2010 MBP vs 2018 MBP missing some details...

[dpace32]

Hello - I recently upgraded from a 2010 MacBook Pro to a 2018 MacBook Pro and absolutely love the upgrade except a few minor details related to power:

1. No longer can check the battery life without turning it on
2. No longer have a Magsafe adapter
3. No longer have an LED indicator on the charger adapter to see that it is actually charging
4. No longer have an LED indicator on the MacBook to see that it is off/on/sleeping

Anyone else missing those features or am I still in my adjustment period? Any tips on how to get around these features? I saw an adapter online for the second item but it seems to get poor reviews.

Thank you!

 

[baypharm]

No you are not going crazy. Apple rejected the Magsafe adapter in favor of USB-C (Thunderbolt) - which is ironic since the new iPhones use the same iightning cables the iPads use - (scratches head on this one). The LED indicator has been replaced with a "tone" that sounds when you place the charger into the MBP. There is no way of knowing if it's fully charged until you open and turn it on - like you said. Some say this is progress - others say differently.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

The stuff you noted was removed throughout the years (IIRC first the battery and on/off LED, then magsafe and charger LED).

I miss MagSafe. But the new USB-C cable is A LOT sturdier than the magsafe cable.

 

[Hadron]

No you are not going crazy. Apple rejected the Magsafe adapter in favor of USB-C (Thunderbolt) - which is ironic since the new iPhones use the same iightning cables the iPads use - (scratches head on this one). The LED indicator has been replaced with a "tone" that sounds when you place the charger into the MBP. There is no way of knowing if it's fully charged until you open and turn it on - like you said. Some say this is progress - others say differently.

The lack of the charging light may irritate me when mine arrives, but actually it's mostly been useful to me because the magsafe connector sometimes needs reseating to start charging, so probably that will be less of a concern in practice since I've never had that with any other charging connector. But yes, at least the option of a connector with a light to indicate power flowing would have been nice, for those odd times when you don't notice that the socket is turned-off at the wall (if you are in a country whose wall outlets have switches).

But can I ask what the irony is about using USB-C? Are you suggesting that Apple should have adopted the proprietary Lightning connector for their laptops (the only connection I can see between the first and second halves of that sentence)? I don't know what Lightning's maximum power delivery is, since Apple don't make it public, but it might simply not be capable of charging the laptops. And for other uses, USB-C being an open standard makes it far more useful on a laptop than Lightning, and I'm sure that adopting Lightning as the sole port on the laptops would have been suicidal (while replacing one or more USBs with Lightning would just be reducing the number of ports for most accessories). So I find nothing mysterious or ironic in not using it on the laptops.

 

[deeddawg]

While I get why some dislike the loss of magsafe, I *really* prefer the flexibility of USBC charging.

• You can plug in on either side, depending on what's convenient.
• Cable isn't fixed to the brick, so you can choose a shorter length if preferred.
• You can use a variety of power sources and aren't stuck with just the included brick.
  • Lots of combo USBC / USBA wall chargers available, great for travel or putting by your favorite chair
  • There are various battery pack options for recharging or extending your run time while on the go.
  • It'll even charge (slowly) or maintain charge from a 2.1A USB source if your usage is light or the system is idle (faster if system is sleeping). (Anker PowerLine USBC/USBA cable)

As for the LEDs I can't say that I've missed them. Haven't ever had an issue with a connector coming unseated after I hear the "bong" upon plugging it in. Haven't felt a need to check if the system is sleeping or off, since I rarely actually shutdown the system -- and it really doesn't make a difference to me in practice. If in situations where you must know the system is powered down I can see it being convenient, but I've not found a need for it.

 

[baypharm]

The lack of the charging light may irritate me when mine arrives, but actually it's mostly been useful to me because the magsafe connector sometimes needs reseating to start charging, so probably that will be less of a concern in practice since I've never had that with any other charging connector. But yes, at least the option of a connector with a light to indicate power flowing would have been nice, for those odd times when you don't notice that the socket is turned-off at the wall (if you are in a country whose wall outlets have switches).

