I really liked MagSafe but the ability to plug my laptop in on either side and the ability to use whatever USB-C cable I want for charging kinda negates that. Besides, if I really want it that bad, I can get an adapter that adds MagSafe capabilities (although I don't know how great the adapters are; I just know they exist).
Personally I'm glad to see MagSafe go away if that means I can use charging ports on either sides of the laptop. Sitting on the right side of the bed with the charger connected is a huge hassle when you only have a charging port on the left side.
The cables of Apple's MagSafe charger are also quite crappy, they tend to fray after 2-3 years of use. I hope that gets better with USB-C and if not at least you'll have better third-party chargers available.
I thought I would miss the magsafe as well, but actually I like the USB-C charging better - you can charge from either side of the device, which is a lot more useful than I would have thought.
I like the ability to connect my laptop to my monitor with a single USB-C cable and charge off that. I wouldn't mind having both options - MagSafe in my bedroom, USB-C at my desk.
At least for the magsafe thing you can buy USB-C magnetic adapters like the “CONMDEX USB C Magnetic Adapter”. Doesn’t address the other major shortcomings, but it’s a small win.
Ditto on the request to retain USB-C charging. The ability to charge phones + Chromebooks + a MacBook in my house with interchangeable power blocks and cables is a huge benefit. MagSafe just isn't worth it.
My USB-C to Magsafe adapter is currently in the prototype phase. I'm really interested in what you didn't like in the design so I can fix it in the final product.
I'm in the same boat as you, but most of my devices including my work laptop uses USB-C for charging. I want to cut down on the number of chargers I have to bring with myself I going somewhere. Also, I really like that I can "dock" my work laptop with only one cable.
I loved magsafe at the time, but I can't decide if I want magsafe now. It's pretty nice being able to charge most devices in my bag with the same USB-C cord. If they had a magnetic breakaway connection in the middle of a USB-C cord, that would be the best of both worlds.
Apple is pretty smart when adding features most of the time. Maybe they just add strips of magnets to a usb-c so you can still use the port with a normal usb-c cable and still benefit of magsafe with the proprietary adapter.
Anyway, I did enjoy MagSafe when it was there but I don't think Apple will go back. They'd rather focus on making sure you only have to charge your laptop at night.
I agree, I never want to see a proprietary apply power adapter ever again, especially given their history of disintegrating within a year or two.
Charge ports on either side fix a real pain point for me - all my workspaces happen to have power on the right hand side.
Also, if you need the safety of magsafe, you can get magnetic-connect usb-C cables, where the usb 'stub' fits into the female port, but connects magnetically to the rest of the cable.
Now that I have children of laptop-using age, I'm almost at the point where literally every single day I'm thinking about how useful MagSafe is. It was such a good invention for notebooks.
I really don't care about the "charge from either side" benefit of USB Type C. I do appreciate the fact that you can use aftermarket cables though - especially considering how poorly constructed Apple's are.
USB-C has been better than MagSafe for me for 3 reasons: 1) Can charge off either side, which has solved most of the cases MagSafe helped me with 2) I can replace just the cable with a cheap third-party one instead of replacing the whole expensive Apple charger when their crap cable falls apart 3) Can extend my battery life off a regular USB power bank
What would the point of that be? Having a USB-C port provides versatility in function. Having a weird proprietary USB-C cable that hooks onto a proprietary magnetic charging interface doesn't provide a ton of improvement over magsafe (even if it could support other USB-C peripherals with an adapter, who wants a USB drive or other device to snap off with a bit of pressure?)
MagSafe was great for dealing with cables draped across the floor in front of you. With 4 USB-C ports, so you can plug your power in to either side, this is no longer an issue. And it looks like doing a MagSafe-style plug for USB-C is actually pretty bulky, as you can see in this Griffin product (https://griffintechnology.com/us/breaksafe-magnetic-usb-c-po...).
There's also another good reason why specifically Apple wants to get rid of MagSafe (as opposed to it just not being worth it anymore). And that's the fact that MagSafe has insidious problem of laptops sometimes just not charging, and you often don't even notice. I myself have started experiencing this issue with my current laptop and external display - I went for almost a whole day without it charging and didn't realize until I hit 10% battery, and since then, it's been a bit finicky, sometimes requiring me to poke at it several times before it charges properly. I don't know if it's the port or the cable that's having the issue. In any case, I would imagine this issue makes for a non-trivial amount of AppleCare support. And since MagSafe isn't really pulling its weight anymore, now that we have long batteries and can plug the cable on either side, the downsides outweigh the upsides.
If you really want or need MagSafe, as I do, you can have it with USB-C only Macs too.
There are many magnetic adapters you can buy, the good ones working better than the original MagSafe 2, which easily fell off when using MacBooks on your Lap, due to the connector being T shaped (instead of MagSafe 1 being L shaped, which worked great).
I also hope they don‘t bring back SD card readers and big clunky HDMI ports into the MacBook lineup, potentially reducing the amount of USB-C ports and making some models thicker.
I don't see how Magsafe and USB-C are mutually exclusive. Also, if Apple wanted to, they could have given their Magsafe adapters pluggable cords, so you don't have to buy a new adapter when the cord frays.
I agree it's a great feature, it just doesn't trump 'universal' for me. At my desk I want one cable to plug in, and MagSafe can't be it. Travelling if I take USB-C it can charge my phone and earphones too, transfer data if I needed to even.
It's just never going to be such a great feature for me to bother finding/carrying the different & extra cable, personally.
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