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>In hindsight, MagSafe was convenient when laptops weighed and ton and could easily get pulled down by the standard laptop charger plug.

Didn't you get that inversely? It's today's lighter laptops that can MORE easily get pulled down by the standard laptop charger plug.

Absent a magsafe style solution, the easiness of which a laptop can be pulled down is an inverse factor of its weight.

>I've had all different laptops for years now and can count on one hand the number of times MagSafe would have saved me a slight bit of trouble.

That's still up to 5 times. And that's with YOUR use cases, others (e.g. less mindful, with pets, with kids, working on cafes, etc) can have it even much worse.

But even 1 time, never mind "measurable on one hand" times, of avoiding getting a laptop dented, with broken screen, etc, in a decade is a good ROI.

>Didn't you get that inversely? It's today's lighter laptops that can MORE easily get pulled down by the standard laptop charger plug.

No, but I probably should have been clearer in my meaning. The chargers now plug in via a very tiny port that is easily removed with minimal force. The larger, heavier laptops of the past had the more standard wall-wort plugs that needed to be pulled straight back to remove them. USB-C unplugs too easily to ever be a risk for a computer getting pulled down and computers are too light now to actually disengage the MagSafe ports. It's a tough balance where too powerful of a magnet won't disengage a light computer and too light of a magnet causes the charger to fall off at the lightest touch.

As for your second point/question, I was mainly saying that paying a premium for a MagSafe connector is less worth it to me than having a non-proprietary port that is also multi-function since it's very uncommon for the use-case that MagSafe was designed for to happen nowadays with computers. I have yet to hear a current story where MagSafe saved someone's computer or where the USB-C cable trashed someone's computer by getting pulled and not releasing. MagSafe was awesome for its time but I think it's not as useful with today's tech.

Where to begin?

Okay, so USB-C has a long pull. It’s not a short simple disengage that can occur at any angle. You can’t snap off a USB-C plug by rolling at an angle, without inflicting wear at best, or connector damage at worst.

The lighter the laptop, the more likely the laptop will be pulled by the binding of the tension clip, especially if the angle of pull is unintentionally wrong and accidental.

That the laptop is lighter is good, because on a bad drop off a table top, there’s less impact damage or probability of screen breakage, but a trip over a cord or an excited pet can still send the laptop flying MORE EASILY, not less.

The heavier chasis weight merely means that damage was more readily inflicted on the conductive ring-and-pin DC port itself, or the adapter wire, by serving to anchor the chasis in place, than would a lighter chasis get launched across the room.

The lighter chasis means a lesser magnet should be used to link the magsafe connector to the power port, but either way, magsafe wins. It’s the better design every time.

Back in the day, the magsafe connector saved multiple fragile components, preventing HDD head crashes, dents, bent plugs, sceen smashes and frayed power cord internals. But now, with SSD drives and gorilla glass monitors, and commodity cords, laptops are more durable and survivable on a drop than years ago.

Either way, it’s still extremely disconcerting to drop a laptop, no matter that they can withstand more abuse than the bad old days, and magsafe power connects were a reassuring presence.

Fortunately, it’s low technology, and USB-C is an open standard, so after market solutions could jump into the market for a save. It doesn’t have to be an Apple product exclusive anymore. It could be an Otter Box durability sweetener included with their hardened clamshell wrappers, or a Belkin accessory, or whatever dongle-du-jour company puts something out. It’s just that no one has pushed into that area yet.

The Griffin BreakSafe cable, among others, push into that area.

>I have yet to hear a current story where MagSafe saved someone's computer

Because it's a non-story. Magsafe saved my macbook a few times in Uni. I was working in Cafés, in uni with the cable going straight away from the table and at home with pets. I probably would have needed a macbook per year without magsafe. While I agree it's great to have a standardized USB-C plug, magsafe was the one thing where I didn't mind paying the Apple premium.

We could have a magsafe USB-C port. With enough people having a Macbook today this could become standard. And you'd just need a simple ($50) adapter cable to connect the two.

Not sure if you knew this, but there’s a bunch of companies who make MagSafe like USB-C cables. Not only do you get the safety benefits of a magnetic breakaway cable, you also get the benefit of it not being proprietary.

I find it ironic that everyone always beats up on Apple for having proprietary connectors (more for phone admittedly), but then when Apple does do something standard, they still get beat up. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t I guess.

Personally I love that it’s USB-C as now I can use an external battery with my Mac when I need extended run time without having to pay super premium prices for something like HyperMac’s old system. That and the fact I can plug power in on either side is a huge plus to me.

>I find it ironic that everyone always beats up on Apple for having proprietary connectors (more for phone admittedly), but then when Apple does do something standard, they still get beat up. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t I guess.

Or, one can think of it as "judging each case on its individual merits". For other stuff, it makes less sense to have a proprietary connector, whereas for magsafe it provided something good.

As much as I feel like USB-C has been a huge fiasco on my new Touchbar MBP (way more work than I expected), you're right about Magsafe. I tripped on it and flung my 2011 Air onto the floor. No damage, but it's getting pointless, and anyway, those magsafe2-1 converters are useless -- I've bought 5, they all fail.

One disadvantage of magsafe is that siting cross legged and working on your lap is a hassle. The magnet disengages very easily. However I would rather have magsafe than see my 15 inch pro flying in the air when my 4yo trips over the charging cable :)

What? The L-shaped magsafe is ideal for sitting cross legged. All other power connectors jab into the side of my leg. And I've never had the magnet disengage

i _wish_ i had a proper use case for the touchbar. six months in, still haven't figured out what to do with it, apart from, you know, pretend it's the top row of a keyboard.

i sort of forget about the keyboard until i use my old macbook pro and remember what i'm missing out on. and even that one was a step down from the previous gen.

Install BetterTouchTool and you can make it do pretty much whatever you want. I like the defaults for stuff like Final Cut Pro and Safari but if you don't use those then there will be limited utility for you outside of regular function keys or media controls.

> Being able to scrub through media

Isn't that something you could do with a modifier key and the touchpad?

Technically yes but not in the same way that I can with my Touch Bar since it's completely visual which would not be the case with the trackpad. I also switch tabs in Safari on the Touch Bar and do plenty of other things that are all just quicker and faster with the Touch Bar. On top of that, it's not like I lost the trackpad by having the Touch Bar so I could still do it the way you're describing, if I was inclined to do so.