But can I ask what the irony is about using USB-C? Are you suggesting that Apple should have adopted the proprietary Lightning connector for their laptops (the only connection I can see between the first and second halves of that sentence)? I don't know what Lightning's maximum power delivery is, since Apple don't make it public, but it might simply not be capable of charging the laptops. And for other uses, USB-C being an open standard makes it far more useful on a laptop than Lightning, and I'm sure that adopting Lightning as the sole port on the laptops would have been suicidal (while replacing one or more USBs with Lightning would just be reducing the number of ports for most accessories). So I find nothing mysterious or ironic in not using it on the laptops.

The other way around actually. Since their new MBP use USB-C connections, I would have thought (hoped) that their new iPhones would have them. My Samsung S8+ has it and it is soon to be two years old.

 

[dpace32]

While I get why some dislike the loss of magsafe, I *really* prefer the flexibility of USBC charging.

• You can plug in on either side, depending on what's convenient.
• Cable isn't fixed to the brick, so you can choose a shorter length if preferred.
• You can use a variety of power sources and aren't stuck with just the included brick.
  • Lots of combo USBC / USBA wall chargers available, great for travel or putting by your favorite chair
  • There are various battery pack options for recharging or extending your run time while on the go.
  • It'll even charge (slowly) or maintain charge from a 2.1A USB source if your usage is light or the system is idle (faster if system is sleeping). (Anker PowerLine USBC/USBA cable)

As for the LEDs I can't say that I've missed them. Haven't ever had an issue with a connector coming unseated after I hear the "bong" upon plugging it in. Haven't felt a need to check if the system is sleeping or off, since I rarely actually shutdown the system -- and it really doesn't make a difference to me in practice. If in situations where you must know the system is powered down I can see it being convenient, but I've not found a need for it.

I have had the MacBook for roughly a week and already had an issue where I thought the laptop was sleeping, I put it in my backpack and when I got to class I found out that the laptop was on the whole time! My old MacBook would have had the light indicator on the outside showing that it was still on when the lid was shut.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

• Cable isn't fixed to the brick, so you can choose a shorter length if preferred.

Good point!!!

Just remembered I can use the same brick to charge my iPad and my MacBook (don't even bother trying to charge an iPad Pro 12.9 with the included brick unless you have a week to spare.

Plus it's one less brick for me to carry...

 

[afir93]

While I get why some dislike the loss of magsafe, I *really* prefer the flexibility of USBC charging.

• You can plug in on either side, depending on what's convenient.
• Cable isn't fixed to the brick, so you can choose a shorter length if preferred.
• You can use a variety of power sources and aren't stuck with just the included brick.
  • Lots of combo USBC / USBA wall chargers available, great for travel or putting by your favorite chair
  • There are various battery pack options for recharging or extending your run time while on the go.
  • It'll even charge (slowly) or maintain charge from a 2.1A USB source if your usage is light or the system is idle (faster if system is sleeping). (Anker PowerLine USBC/USBA cable)

As for the LEDs I can't say that I've missed them. Haven't ever had an issue with a connector coming unseated after I hear the "bong" upon plugging it in. Haven't felt a need to check if the system is sleeping or off, since I rarely actually shutdown the system -- and it really doesn't make a difference to me in practice. If in situations where you must know the system is powered down I can see it being convenient, but I've not found a need for it.

Pretty much agree with you on all points. What I'd like to add is that, if something about the charger breaks, you only have to replace either the adapter or the cable, thanks to them not being fixed as you mentioned. Previously when the MagSafe adapter broke (which seemed to be a much more common occurrence than with the new USB-C charger, by the way!), it was usually the cable that broke, not the adapter itself, but you were still looking at a 90€ or so replacement. Now you'd only have to spend 20€ for a new USB-C-to-USB-C cable instead. People like to complain about the new models being more expensive to fix but this is an area where the replacement costs for consumers have actually decreased by a good amount.

