Timeline for Why are USB ports in laptops so close to each other?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 17, 2017 at 17:32 | comment | added | Jamezrp | @PrahladYeri that's not how motherboards are manufacture. USB ports are placed together because they share a controller and bus, so all data passes through the same region. If there were an Ethernet connector between them then the cost of doubling the USB hardware, and manufacturing costs associated to making a highly-unusual setup, would be very high and inefficient. | |
| Jan 17, 2017 at 13:20 | comment | added | Baldrickk | @PrahladYeri and then what if you needed to use one of your USB devices on that side and a wired network connection at once? Not to mention co-location of components for various electronic reasons. | |
| May 31, 2015 at 17:26 | comment | added | Prahlad Yeri | To keep the laptop compact ports have to be set close together. But that argument doesn't hold in this case. The LAN port is actually to the left of both the usb ports (not visible in the pic). Had the LAN port been placed between the two usb ports, there would have been space made automatically! That's how Toshiba Satellite does it (my last laptop). And that's why I think this is a design flaw. | |
| May 31, 2015 at 17:19 | comment | added | Prahlad Yeri | Yup, its a Dell Inspiron and the space between those two usb slots is hardly 4-5 millimeters. The only cables that can fit are those extremely compact ones that have only a thin layer on the connector. But most cables nowadays have at least some protective layer besides the connector, so its impossible for two of them to pass through that space. A dongle is totally out of the question since they are too wide to fit in this little space (at least the ones from Huawei or ZTE that I've tried). | |
| May 31, 2015 at 7:49 | history | answered | Jamezrp | CC BY-SA 3.0 |