My Partner has just bought a smaller Lenovo laptop. No dvd drive, SD slot or USB. What it does have is 2 USB C ports to charge & do all other jobs. With a USB to USB C adaptor. £2.00 off ebay. All items can be plugged in to those ports. Tried it the other day & DVD work fine , as do memory sticks & my 5 slot memory card reader.

I think it is the way new laptops are going.

Steve.

Might be worth checking out PCSpecialist. It's a couple of years since I used them but they still seem to have a good assortment to choose from. If you 'customize' to your requirements they build to order so might be a few weeks delivery time.

I bought an adaptor that takes SD, MMC cards, works fine and fits into the USB port

Edited By Clive Hartland on 12/04/2021 12:52:29

You might want to look at a tablet computer with a keyboard.

Most of the Windows 10 tablets seem to have an SD card slot. Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (at the top end) for example has an SDXC reader built in. Amazon have a Fusion 5 tablet which also has an SD card slot (towards the bottom end).

I use this type of reader:

**LINK**

Just make sure that it doesn't foul nearby USB ports. I tend to transfer from the SD card and then remove ( or the otherway around!)

Matt

It frees up a usb slot which is more flexible

Just had the same problem, solved by spending ~£7.50 at Argos for a USB C adapter that takes SD and microSD cards and also gives you an ordinary USB port (my laptop has only one USB A but 2 USB C ports). My new phone and tablet also have USB C.

Buy an adaptor! Cheap as chips. Mine does 4 different connections, two of which I don't recognise!

I feel for Larry because the same happens to me even though I know computer technology changes every few years. Floppy Disks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, SCART Cables, Internet Exploder, USB 3.0 and much else are all going the way of the Raphus cucullatus.

Decades ago I laughed at that comedy sketch were a middle aged customer tries to buy a needle for his gramophone and is thoroughly humiliated by the sales-yoof asking about stylii, woofers and such. Now hi-fi shops have gone and my children bark orders at Alexa. I haven't a clue what they listen to, or if I have Disney Channel or not. Most worrying is my kids are starting to complain technology is leaving them behind too…

Dave

My Dell Inspiron 17 3000 has a dvd player/ writer, Radeon graphics, Intel core i5 8th gen' 4gb ram, 1Tb hard drive, 3 USB ports, HDMI port. I still have a CD writer bought back in the 90's,still with it's mains adapter !, 2 x 500Gb ext hard drives, I think I am pretty well covered for most needs.

George.

Rant on:

This moving to 2x USB C wth one taken for power and no CD/DVD/Blueray just seems to be a plot to push us into using "the cloud" and streaming services. Trouble is you then don't have assured access to your data and don't own the music or movie. Then they have killed the "old tech" off I bet the costs of the alternatives go up.

Rant off:

Robert G8RPI

I had to check my Lenovo ideapad 310 and it has got one, the pc is young enough to use DDR4. I simply stick the SD cards in a USB adaptor and bung them in the top of the desktop case.

I use an external, self powered, 7 way USB hub. I can connect an external hard drive, CD/DVD burner, printer, memory cards and sticks, using suitable adapters where required. It has a 1 metre cable to connect to the laptop, so it sits out of the way when using the computer on my lap.

Just as well it's out of the way as it's a bit messy.

Edited By Anthony Knights on 13/04/2021 10:04:53