I thought USB-C is a USB port? ![Confused :-//](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/confused0024.gif)
I prefer separate ports in any case. On a laptop, a big barrel plug for power is most reliable. Look at the USB C standard and you'll realise just how much complexity there is (and consequently how much there is to go wrong...)
Yeah, those big barrel plugs for power are *the* single most unreliable parts on most laptops.
From 2001-2006, my mom went through 4 brand new IBM ThinkPads. Each time the failure was caused by stress on the barrel jack. It wasn't an isolated thing, either... In 2005 I did IT management for a number of small companies. Over a 2 year period, over 40% of the damaged laptops we took out of service were due to stresses on the main PCB caused by the barrel jack. This was a mix of manufacturers: Dell, HP, IBM/Lenovo, etc.
Lenovo finally got wise to this and put the power barrel jack on it's own small little PCB. When the PCB traces finally fractured, you could just open it up and replace the assembly.
Meanwhile, over the last 10 years, I've never seen a MagSafe receptacle go bad. For 5 of those years I managed IT for three "Mac Only" companies; add that to the dozens of Macs that I (or friends and family) have owned in that time and you're looking at about 200 machines without issue.
That said, the weak point with MagSafe seems to be the cable itself. It tends to fray at the connector end after about a year and a half of heavy use. To solve that problem, I put about 6" of white heatshrink tubing on the connector end on new adapters; that seems to solve the problem. For already frayed ones, I simple buy a replacement cable from China for $10, crack open the adapter, solder it in and epoxy it back together. (If you know how to pop them open properly, they look brand new after you're done.)
The big advantage to MagSafe is the safety to your laptop! I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone trip over a cord, or someone's dog comes running by and catches the cord; with MagSafe, the connector just pops off and the laptop doesn't end up crashing to the ground.