is that Thunderbolt delivers genuinely cutting-edge interconnect capabilities. I can run two 4K60 displays and a dozen peripheral devices, and charge my laptop, all via a single cable off of my $100 Thunderbolt 3 dock. There is no other technology that comes close to this capability at this price point.
do those screens need to be 'thunderbolt' as well? or can they just take a usb-c connection (but ... not be thunderbolt?) I have a 2019 MBP 15". Every 'dock' I've looked at seemed to indicate that "you will see mirrored screens on multiple displays" - which is not what I'd want. Perhaps all of this is because I'm 'only' using a 2 year old MBP, and this is somehow all Apple's fault? Would love to know what specific $1…
No, the displays don't need a Thunderbolt controller (and I do get 3 separate displays - mirroring would be pretty useless, I agree).
After updating the dock to the latest firmware, I can run two 4k60 displays, although it requires a specific configuration: one display on one of the DisplayPort lanes, and one on an active USB-C to DisplayPort cable hooked up to the dock's unpowered Thunderbolt port.
I've done this setup multiple times with this dock model, and it has worked with every Thunderbolt 3 MBP I've used.