I would have liked a couple more USB ports, but it's not a big minus. The headphone jack supports iPhone headsets-and possibly others-for mic and inline volume controls.
The 1/8' audio port on the left is a combined optical digital output and analog line out for up to 5.1 surround support. While six Thunderbolt 2 ports are plenty, and I'm happy to see that Apple hasn't removed the second Ethernet port for link aggregation, I'd have easily traded that for a second CPU socket.
That's four USB 3.0 ports, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet, and one HDMI 1.4 output with 4K support. The machine is also so quiet and short that you could have it closer than you would a large tower computer. For example, the headphone jack is on the back, but it's easy to reach. It's not like trying to get to the back of a deep tower like the old Mac Pro. Normally that would be annoying, but the machine is 6.6-inches wide and round. Ports and expansion: Farewell PCIe, hello Thunderbolt 2Īll the expansion ports for the machine are on the back of the machine so as to not blemish its spacey visage.
