God damn it why does getting a universal standard for charging take so much effort?!
Don’t answer that. I know why. I’m just frustrated.
We are getting closer. I’m thrilled at the potential. Also fuck this shit…
I get all of it… But I’m still angry. We are so god damn close.
Takes hands and does the ‘whooosaaaah’ motion
Yeahhhh but the standard is 240w. I swear they are doing this on purpose. A battery law that doesnt apply to 80% of new phones, a charger law that doesnt apply to gaming laptops.
Looking at Anker website, their most expensivest charging block is 250W with a 140W max per port.
140W blocks are not so common. Anything beyond that is super rare if even exists.
Your typical laptop would utilize 45-85W with the most common 65W. Some gaming laptops would need 240W or more. 240W is a technical limit for USB-C PD right now. As an example, a gaming laptop - Legion Pro 7 16 is rated 400W and a laptop for creators - ThinkPad P14s is rated 100W.
In the end, the most common power block is 65W that will be sufficient with majority of devices. The law is making sense in a way that they will remove all those barrel jacks and proprietary connectors from most common devices leaving them for specific cases.
I’m not sure a USB C cable exists that could charge my gaming laptop, even if my laptop supported it.
Even 120W charging is anything but common in laptops that are not for gaming or mobile workstations. Although I do wish they sat it at least that high
Seems kinda arbitrary when the spec goes up to 240W
There’s always going to be some delay.
USB PD EPR (extended power range, i.e. more than 100 w) was released in 2021. The relevant eu directive here was passed in 2022 for rules to take effect in 2024 and 2026.
I think writing a 1-year-old spec into the law might be jumping the gun.
I’ve never seen one with more than 200w. Have you?
Framework sells a 240W charger. But I agree, it would have been too soon to enact such a new spec into law.
They need to require the USB C ports to be user replaceable.
Costs about $30 in my country. Just need a guy who knows how to solder
You need someone with a good hot air rework station and preheater. The full function USB C connectors have a second row of pins under the connector. They can’t be replaced with just a soldering iron.
Guess it’s 101W MacBook time
Macbooks have been type-C charging for a decade now. I think Apple was a big part in creating the standard.
AFAIK it was the EU that forced Apple to adopt USB-C, at least on iPhones, dunno if that applies to their laptops too.
No, their laptops used to be only usb c until a few years ago when enough people started complaining the lack of ports. In fact the laptop in the article image is a mac.
Apple was going to drop Lightning anyway. They went hardcore on USB-C, even had laptops where the only connectors were USB-C. I’m happy for the legislation but it didn’t impact apples timeline too much.
It does now, as of today. But it doesn’t matter.
Yeah. MagSafe is great too.
Oh yeah they brought that back by popular demand. Patent expires this year.
I’m glad the patent is expiring because this should have been the standard 18 years ago.
I’m hoping for a pre-made Framework expansion card.
That would be nice
I wonder what would happen if I slapped it into my desktop.
It would depend on how it’s implemented. Likely it would act like a USB-C port.
They’ll just pull a Coca-Cola and make it slightly different but worse, then after a few years they’ll bring it back with a new name and a new patent.
Yes. They have it coexisting with MagSafe which is not like them if they weren’t part of the standard.
Ahh my bad, never owned one
Exactly how I felt when I saw the “replaceable battery” requirement excludes basically every flagship smartphone in production (at least Apple, Samsung, and probably Pixel). But that may be worse, because that rule has a preexisting loophole
Well yes, and I think 1000 charge cycles aren’t very many at all to get down to 80% battery health. A heavy user could easily get to that within 3 years, charging every day. So within 3 years you have a battery that holds much less of a charge than a new one does and you can’t replace it, because that’s supposed to be good enough to be allowed to place irreplaceable ones. It’s all for the planned obsolescence that these companies create.
Legit question: for a laptop, wouldn’t a simple standardized round connector and standard voltage be more simple, more resistant and cheaper than the complexity of usb-c? What are the benefits of usb-c charging in laptops? Phones also use the port for data transfer and occasional peripherals, but that’s not a problem for laptops
The charging port doubles as an anythingelse port. Excellent for docking stations and one-cord work station setups in office.
The standard already exists and laptops all already have these ports, anything else would be extra, extra space used, extra development, extra parts, extra unique parts, etc.
We want One cord for all devices to be charged, not one for phones, one for PCs, one for TVs, one for laptops, etc.
USB-C is a better form factor for thin devices than anything circular.
We want laptops to be able to charge stuff plugged into them fast, so they already have all the components (or most of the same designs) for “can be charged themselves”.
Don’t have to manufacture or source a separate power brick, just pick power brick ABC that can handle your wattage desire.
The charging port doubles as an anythingelse port.
I’ve always seen that as a bit of a problem actually. You lose a port when you are charging. I’d rather have the USB port for some peripheral and a dedicated power connection.
TLDR; it seems pretty silly to put in a dedicated plug to avoid using one of the other plugs rather than just adding another one of the other plugs. I think this is a cup half full versus half empty problem rather than a real problem.
The same way you do when you take one of those ports and make it only charge. Now I could have had another port that does data And charging, but instead they made it Only charge. All this does is take away your agency to use the ports however you choose.
It’s just a matter of perspective whether they gave you an extra port that also charges or they took away a port that only charged.
Plugging in two cables when you get to a workstation is less preferable than plugging in one cable. So, the charging port must also carry data or the data ports must also be capable of charging.
The same goes for monitors, phones, and most other electronic devices. We don’t want to have to plug in another cable and carry two or more cables just to be able to charge it and use it for what it’s for. Therefore at least one of those plugs must serve both purposes. Once one of those plugs serves both purposes why not just add more plugs that serve every purpose so you have enough and you decrease the costs associated with having many distinct solutions rather than more of the same solution.
I think, if you have a problem with not enough data plugs when you’re charging then you should get a laptop with more plugs, not kneecap the functionality of some of your plugs so you “don’t lose one when you plug in power”
I have a Framework 16. It has something like four usb-c ports that can charge and carry full-spec data, then another two that are restricted in data and can’t charge the laptop (six total, three on each side). Never have I run into “oh darn if I could only unplug the power then I could plug in one more thing”. But I frequently get to a desk at home or at work and want to plug in one cable and have everything connected. I also frequently want to plug the laptop into power on the other side. Also, if that did ever happen, because all the plugs do everything I am free to get a dongle and plug it in to the power plug and then charge through the dongle while also using all the data lanes.
