Is the ExpressCard port being killed off?

I'll be honest that I haven't been on the notebook scene for a couple of years since I built my own desktop. I do feel interested in getting a newer laptop to replace my Vaio TZ, especially if I travel abroad maybe sometime this year.

I'm noticing that a sizable number of laptops are lacking the ExpressCard slot entirely, especially the Clevo and Alienware laptops. Am I the only one?

I'm feeling that maybe they are killing it off in favor of USB 3.0. Maybe many customers that had the ExpressCard port used it for a USB 3.0 adaptor on their 2.0 only laptops? Now that USB 3.0 is built into many laptops, that port is largely not needed anymore?

I have never even used one myself, but it feels a shame to kill off such a versatile port, if I'm not being crazy here.

 

I just took a peek on laptopmag.com and looked at a late '09 and an early 2011 review of the Alienware M17x. The '09 model has a 54/Expresscard slot and the 2011 lacks it altogether. It sounds like manufacturers do want to kill it off?

 

Does seem that way. I'm keeping a list of thin-and-lights with expresscard here so people can see which can do a convenient eGPU setup. Many business-grade Sandy Bridge systems still have expresscards.

I'm hopeful Thunderbolt, with it's faster throughput and smaller package dimensions, will take over from the Expresscard slot.

 

My 7738G has pads for an expresscard slot but they never soldered it on. That goes for all of the models.

 

Considering no one ever really came up with a useful device for it that really caught on, of course manufacturers are going to kill it off. The feature isn't driving any sales whatsoever and they'd rather save $5 and charge the same price.

 

tv tuners are quite useful in the slot... and If any manufacturer was smart enough they would create a external gpu that you can go to frys or any brick and mortar store to buy!

 

So far external GPU's are a niche product, and most likely will use a proprietary connection anyhow since there is no standard. I like the idea, but I always like the gaming power with me.

 

Also rather than buy a graphics card from brand-X and realise that laptops are WAY over CPU powered for their graphics, they would rather you bought a new machine from them.

 

Although I do like the idea of a dockable solution. As a matter of fact I've always envisioned having a three way dock (don't get too excited, lol). A handheld device like an iPhone that would dock into a portable device like a laptop, that would attach to a desktop dock. This way you could keep your important data with you at all times, but have more power if needed.

 

I like your idea Htwingnut but what would be the point in docking the iphone into a laptop? Other than to charge it. Surely you would use the laptop instead at that point? Laptop into desktop dock would be interesting though!

 

You have all the hardware and memory on the phone.

You then maybe have a GPU in the laptop dock with the larger screen and battery.

 

Yes, ExpressCard slots are soon-to-be history. Somewhere(search the web) I read some stuff about how ExpressCard development has been halted and folded into USB 3.0 & higher development. Handwriting on the wall...

Throw in laptop makers not liking users(btw, that's US) hooking up el cheapo, high-powered video cards in ViDock type setups and you have a desire to get rid of the slots. Nuthin' like giving the customer what they want, righto?

All that said, some new laptops still have the slots, and they'll probably be available in more limited mode for a while. So, get 'em while they last...

I quizzed the ViDock folks a couple of months ago about when they'll have a USB version box out and got a non committal answer out of them.

USB has the bandwidth to handle many things that ExpressCard can do, so we're kinda stuck waiting on vendors to switch the connectors on their add-on goodies. However, I suspect many will do so, as they wanna continue making money.

Sit back, wait it out a bit, as we're stuck right now.

 

Expresscard will stay in business/workstation and some higher end prosumer models for quite awhile, at least until another port truly takes its place and has some actual uses. Thunderbolt needs some time and new generations (year++) to show up and get actual peripherals.

eGPU isn't even on their radar, even with an extremely optimistic estimate (10k users) none of the OEMs that build the laptops would notice.

There are businesses that place large company wide rollouts, the kind of thing that actually affects ports and configurations. They might have a ton cards they don't intend to ditch. (e.g. WWAN on separate contract) A lot of them will never care about a discrete gpu either, so the mythical lost sale of this option doesn't exist.

 

Its right on the front page of www.expresscard.com.

"The PCMCIA Association has been dissolved and the San Jose office closed. All activities and Standards, including the ExpressCard Standard and PC Card Standard, will be managed going forward by the USB Implementer's Forum."

I guess the main reason for its use was for USB 3.0 adaptors in laptops that lacked the port. Now that current laptops have it, its all but useless to most people.

