Can’t live without your favorite ports in a world of USB-C MacBooks? Here comes the fix.
In the past couple of years, Apple has taken a hard stance on older legacy ports. Apple’s rule of thumb has been fairly simple: if it can be replaced by something smaller, more powerful and more versatile, out it goes faster than a bad amateur act at the Apollo.
The last surviving ports other than Lightning and Thunderbolt 3, can only be found on Macs older than 2015, aside from the latest iMacs where USB 3.0 are still hanging on by a thread.
As far as HDMI and DisplayPort are concerned, chances are we’ll see less of either in the coming years, and on top of that, Apple competitors are beginning to follow suit, though at their own pace.
For those who absolutely can’t live without, at the very least, a standard set of legacy ports, Lenovo has created a dock that includes a full range of legacy options.
Named after Lenovo’s flagship line of laptop, the ThinkPad Dock comes in two versions.
The Thunderbolt 3 version features two DisplayPort outputs, one HDMI, one VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, a headphone jack, a Thunderbolt 3 port(via USB Type-C), and five USB 3.0, one of which is connected directly to the main power supply, meaning you can plug a device and power it even when your laptop is powered down.
.The USB Type-C version has slightly less ports, for some reason, featuring two DisplayPorts outputs, VGA, three USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one USB Type-C ports, Gigabit Ethernet and a headphone jack.
The two different docks come s with very different pricing. The Thunderbolt 3 version can be had for $279.99, while the USB Type-C version costs $199.99.
The great thing about either docks is that they can both power a laptop directly, which means that if you have a new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, or a 2015 12 inch MacBook, you can power them through the USB Type-C connector.
If spending close to $300 to expand your choice of ports seems overkill, there are cheaper alternatives although not as comprehensive, nor sophisticated. With that said, this type of dock caters to an audience that falls in the category of office workers looking for ways to interface with technologies that are often far behind what home users typically have access to.
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If you are looking for the perfect MacBook, PortableOne has you covered with a great selection of Apple MacBooks, as well as the newly unveiled 13 inch and 15 inch MacBook Pro with TouchBar.