I wonder if we'll start seeing devices other than laptops that currently use barrel jacks for power shift to USB-C. 240W covers the vast majority of things even an enthusiast might have on their desk.
It'd be nice if they did, if only because there's a single agreed upon way to deliver power with USB-PD, and USB-PD bricks hash out the details with the connected device to deliver appropriate power. It's a considerably nicer experience than with barrel jacks, with the various different sizes and pole configurations they can come in and their "dumb" nature all of which makes it easy to plug in a brick that physically fits but fries your device.
It'd also enable better modularity, making it easier to replace the bargain bin bricks that come with some devices with something higher quality.
Is it possible for a (laptop + USB-C PD power charger) to support multiple charging rates?
My Lenovo Legion 5 has a 300W charger. Caveats: (a) I'm not sure if that's input power or output power; and (b) it's not a USB-C PD connector , but my question isn't specific to this laptop.
Airplane A/C power outlets aren't willing to deliver that much power. And even if I was willing to slow-charge the laptop on an airplane or with my car, the laptop isn't willing to cap the charge rate, so it's simply not an option.
So I'm wishing for some scheme that lets me slow-charge a laptop in those situations, even if it meant having two different A/C adapters.
Waste heat seems like it would be a thing? Even at 95% efficiency (which is unrealistic), we're looking at a 12W heater.
It seems Gallium Nitride are quite the revolution in power density for charging equipment
The Hdplex 250W [1] is pretty small, seems like it proves it's possible at least.
1: https://hdplex.com/hdplex-fanless-250w-gan-aio-atx-psu.html
On one side, I like the idea (and I use it a lot) with USB C to power a notebook. I have a small 65W travel adapter and I can charge my beefy HP Z-Book (it even works with a 45W adapter) or my smaller Fujitsu U939. But both notebooks still have real charging ports too and normaly I use those. A real charging port are much less fragile when moving the notebook while plugged in. USB C is very fragile and it is an very, very expensive port just to load a notebook. When you use it as docking station, then, yes it makes sense, but just for charging everyday, I still much prefer a normal charging plug.
Great! I'm going to need something like fpx or fabpide2 with a Lenovo connector and at least 135 watts so I can avoid buying more Lenovo charging bricks for the couch, bedroom, second desk, travelling...
I have this dream where Apple releases the most amazing self-driving, electric vehicle and it charges via Lightning cable.
It's super frustrating that if I want a 2nd charger for my macbook pro, I have to either buy an overpriced apple adapter, or.... what? I haven't seen any USB-C compatible 140W chargers that are significantly cheaper than apple's.... but I can't charge my laptop with less. If I plug in my 80w charger, my laptop just goes "bong bong bong" as it turns charging on and off endlessly.
This really makes me think about use cases. Personally I want my laptop to be as light and portable as possible; some of these bricks are likely heavier than my whole laptop! When I need crunch I do it on a desktop or in the cloud (or these days "...and in the cloud"). So I edit code locally but when I press c-X c, g++ runs on some other machine.
I don't really understand why anyone would lug around an enormous and expensive boat anchor, but I'm sure they aren't idiots: they must get value from doing so, even if I can't imageine what it would be.
One thing I love about capitalism is that it's a huge parallel processing system for satisfying these different needs. If I were the central planning czar, the folks who needed the big portables would be SOL.
why was 240W picked as the upper limit for PD? Why does there even need to be an upper limit?
I'm glad we're finding faster and faster way to consume the earth's resources.
Will be interested to see if AllThingsOnePlace reviews it, as have been following their particularly in-depth power adapter reviews and their last review[1] of a Framework charger (a 60W model) showed it performed well both in efficiency and other metrics though not the highest performer or value in its wattage range.
Wouldn't ordinarily mention a Youtube channel on HN but felt their detailed testing, comparisons and teardowns would probably be of interest for the topic.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG8QEe6GIk