You don’t need to buy Apple adapters. You can buy a $10 usbc to hdmi adapter off...

chocochunks · 2026-03-27T17:50:35 1774633835

Apple's official HDMI adapter is $70. I was already talking generic.

kstrauser · 2026-03-27T18:08:23 1774634903

Or just use a Thunderbolt cable to send video, power, and USB to a newer monitor with a single cord. That’s my work setup and I’d never go back.

And yeah, USB A? I got a cheapo C-to-A hub for my dwindling number of legacy devices. There’s no remaining upside to A.

chocochunks · 2026-03-27T18:10:27 1774635027

On the Neo that doesn't support Thunderbolt? Or on the Acer that supports USB4 and might actually work with the hub?

It's a weird choice to pair with a budget laptop since monitors that support that are usually several dollars extra...

jasomill · 2026-03-28T23:01:16 1774738876

I can see exactly one, and it's niche: the ability to safely leave tiny USB-A peripherals like flash drives, wireless dongles, and SFF YubiKeys connected while not in use (not that I'm recommending a YubiKey be left connected to a laptop when not in use).

Hubs are mostly only relevant for docking or increasing the number of ports, given that USB-A to -C adapters are so cheap (assuming they're not bundled with the peripheral in the first place) you can reasonably leave them permanently attached to larger form factor USB-A peripherals.

As for full-sized HDMI, assuming you're not talking about the hellish mini or micro HDMI as alternatives, I'll take USB-C, or even mini DisplayPort, over full HDMI, as both have decent connectors and provide more and better inexpensive options for display connectivity (though admittedly finding good active DisplayPort-to-HDMI dongles can be harder than it should be because chroma subsampling is a thing that's not frequently touched upon in product descriptions).