First proper look on Star Labs' upcoming StarFighter laptop - eviltoast
  • Falmarri@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    a robust charging connector

    Wtf? Usb-c charging is the best thing that’s happened to laptops this decade. You’re insane to want to go back to the bad times.

    • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      21
      ·
      1 year ago

      The USB C connectors are way easier to break than a large barrel jack and they wear out faster too. If the USB C port is soldered to the motherboard, then you are in for a very expensive repair.

      • const_void@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        32
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I used to be in the laptop repair biz. The most common failure mode we saw was the barrel connector. Even ones that were detached from the motherboard like the IBM Thinkpads had.

        • ikidd@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          1 year ago

          The Apple mag-connectors are pretty awesome. I’ve never owned a macbook, but I still think those are the cat’s ass.

        • tal@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Honestly, I think that that has less to do with the connector itself and more because the power cord gets yanked.

          I’d assume that you could get a similar effect with any connector, USB included. Well, Apple’s MagSafe ones maybe not, as that’ll just pull the cord away.

      • tal@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        and they wear out faster too

        The part that wears out is the thing that maintains tension, and that is on the (cheaper, replaceable) cable for USB.

        My understanding that this issue was part of why the move away from mini-USB to micro-USB and later USB-C happened. Mini-USB had the tensioning gizmo on the device, rather than on the cable.

        googles

        Yeah.

        https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18552/why-was-mini-usb-deprecated-in-favor-of-micro-usb

        Why Micro types offer better durability?

        Accomplished by moving leaf-spring from the PCB receptacle to plug, the most-stressed part is now on the cable side of the connection. Inexpensive cable bears most wear instead of the µUSB device.

      • BaconIsAVeg@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Maybe don’t treat expensive hardware like it was made by Fisher Price? Why should consumer electronic manufacters cater to the careless at the cost of conveinence?