But despite this, and the speed issue, it was a major port on most MacBooks and Apple computers for a long time! SDXC Card Slot With USB-A ports, the direction of cable insertion can’t be messed with-a cable must go in perfectly for the port to work. It can power some small microphones and USB accessories as well.ĭespite speed advantages over USB 2 and USB ports, the USB 3 port is not fast enough for connecting monitors or high-quality webcams.
It also allowed iPhones, iPads, and iPods to connect to a MacBook for charging and data transfer or management. It supports a large number of computer accessories including flash drives, external hard drives, external CD/DVD players, and more. USB 3 ports are in a USB-A shape-the traditional USB shape you’re probably familiar with. But the port also supports external hard drives and other storage devices with faster speeds than USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt 1 ports. With the same shape as the Mini DisplayPort, and supporting Mini DisplayPort video output, Thunderbolt 2 took the form factor a lot further by supporting 4K video streaming and writing 4K video to a disk while the video streamed.įor these reasons, Thunderbolt 2 is best known for connecting external monitors and cameras to a MacBook.
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You may not need this port if you prefer Bluetooth headphones, but for those who still enjoy cords, or noise-canceling features, it’s nice to see this port stick around.Ģ012 to 2016 MacBook Air (this Mac doesn't have a HDMI) It also connects built-in microphones on headphones and earbuds as well. The only other port on these MacBook models is the 3.5mm jack, allowing for headphones to be used with a Mac. But at least with those and the right cords, you can use basically anything with these Macs! 3.5mm headphone jack To access the many uses of the Thunderbolt 3 port, you will likely need several kinds of adapters or even specialized Thunderbolt 3 hubs. With the USB-C shape allowing for cords to be inserted in any orientation, Thunderbolt 3 ports are incredibly versatile in what can be plugged into them, and how they can be plugged in. SD cards can also be supported with adapters to fit them into the ports. So you can plug an external hard drive into a Thunderbolt 3 port one day, and then put an HDMI cord into the same port the next. It also allows for a Mac to be charged via Thunderbolt 3 ports. Thunderbolt's USB-C shape allows for “Alternate Modes” for the port that can support HDMI, MHL, Ethernet, and DisplayPort connections, on top of general USB ones. Thunderbolt 3 ports are so fast you can plug in virtually anything and have it work with your Mac. Not every question will be answered, we don’t reply to email, and we cannot provide direct troubleshooting advice.You'll find these ports on the following MacBook models:
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If not, we’re always looking for new problems to solve! Email yours to screen captures as appropriate, and whether you want your full name used. We’ve compiled a list of the questions we get asked most frequently along with answers and links to columns: read our super FAQ to see if your question is covered. This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld reader Marcella. While this is possible with a Mac laptop, ensuring the drive remains plugged in wherever you’re using may be too stressful. You can clone your startup volume to the external drive, restart, and find your machine has a new lease on life. OWC offers a 1TB Thunderbolt 3 SSD for just under $300. Rather different.Įven if you can’t swap your internal drive, by the way, for a Mac mini or iMac, you could use an external SSD in a USB 3 or Thunderbolt 3-equipped enclosure. An SSD from Other World Computing that can be installed in place of existing SSDs in the last generations of MacBook Pros with removable drives is $329 for 1TB-and has a rated 3,282 MBps read speed and 2,488 MBps write speed. A high-end 1TB Lexar HD Card that’s labeled 95 megabytes per second (MBps) for reading data and marked Class 10, U3, V30-three measures of performance-for about 30 MBps of writing data is just around $200 street price. SSDs also have a distributed architecture for the flash memory chips that allows far faster speeds than SD Cards.