The IT Nerd

One of the headline features of the new MacBook Pro is that Apple added back the HDMI and SD Card slots along with MagSafe. So does that mean that I am not living the dongle life.

The short answer is no. The longer answer goes something like this.

Even though Apple put back the ports that they took away in 2016. there are still dongles that one will need to use depending on their use case. In my use case, I have the need for three dongles:

I need a USB-C to Ethernet dongle, in this case made by Belkin, because I often over to program enterprise class network switches, or I sometimes have the need to use Ethernet instead of WiFi. Since the MacBook Pro doesn’t come with built-in Ethernet, I need a dongle for this purpose.

This is a USB-A to USB-C adapter from Apple. I have a ton of USB-A devices so this is an absolute requirement for me as this MacBook Pro doesn’t have a USB-A port.

This is a USB-C to VGA adapter from Belkin. Now you’re wondering why I would get this adapter. Well, many offices still use projectors that only have VGA. So to ensure that I am never caught out, I have always kept one of these in my bag just in case.

The bottom line is that even with the return of the ports on the New MacBook Pros, you will still need dongles. Though I suspect that you will need less dongles than before. Or put another way, you will still be living a form of the dongle life.

This entry was posted on November 7, 2021 at 11:57 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.