I'm using the AMD version of the framework 13" laptop with a usb dock which cost £30. The dock has power display port usb A and c ports ethernet headphone jack and card readers. It all plugs into the framework laptop with one cable and it all works well. It's small and light. It gets warm to the touch.
Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
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Re: Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
#22I use USBC everywhere including my home office dock. The ease of plugging one cable to dock is great, it keeps the desk tidy and has excellent spousal approval factor.
Most dongles are absolute crap, though. Caldigit is the only brand I trust.
Re: Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
#23USB-C is a form factor. USB 3.2 and USB4 are ... protocol standards. Thundetbolt 3 and 4 are other things (only supported with Intel tech). Be more specific, as USB4 w/ TB4 support can be ok for almost anything.
There's now AMD laptops certified for Thunderbolt 4 coming to the market, such as the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 [1], so it's no longer this clear cut.
[1] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/coming-soon/lenovo-thinkpad-t...
Re: Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
#24I think carrying around dongles is a hassle (I know some people are very organised with their peripherals, but I'm not one of them). I like the idea of the docking stations some people have posted about, but it doesn't really account for needing the ports when you're away from your desk. It's not often, but I do find myself needing them now and then.
I have a Dell laptop with a Thunderbolt docking station. The docking station is great for staying connected to all the things you normally leave on your desk when you take the laptop somewhere: dual monitors, keyboard, mouse, ethernet connection, webcam, speakers, etc. It's not that great for plugging in, for instance, temporary USB devices like thumb drives or USB hard drives. (This docking station has some USB ports on the back, where they're hard to get to, and only a single one on the front.)
So I'm very happy that this laptop, though still quite thin, actually has two USB-A ports (USB 3.0), on the sides. It's also nice sometimes to be able to plug in an HDMI monitor if I'm not at my desk/home, without needing to carry a stupid dongle.
Re: Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
#25I have a Windows laptop with a two USB-C ports - and I only use 1 - and it's connected to my monitor. My monitor acts as a dock. My monitor is powering my laptop, handling the video output, and has the keyboard, mouse, headset, and camera connected to it. All I have to do is plugin one cable and I'm done. It's a good setup. The monitor even has a monitor-to-monitor hub so if I get a second monitor, all I have to do i…
We have exactly this set up at work and I've never had a single issue with it. One usb c cable from one monitor to my laptop, which provides power and gets me two 24 inch monitors. I take video calls all day and never have any lag across the 3 screens (including tbe laptop screen).
If I wanted to I could plug my headphones (3.5mm or usb) into the monitor which is also a USB hub.
Re: Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
#26Look for docks instead of dongles. Check the usb-c spec of the laptop and dock capabilities.
I've tried a variety of those on various Thinkpads and Macs, and they've all had problems of one sort or another. Spent anywhere from $100 to $300 on different brands and never found one that "just works". It's a huge pain... IMO only.
Apart from a brief issue with a specific macOS version a year or two ago, I’ve found my CalDigit TS3+ to “just work” with both an Intel and an M3 Pro Mac.
Re: Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
#27Contrary opinion: USB-C sucks for any sort of demanding use case, especially video (i.e., gaming monitors). There are so many different versions and specs that all fit into one lookalike cable/connector but which will fail in various ways, usually at some combination of refresh rate, resolution, HDR, etc. HDMI is so much more reliable (though not without its issues) and DisplayPort is even better, though that's rare…
USB-C IS DisplayPort (among other things). You can get from USB-C to DP "passively", just by signalling the right thing to the USB-C port. The mode is called Alt-Mode and gives you DisplayPort and USB2 or USB3 speeds as a side channel (depending on the amount of bandwidth consumed by the DisplayPort stream). Barring that, some USB-C docks rely on a USB data stream (DisplayLink) and not a DisplayPort stream. Avoid the…
But you can never be sure if a dock will work for your device I am below 40% succes rate. Though I do not really care much about it, luckily it worked at home on first try but it was expensive.
Re: Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
#28>> 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)
There are dongles with e.g. HDMI + Eth + USB-C, so you gain 2 ports, and still have the USB-C for charging.
Re: Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
#29I run USB-C with one cable to a Thunderbolt4 dock station (ThinkPad Hybrid USB-C with USB-A Dock) running two high-res screens from my Macbook Air M2 + all other accessories.
Plug in one cable and I'm done.
Note: Most docking hubs only support a feature of DisplayPort called MST to run two monitors off a single connection. The USB-C connection to the hub is using something called Alt Mode to carry the video signal using DisplayPort protocol. MacOS only supports MST in mirror mode over USB. It needs to be Thunderbolt for full MST support with dual, unique displays.
Re: Laptop Ports: Is USB-C only fine, or should I get HDMI,USB,Audio if I need them?
#30I survived with a 12" Macbook and a solitary USB-C port. The one difference is that I did have an audio jack as well.
I found a monitor that had a USB-C connection with charging, a USB hub, ethernet etc. (of which there were very few back in 2015). When I was somewhere other than my own desk, the Apple HDMI dongle was more than good enough.
The only "this sucks" scenario was when I had the opportunity to use multiple external models, but couldn't. Aside from that, I don't regret getting that laptop.