On the other hand, ports on laptops fail too, so having several USB-C ports that can do basically everything is great for if one or two of them somehow break.
If the HDMI port on your laptop breaks, and the only other stuff you have is 3xUSB-A, ethernet, and an SD card slot, you’re shit out of luck if you want to output to a monitor or TV.
Out of the two, you’re more likely to have the dongle break first. Those cables have a limited life of bending before snapping or the internal wiring coming undone or a failed connection or just cheap hardware. My first dongle I bought about 2 years ago is getting to that point with me carrying it in my backpack.
I still have my IBM ThinkPad running Windows 95 that has all of its ports still working to this day. The screen hinges are the only thing that has broken on it in all this time. Same for many other laptops I’ve had over the years. Even a gaming laptop I had had its plastic housing break along the sides of the ports due to a fall, but no ports were ever damaged or became inoperable in its life.
On the other hand, ports on laptops fail too, so having several USB-C ports that can do basically everything is great for if one or two of them somehow break.
If the HDMI port on your laptop breaks, and the only other stuff you have is 3xUSB-A, ethernet, and an SD card slot, you’re shit out of luck if you want to output to a monitor or TV.
Out of the two, you’re more likely to have the dongle break first. Those cables have a limited life of bending before snapping or the internal wiring coming undone or a failed connection or just cheap hardware. My first dongle I bought about 2 years ago is getting to that point with me carrying it in my backpack.
I still have my IBM ThinkPad running Windows 95 that has all of its ports still working to this day. The screen hinges are the only thing that has broken on it in all this time. Same for many other laptops I’ve had over the years. Even a gaming laptop I had had its plastic housing break along the sides of the ports due to a fall, but no ports were ever damaged or became inoperable in its life.
You’re not really expected to repeatedly remove the HDMI port itself from the laptop
They still break