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Comment by KptMarchewa | Hacker News Reader

I actually like that I can connect everything - keyboard, mouse, two monitors, headphones, power, ethernet via one thunderbolt cable.

What I'd hate is the fact that I'd have to unplug everything and take this dock with me if I wanted to connect in the conference room.

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When I bought in to usb-c I was pretty excited about this, but man to get a dongle to do all of that you listed and working as expected was like a couple hundred dollars, or you roll the dice with the no name brands. Eventually that laptop died and I went back to a macbook that had all the ports I needed on the dongle already built in, and life has been somewhat simpler.

Wait what? How are you doing that? I want this thing so my laptop can be more easily unplugged and stop being a stylish desktop pc

The legendary dongle! The one that serves as a docking station! I’ve heard of this one, a major company here has it. Even for them, they had their IT team to research it, and it’s valued $300 on the internal resale forum.

So, the magic dongle that delivers the USB-C dream is ultra expensive and rare and only worth finding if you have 6000 employees to provide.

No, I bought a dongle on Amazon that I use for my M1 Air for $60. It takes up both USB-C ports, but it handles power, can do 4K@60Hz HDMI (only for 1 display though), has an SD card reader, a few USB-A ports, and maybe another USB-C port. More ports than I’ve ever had to use. The read/write speeds aren’t best in class, but it was only $60.

It’s nice to only have to unplug one thing to be able to take my laptop somewhere, and I like the 2 port design more than I thought I would.

What you want is a Thunderbolt dock.

Be warned that they aren't cheap. Most of the good ones cost $300 - $400; I'd recommend looking at options from Caldigit and Anker.

You can still do that with the newer MacBook Pro with extra ports.

I did this, and I had to use all of the ports, except for card slot.

Every time I had to connect or disconnect 6 cables, now I have to connect only one.

What? I have a 2016 MacBook Pro (Touch Bar, maxed out), 2019 MacBook Pro (16” Intel, maxed out) and a 2021 MacBook Pro (16” M1 Max, maxed out). All can connect with the same single cable to my 2 x 5K displays, ATEM + DSLR webcam, audio interface and gigabit ethernet without any issue. The difference is the M1 can ALSO connect more easily to projectors, and have the protection of MagSafe when away from the desk. The keyboard is hands down the most comfortable on the 2016 (butterfly) though, so I tend to use that away from my desk.

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