All the other brands went along

As long as you're not an apple cult member you do.

Apple brought back the mag charger.
I wish it still had the SD reader and one A port, but it doesn’t really come up that often. Just 3D printing and only because I’m too lazy to set up a octoprint server or whatever.
- MBPs all have HDMI and SD slots… but Definitely set up the octopi with a cheap webcam. I’ve run one for years now and it’s so nice to be able to kick off and check on prints from my phone. Not to mention it doesn’t matter what computer I slice on and the files are small enough that I have gcode for almost everything I’ve printed for instant access to reprint whenever.
- An octopi is a fun project, for mine I printed a new internal enclosure for the mainboard that has mounts for the pi, so the printer is completely integrated with it (never did finish setting up the internal power routing to power it directly off the power supply, but that's also completely doable)
  
  I purposely don’t do the printer PS powers the octopi thing… I like to be able to drop some gcode on it for later or do updates when the printer isn’t on.
- they do have SDXC card readers:
  2024 16" macbook pro: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/121554
  Charging and Expansion
  SDXC card slot
  HDMI port
  3.5 mm headphone jack
  MagSafe 3 port
  Three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports with support for:
  Charging
  DisplayPort
  Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s)
  Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
  USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
  
  Ahh that’s nice, I bought the 2015 right after the Touch Bar pros went in sale because of the “you only need USB c now” ethos.
  I later inherited a Touch Bar MacBook Pro, and it has frequent charging problems with USB C.
  It’s gonna be time for an upgrade in a couple more years, and it’s nice to know that the new MBPs are sane again.
I was recently convinced that the M1 MBP is one of the cheapest and most cost effective laptops on the market right now. I know it sounds crazy but it appears to be true. You can get a m1 mbp refurbished (sometimes with warranty) for anywhere between $400 - $700. Making it a budget laptop. It also destroys anything in that price range in terms of performance and what you are getting.
- We bought ours when it first came out after several terrible windows laptops. It still runs like new and there’s hasn’t been any need to consider upgrading (m1 air in our case). The biggest complaint is once or twice a year I need a usb c to an adapter for an old device or something.
  
  I'm not in the Apple ecosystem but I have a 16" 32GB M1 MBP. It was given to me when I started my job as my work machine and the thing is a beast especially comparing it to all the terrible laptops Apple came out with prior (removal of mag safe, addition of touch bar, the keyboard issues). I still use that laptop for work today and it honestly doesn't even feel like it's aged a day. Everything is still extremely fast and I use my work laptop 8 hours a day for extremely demanding tasks (I'm a dev so things like running dozens of docker containers, compilation, Android emulators, multiple IDEs, etc).
- Honestly agreed. For the majority of users that just do light office work and browsing it is a great piece of technology. Although i would say it is less about performance (because those people would be fine with even less) and more about build quality, battery life, fanless design and good screen.
  The one issue i have with it is the 256gb non-removable storage. More actually than the 8gb RAM, which tbh for many people is enough for casual use.
  I am still waiting for anyone not named apple to release a similarly priced fanless laptop with good build quality. With lunar lake it should finally be possible imo.
  
  If you spend a little more (like $700) you can get 16gb ram and 512gb. For performance I think "light office work" is selling it short. It's more than capable of handling heavy office work IMO.
  
  Link for the sales or it didn't happen.
  
  Link here
  
  Thanks for the link, I thought refurbished meant it would have warranty. Cool price if you're on a pinch although personally I would not gamble on it without a warranty.
  
  It does have a warranty. Check the screenshot/link.
  
  That's a pretty sweet deal if you're on a budget.
  
  Yeah, I guess it depends on what kind of work. I thought that for demanding office stuff the 8gb RAM might end up mattering after all.
  But your $700 with warranty are an amazing deal that make this irrelevant. That really only leaves the single external monitor (without using workarounds) as downside.
  Where I am in Europe however I don't think I could find the better specced models anywhere close to that price

It's beautiful.

While I personally prefer this, I'm going to guess that the majority of people are generally not going to be using more than 2 or three usb ports at once. My take is that for most people, 2 Cs, an A, DP or HDMI would be optimal.

The availability of BT and wifi peripherals make this acceptable for many.

I still have a cutting plotter that uses RS232, but that's connected to an oldish desktop, on the network, so a laptop never gets connected physically.

I'm not saying that this is good, simply that this is probably acceptable for many.

