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I don't limit myself to laptops as such. I just haven't had a need for a desktop.

My last desktop (tower actually) was pretty decked out slot wise. 2x SCSI cards, network card, audio card and Firewire.
When I got my first laptop (Powerbook G4) other than SCSI, these were all included. I didn't notice the SCSI missing because I really only had a DVD drive on it and the Mac had a burner built in.

Since then nothing has really changed. Anything I plug in is mostly USB. I do have a firewire mixing desk, but it's plugged into a Thunderbolt adaptor.

The new laptop has switched entirely to USB-C connectors and it puts everything across them. It is a bit annoying having to get (rather expensive) adaptors but cheaper USB-C stuff is appearing on the market now.

However, as I've discovered, USB has become a bit more complicated with time. You used to buy a USB device and plug in the cable...
I had upgraded an older laptop to SSD but then I got the new machine. I thought I'd take the SSD out and use it as a backup drive for this machine. So, I ordered a USB-C HDD enclosure which has USB-C / USB 3.1.
The standard Mac USB-C power cable does data but only at USB 2.0. So I ended up having to buy a separate high speed cable for USB 3.1.

If you're buying anything USB 3.1, make sure you check the specs of everything - even the cables.

BTW The same physical USB-C connectors on this machine also do Thunderbolt 3, it's the same speed as the PCIe slots in a PowerMac G5!


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Not available in the UK? eBay is your friend

Built in storage is becoming quite common in laptops, in this case it is pretty small and it's eMMC, so slow as well.
OTOH there are USB-C / 3.1 sockets if you need more storage and it should be faster as well.