Furthermore, it's pretty rad that you can use the included adapter to charge and even fast charge your iPhone/iPad, which also wasn't possible before. It's really a shame that Apple still only includes a 5w power adapter with the 2018 iPhones, but at least you only have to buy a 20€ USB-C-to-Lightning cable if you already own a ≥2016 MacBook Pro and can then just use the power adapter for both. Not so with a 2015-or-earlier MacBook Pro.

I see why people still miss the MagSafe port, but the switch to USB-C has really opened up so many new use cases that makes it hard to view it as anything but progress. If people absolutely want the MagSafe charging mechanism there seem to be quite a number of third-party options out there that plug onto an USB-C cable and port and still give you the old mechanism (though many of them seem to suffer reliability issues, from what I've gathered), so you can kinda still have that advantage of MagSafe with USB-C, whereas you conversely cannot get any of the USB-C advantages on the old MagSafe port.

 

[dpace32]

Pretty much agree with you on all points. What I'd like to add is that, if something about the charger breaks, you only have to replace either the adapter or the cable, thanks to them not being fixed as you mentioned. Previously when the MagSafe adapter broke (which seemed to be a much more common occurrence than with the new USB-C charger, by the way!), it was usually the cable that broke, not the adapter itself, but you were still looking at a 90€ or so replacement. Now you'd only have to spend 20€ for a new USB-C-to-USB-C cable instead. People like to complain about the new models being more expensive to fix but this is an area where the replacement costs for consumers have actually decreased by a good amount.

Furthermore, it's pretty rad that you can use the included adapter to charge and even fast charge your iPhone/iPad, which also wasn't possible before. It's really a shame that Apple still only includes a 5w power adapter with the 2018 iPhones, but at least you only have to buy a 20€ USB-C-to-Lightning cable if you already own a ≥2016 MacBook Pro and can then just use the power adapter for both. Not so with a 2015-or-earlier MacBook Pro.

I see why people still miss the MagSafe port, but the switch to USB-C has really opened up so many new use cases that makes it hard to view it as anything but progress. If people absolutely want the MagSafe charging mechanism there seem to be quite a number of third-party options out there that plug onto an USB-C cable and port and still give you the old mechanism (though many of them seem to suffer reliability issues, from what I've gathered), so you can kinda still have that advantage of MagSafe with USB-C, whereas you conversely cannot get any of the USB-C advantages on the old MagSafe port.

Good points but I am VERY sure that Apple could have made the old Magsafe cable unplug and swappable just like the USB C cables can. I am also sure they could have put an LED indicator on the cable if it was being used to charge via USB C (I have 3rd party Lightning cables that do it today!).

I think they cheaped out on this one...

 

[Hadron]

The other way around actually. Since their new MBP use USB-C connections, I would have thought (hoped) that their new iPhones would have them. My Samsung S8+ has it and it is soon to be two years old.

Well, yes. But the problem there is that if Apple adopted USB-C in their phones then accessories for them would work with other manufacturers' phones as well, removing one barrier to switching. And Apple don't get a license fee on USB-C peripherals, which they do on any Lightning ones.

The laptop market is too open for those considerations to prevail there. But the iPhone has always used proprietary connectors, and is a big enough market that accessory makers can't ignore it and so will swallow the extra costs. So while a common connector across platforms would be good for customers it probably wouldn't be better for Apple. And you can be sure that Apple think the same because it's not happened (they'll do what makes business sense to them, like any business, though also like any business they'll always have a non-financial story to tell to justify the decision to customers).

 

[maflynn]

I have had the MacBook for roughly a week and already had an issue where I thought the laptop was sleeping, I put it in my backpack and when I got to class I found out that the laptop was on the whole time! My old MacBook would have had the light indicator on the outside showing that it was still on when the lid was shut.

This is why I shut down my laptop.

 

[deeddawg]

I have had the MacBook for roughly a week and already had an issue where I thought the laptop was sleeping, I put it in my backpack and when I got to class I found out that the laptop was on the whole time! My old MacBook would have had the light indicator on the outside showing that it was still on when the lid was shut.

Can't say as I've ever had that issue with a Macbook. What prevented it from being in sleep mode?