I have the same mac pictured above, and also a windows laptop with many ports.
The mac I plug into my work center via a single usb-c connection which charges it, connects it to my external monitor, and connects it to all of my USB equipment (about 6 items ranging from m&k to music equipment). Having only the one wire is huge in terms of making it easier to break down the machine from its setup and pack it up for the road.
The pc is connected separately to power as it can’t be powered through the usb-c, and to the monitor separately for some esoteric reason. So then I need a third cable to connect it to my equipment.
So in my case the less-is-more approach is actually preferable
that all being said
I’m sure other windows laptops can be configured with a one-wire solution just fine. And I don’t mean to pretend the 2x usb-c config was a popular choice or anything. Only on like two models or something had it. The newer macbooks brought back sd card slots and hdmi and everything by popular demand.
I looked into it and you can still run everything off of just one usb-c on those ones, so at the end of the day more options is just better for more people
- The mac I plug into my work center via a single usb-c connection which charges it, connects it to my external monitor, and connects it to all of my USB equipment
  I do this with my Dell, which also has many ports ¯(ツ)/¯
  
  Thank you for proving me correct!
- Was just using a new ROG something something laptop for a job. The power connector is some little rectangle thing and it almost fit in a USBc. I was surprised when it was unique. 1 wire aint happening on that.

Yep. My work laptop:

Haha I have almost exactly the same one. Probably a slightly older model. Works for most stuff but mine only has 8GB RAM which is a bit of a killer...

It's most likely expandable, have you checked?
- It's a work laptop, not really my place to go fiddling with it, unfortunately

My 4 month old laptop has hdmi on the back, ethernet on the left, four usb 3.whatever slots with two on each side, two USB c slots on the right side, and a microsd slot.

I think it even has a 3.5mm headset jack but I'd have to get out of bed to check. I don't have any peripherals that use 3.5mm anymore though so it's just a nice little bonus.

Dell makes some fantastic enterprise laptops

What model of Dell is that?

Precision 3581

You have options.

I don't. We have standardized on Macbook Pros at work because otherwise we'd have to use the company-issued image, which really sucks for development work (multi-day turnaround to get anything approved).

I'm interested in replacing my current laptop (E495 Thinkpad), and it's really hard to find anything sensible w/ an RJ-45 port, especially one w/ decent Linux support. I want something in a similar form factor (14", or 16" if the bezels are really thin), but with updated internals (nothing fancy, but the 3500U is getting a bit slow for casual gaming).

I've been thinking of a Framework laptop, but the RJ-45 port is wack, only having 4 ports kind of sucks (they could have better density with those ports), and it doesn't have the Trackpoint that I like so much about my Thinkpad. We'll see what I end up with when I actually buy one though, but maybe I'll have to take another look at Dell's professional line.

anything decent with an RJ-45 port
Not sure if the current generation still has it, but work issued us techs with ThinkPad L14 Gen 3 laptops and I've been happy with it as a work device. It has an RJ-45 (was considered a requirement when they procured the laptops for techs) and mine has a Ryzen 5 Pro 5675U. Only complaints I would have for it is soldered USB-C connectors (which double as the only power source for the machine) and keyboard isn't as nice as my personal T480 although definitely still fine.
I would caution against the 12th gen Intel i7 ThinkPads, we've had multiple internally have overheating issues or stuck in connected standby. My colleague wishes he never replaced his original work issue (same as mine).
- The E14 and T14 still have them as well, and that's what I'm interested in. I used to buy T-series, but they started soldering the RAM, so I switched to E-series for my last one. I don't know if they solder RAM on the E14 though, they probably do.
  I really miss my T440, which had a fantastic keyboard, but my E495 is still better than my Macbook Pro (hate that keyboard) and pretty much every other laptop I've used. Not sure how the newer Thinkpads are, but I definitely don't want those ultra-thin keyboards so many vendors are going with.
  And yeah, I'll probably go AMD again, I want the APU perf and don't want a dGPU.

Look at all those ports I'll never need

We should have had USBC 20 years ago.

It's still cool to have options
- That's what prisoners say. You are so conditioned to it that you prefer it.
  
  You should probably look in a mirror, Mr. Prisoner.
  You're the one asking to be constrained.
  
  Your other comments are less nonsensical, so I'll only focus on this one.
  Prisoners don't say this
  More options is freedom, literally the exact opposite of being imprisoned
  Recognizing reality is conditioning...?
  You can't just say the opposite of something factual is true, that's what MAGAts do
  Oh
  
  My point was that defending the pissing contest over standards that gave us consumers six ports instead of one to do all the same tasks really misses the mark, imo.
  
  Not really, i don't use usb-c for everything cause for me it gives no advantage. Like my LAN cable still works, my aux port is up-to my satisfaction, my DP port is straightforward.
  Why should i go to USB-C if everything works? I'm not Anti Type-c but I'm also not Pro type-c, if that makes sense. I'll use it if I'm missing on some new tech.

The apple bois wont appreciate this