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Comment by thisisrobv | Hacker News Reader

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thisisrobv·

Was really interested in reading this until.. "ditches the Escape key for a dedicated emoji bar".

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There's a model with a normal keyboard, including esc. Even features a 10% larger battery and saves $200.

It also comes with only 2 USB ports, out of which you need one for charging.

So? Generally you are either at a desk (often with a display, keyboard, and mouse), or you are traveling lighter and don't need to connect many usb devices.

So for each desk get a widget that takes a tb3/usb-c connection and connects to your mouse/monitor/keyboard.

Basically an instant dock. If you really hook up more than one device, travel light, AND need more than 10 hours a day buy a little usb hub.

I suspect over 95% of laptop use is either at a desk or requires less than 2 USB-C/tb3 ports.

Nowadays, TB2 hubs are not cheap (200-300 EUR) and I don't expect TB3 to be cheap either. Just USB3 hub does not cut it, it will be a while until you will be able to connect displays using USB3.

Even today, I'm using two TB2 ports and one USB port (i.e. three ports on the computer) because: 1 x miniDP (no, most displays are not TB2 native and cannot daisy-chain with other TB devices), 1 x ethernet adapter (the Apple one cannot daisy-chain either), and USB hub for the rest.

New (granted not quite shipping) hubs/docks sound like $100 or so. You sit down, connect the tb3/usbc cable and your mouse, keyboard, and display works. Of course your laptop is getting charged as well.

Preorder for $105 http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/10/28/13453274/a...

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