I do hope the manufacturers also didn't get rid of it to prevent us from using external GPUs like ViDock or our own hand-built ones. Of course they'd rather sell us an $800 GTX 480m than having us use an external desktop GTX 480 for $250.

I never like to see things go backwards, for instance losing 1920x1200 screens to 1920x1080 these days and losing an expansion port.

 

Manufacturers don't care about external GPU's. It's such a small niche it's not even on their mind in any way shape or form.

But there's actually support for eGPU's through Thunderbolt under way, so if anything they may be considering support of it.

 

Nearly all business laptops have a second miniPCI-E slot and second antenna set to support the WWAN cards.

Its just like how RS-232 has been dropped from all the new laptop designs for a few years now. There are lots of uses for RS-232 still, but there are also thousands of laptops available on eBay and/or through the refurb outfits to support it. RS-232 also caused a significant number of warranty claims for Dell over the years, as people had a habit of accidentially inserting the power adapter into the RS-232 pins in the dark -- frying the motherboards!

 

I think the killer application for ExpressCard could have been SSDs that acually use the full bandwidth of the PCIe interface. But unfortunately most of them use the USB 2.0 interface and come with a crappy controller so that they are much slower than HDDs.
I tried a Lexar SSD some years ago which was faster than the Transcend SSD that ruled the marked back then but it's still incredibly slow. So I sacrificed a USB port and soldered a fast USB stick into my old laptop. It's still slower that the HDD but it's ok for a mobile office system.

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but I think partially is computers are being cheap and cheerful, just like those 10 grand brand new cars. Manufacturers cheap out in so many ways (16:9, ultra low resolution screens, less USB ports, and now the death of ExpressCard, FireWire, other useful connectors).

Many people who wish to buy a mid range notebook don't realize there is no Firewire and then realize there's no EC and no possible way to add Firewire to their notebook.

As an example my Vostro 1500, a 4 year old laptop now based off the consumer Inspiron 1520, has ExpressCard. But introduction of Montevina, Dell removed ExpressCard in all their consumer grade notebooks. You can only find them in business notebooks pretty much now.

 

One thing I'll miss about the Expresscard slot was being able to store a remote control in there. I know many HP models came with a remote in that slot for DVD playback and whatnot.

 

I actually use an ExpressCard SSD from Wintec - the SolidGo. It has pretty decent speeds: ~115MB/s read and ~65MB/s write. I'm using it to host my pagefile and for ReadyBoost.

 

If any manufacture is thinking about removing express card slots he'd better think again. Although I can understand that idea behind keeping out of a slim and light, but for any moderate to high end it should be an absolute. necessity. In fact, I think the slot's capability should be expanded

 

Can you provide a link please and do you know if it's TRIM compatible? And does it protrude?
If I could find a flush Expresscard SSD with at least 60MB/s write, 30GB storage and TRIM for a decent price I'd make it the boot drive in my subnotebook.

 

What I found recently is that the middle- and bottom-end of the laptop market (which I'm arbitrarily designating as anything under US $1000 and US $700, respectively) lacks both USB 3.0 and ExpressCard. That really is annoying. Without ExpressCard, there is no way to add USB 3.0, or a lot of other potentially useful things (e.g. eSATA).

For example: Samsung's brand-new Series 3 notebooks. Neither USB 3.0 nor ExpressCard. They do have gigabit Ethernet, but that's small consolation.

I'm not saying there are *no* laptops in this market segment with USB 3.0, just that they are few and far between. You usually only get one USB 3.0 port, and at the expense of something else (Bluetooth or gigabit Ethernet).

I didn't find a single laptop in my price range (trying to keep it under US $800) that had an ExpressCard slot (cue someone posting links to a $799 notebook with ExpressCard).

Probably ExpressCard is being phased out because USB 3.0 is cheaper to implement. This wouldn't be the first time that a more flexible, technically superior standard got pushed out by one that's not as good, but costs slightly less to build.

 

No. Not a logical conclusion.

For one, USB 3.0 is still in the beta stage. So it has yet to be well established, and certainly a long way from it's potential.

Some ports just get little recognition because of lack of marketing which results in a lack of peripherals that support them. I believe that was/is the fate of eSATA.

 

See the thin-and-light link in my sig. I list 7 bargains from $380-$686 with expresscard slots, ranging in size from 12-15.6". Eg: can get a SB 15.6" Fujitsu notebook for $380 with a expresscard slot.