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Comment by acchow | Hacker News Reader

How old was your old one. Recent macbooks had HDMI and USB magsafe - you lose all 3 with the USB-C macbook.

What happens when you trip on your charging cord and destroy a USB-C port?

I've owned every Macbook/Powerbook from the Titanium up until the Mid-2014 MBP (while I was at Matasano, I got every refresh; on my own, I try to make machines last). My 2014 has HDMI. But then: the new one has an HDMI+USBC+USB dongle.

On the one hand: I miss MagSafe.

On the other hand: I will not miss the stack of old frayed MagSafe cables I've collected over the years, and am hopeful that the aftermarket will finally provide me with a reliable power cable.

Worth knowing about me to qualify my opinion is: I don't use external monitors or keyboards. I don't ever want to use a configuration of my computer that will make me unhappy or feel less productive when I'm not at a desk, because I strongly prefer being able to work wherever I happen to be.

I don't have a 2016, but I won't miss Magsafe. In every situation where Magsafe would have protected my laptop, it has failed to do so. If I grab my cable and yank as hard as I can, all that happens is the laptop slides across the desk. Every time I have tripped on the cable, it's pulled the laptop to the edge of the table, not unplugged. I imagine this problem becomes more common the lighter the laptop gets.

The only time Magsafe breaks like it's supposed to is when it's sitting on my lap and my leg bumps it, pushing it straight up. Which is just an annoyance, not a safety feature.

Lots of people seem to like it, but same experience here -- I don't recall an instance of the machine being "saved" by MagSafe, but oh boy do I recall plugging it back in all the time when something moved a bit.

My guess is the typical scenario magsafe protects from is when you have your laptop on the side of the table, charging cable to the side and you step on it or pull it down. Don't have one, so can't test this theory.

Yeah if you pull it down, it snaps out pretty easy. Whenever I end up tripping on it, though, it's usually catching my foot and being pulled nearly straight out. I can actually push the Magsafe connector down until it bends far enough to touch the desk and then pull on it from that angle and it still just drags the laptop.

Maybe it's useful to some, and I agree it's great engineering... but it's never once worked for me in practice. I only find myself cursing when my leg bumps it and it stops charging.

I work remote, so I spend quite a bit of time at coffee shops and other places like that... MagSafe on my laptop has saved my laptop countless times. Sitting on a small table the rubber feet provide enough grip that if you give the cable a quick tug it becomes unplugged.

I am definitely going to miss MagSafe and am hoping the third party market comes up with something that will emulate it enough to where I don't have to worry about my laptop going flying because some cut doesn't watch where he is walking and accidentally kicks the cord.

Yeah, if you have it sitting on your desk and slowly pull on it the magnet will hold... but give it a quick tug, laptop will stay, cord will come with you.

The push for lighter laptops has probably meant that the force needed to disconnect the magsafe is greater than the force needed to drag your ultralight laptop along.

For me, I have a 2012 non-retina MacBook Pro and the magsafe works fine for me on that. I think this is one laptop people consider heavy though. (Personally I am alright with the weight and love its plethora of ports).

Except that I'm pretty sure that's one of the top use cases for Magsafe. Imagine if you didn't have a Magsafe connector and your leg bumped it, pushing it straight up. You'd have a ruined power connector... My Dell and Sony laptops both had that happen and stopped getting a consistent connection. With the Dell, the power connector was internally soldered on to the mobo too, so the repair was not cheap at all. :(

Every other laptop I've ever had, the power connector was at the back so you could avoid hitting it with your leg. With the MBP, its on the side and it's small enough that my lap is wider than the laptop, so my leg pushes on the power connector.

Magsafe might be better than breaking a connector, but those aren't the only choices that exist. There is a far better solution, and it's really odd that Apple hasn't figured it out.

Get a magnet USB-C charging cable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01CQTK6GU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=...

Not even close to a replacement.

Are there other options? That cable doesn't have particularly good reviews.

Not OP, but I replied above - basically I never used HDMI other than plugging in my monitor, only at my desk. Now I plug in power, 4k display, keyboard and speakers with a single cable, so a much better solution for my setup (Especially considering I grab and go a lot since I work from home.)

Also as far as tripping over a cable it is unlikely to happen to me, given I leave my laptop at my desk charging overnight so I rarely ever use a power cord away from my desk (given the average 8 or so hours of battery.) Pretty much only when traveling, but even then it will likely just be charging while I'm not using it.

And USB? You don't use normal USB ports? Yubikey nano?

This has been my concern, but you can find magnetic detach USB-C cables.

https://www.amazon.com/Griffin-BreakSafe-Magnetic-Breakaway-...

I tripped on my charging cord and the USB-C cable unplugged without damaging my laptop.

However, the other day I put my laptop down on a wooden chair which I thought was flat... :-(

The ports are on a separate board I think.

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