Another behind the times moment - Bluetooth mouse and lack of USB and Ethernet ports.

[David]

I'm still getting to grips with my new Dell XPS.

One thing I have noticed is the lack of ports.
Just 2 USB C and one of those is taken up with the power supply.

Fortunately I have a Dell hub from a previous PC which gives me Ethernet,
HDMI, Display Port, and USB.

Idly speculating how you are expected to do everything with one port, I
suddenly wondered if Bluetooth was the answer for keyboards, mice etc.

Looking on line I discovered there were a load of Bluetooth mice which
also had USB connectors.

I then discovered my latest ball mouse (because you can never have enough
ball mice) was a Logitech Ergo M575 which had Bluetooth capability.

So here I am unexpectedly modern with a truly wireless mouse.

I also grumbled about the lack of Ethernet but now I have a new WiFi6
router I have very fast WiFi which is as fast as Ethernet over the VM link.

So I am gradually struggling out of the stone age.

Cheers



Dave R

[Andy Burns]

Post by David
I'm still getting to grips with my new Dell XPS.
One thing I have noticed is the lack of ports.
Just 2 USB C and one of those is taken up with the power supply.

With modern laptops, you're expected to work in one of two ways, either

power it via USB-C and do everything else over wifi+bluetooth

or

buy some form of dock, preferably thunderbolt (v3 or v4)
which will give you 40Gbps of bandwidth, enough to run a couple of huge
monitors, multiple fast USB devices, 2.5Gbps ethernet, and as many other
"slow" USB devices as you can shake a stick at, audio in/out, while
providing about 100W of power all over a single cable ...

e.g. caldigit TS4, dell WD22TB4, ugreen revodok, etc

Do lots of research ... features vary ... they're not cheap ... you
don't want to kick yourself after discovering your combination of laptop
and dock don't do "that one thing you need" ...

[Chris]

Post by David
I'm still getting to grips with my new Dell XPS.
One thing I have noticed is the lack of ports.
Just 2 USB C and one of those is taken up with the power supply.

They are stupidly and blindly following Apple. Having only two ports and
one of them being needed for a charger is crazy.

Post by David
Fortunately I have a Dell hub from a previous PC which gives me Ethernet,
HDMI, Display Port, and USB.
Idly speculating how you are expected to do everything with one port, I
suddenly wondered if Bluetooth was the answer for keyboards, mice etc.

A hub. I have mine integrated into my monitor which is very convenient and
less clutter.

Post by David
Looking on line I discovered there were a load of Bluetooth mice which
also had USB connectors.
I then discovered my latest ball mouse (because you can never have enough
ball mice) was a Logitech Ergo M575 which had Bluetooth capability.

Great choice!

Post by David
So here I am unexpectedly modern with a truly wireless mouse.
I also grumbled about the lack of Ethernet but now I have a new WiFi6
router I have very fast WiFi which is as fast as Ethernet over the VM link.
So I am gradually struggling out of the stone age.
Cheers
Dave R