Mandating selling product without a bundled power brick is huge. I have one high-end USB-C power brick that can deliver up to 150W at one time, enough for my two Thinkpads and the Steam Deck. I...
Mandating selling product without a bundled power brick is huge. I have one high-end USB-C power brick that can deliver up to 150W at one time, enough for my two Thinkpads and the Steam Deck.
I only need 2 of those for 95% of charging needs. They're more efficient than almost any other brick that ships with a device, and will outlast most, especially since I can replace the cables.
I eagerly await a future where devices don't include power bricks at all, taking the same stance as "batteries not included."
Has charger that can charge 3 things. "Oh cool, me too!" Has 2 of said charger. "How many steam decks is this guy multi boxing on". 🤣 To be more serious, my tablet charger just died, and I...
Has charger that can charge 3 things. "Oh cool, me too!"
Has 2 of said charger. "How many steam decks is this guy multi boxing on". 🤣
To be more serious, my tablet charger just died, and I replaced it with a Ugreen 100 Watt charger (actually a good Chinese company, have used enough of their peripherals and cables to be very happy)....These high wattage chargers with USB C are a massive game changer, I can run my tablet, charge my phone or other device, and run something (headphones, wireless charger) low voltage off the other port. You know, instead of 2-3 proprietary chargers for each thing. Cuts down on bag clutter massively.
Anker 747 Worth every penny. Paired it with a few 10-ft USB-C cables. Eliminated 3 bricks near the sofa, whose cables were just a bit short for comfort, and this one has much less idle phantom...
Worth every penny. Paired it with a few 10-ft USB-C cables. Eliminated 3 bricks near the sofa, whose cables were just a bit short for comfort, and this one has much less idle phantom consumption.
I've got the Anker 737 GaN when it was on sale on Amazon, paid like 70€ for it: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09WD21LL 120W is more than ehough to charge every single thing I have, three at a time....
The floating chat widget on that page with the looping gif of the guy waving is almost enough to make me never want to buy anything from Anker ever again. Holy shit is that annoying.
The floating chat widget on that page with the looping gif of the guy waving is almost enough to make me never want to buy anything from Anker ever again. Holy shit is that annoying.
They’ve already had that honour for over a year as far as I’m concerned, but that may well be the most absurdly irritating overlay I’ve ever seen and I cannot imagine who thought it was a good...
never want to buy anything from Anker ever again
They’ve already had that honour for over a year as far as I’m concerned, but that may well be the most absurdly irritating overlay I’ve ever seen and I cannot imagine who thought it was a good idea (or what metrics could possibly indicate that it works).
It absolutely sucks that they did that with their cameras, but unfortunately there's absolutely nothing as good as Anker when it comes to charging products
They’ve already had that honour for over a year as far as I’m concerned
It absolutely sucks that they did that with their cameras, but unfortunately there's absolutely nothing as good as Anker when it comes to charging products
Wait, what? How are you using a 150W charger for two laptops and a steam deck? Is the charging speed super slow in that case? I wouldn't even be able to use it to charge my phone and my laptop at...
Wait, what? How are you using a 150W charger for two laptops and a steam deck? Is the charging speed super slow in that case? I wouldn't even be able to use it to charge my phone and my laptop at full speed, as my laptop has 130W charging and my phone has 25W
Largest battery you can take on a flight (and therefore the largest you’ll find in the vast majority of laptops) is 100Wh, and the Steam Deck is 40Wh, so that’s only an hour and a half to charge...
Largest battery you can take on a flight (and therefore the largest you’ll find in the vast majority of laptops) is 100Wh, and the Steam Deck is 40Wh, so that’s only an hour and a half to charge all three simultaneously.*
*Yes you might get ~15% or so efficiency loss from theoretical max, but I’m also assuming the largest possible battery size charging from absolutely empty, so I think it’s fair to call it a wash.
Not everything pulls full wattage/amperage. Typically it's one laptop charging in standby, other in use but with full battery, so only pulling 60W or less, then the Deck also pulling < 50 W.
Not everything pulls full wattage/amperage. Typically it's one laptop charging in standby, other in use but with full battery, so only pulling 60W or less, then the Deck also pulling < 50 W.
Does USB-C really impact repairability? I would've thought that the difficulty of port replacement in modern devices would be the specialized tools required to replace the actual port/socket on...
Does USB-C really impact repairability? I would've thought that the difficulty of port replacement in modern devices would be the specialized tools required to replace the actual port/socket on the board, as opposed to the ability to obtain the part like the article says. Do phone repair shops really have the tools to replace USB-C ports on today's phones?
micro-usb only has 5 conductors, and compared to other parts on the board is a very doable solder job. Not every shop will do it, but its not out of the question, either. USB-C, however, has ~20...
micro-usb only has 5 conductors, and compared to other parts on the board is a very doable solder job. Not every shop will do it, but its not out of the question, either. USB-C, however, has ~20 conductors, if I remember correctly. Much harder solder job.
A quick Google search seems to show that USB-C has 20 conductors and Lightning has 8. Given the title of the article, wouldn't this switch make it more difficult to repair? Don't get me wrong, I'm...
A quick Google search seems to show that USB-C has 20 conductors and Lightning has 8. Given the title of the article, wouldn't this switch make it more difficult to repair?
Don't get me wrong, I'm totally in favor of this just from a standardization perspective. Apple users will, in general, benefit from being able to buy whatever cables they want and adopting a standard that's already used everywhere else. But I'm curious about how this is being viewed under a repairability lens.
If the alternative is one of those old cylindrical chargers that have the cable tied directly to a very-specific voltage brick, I'll take MicroUSB anyday. I'd love to be able to throw away my...
If the alternative is one of those old cylindrical chargers that have the cable tied directly to a very-specific voltage brick, I'll take MicroUSB anyday.
I'd love to be able to throw away my giant box of misc bricks. I don't forsee doing so for at least another decade or two though.
USB A is explicitly only supposed to be used on the host side. It's a feature to stop people from doing things like connecting two chargers together (or, more likely, connecting an A-to-A cable...
USB A is explicitly only supposed to be used on the host side. It's a feature to stop people from doing things like connecting two chargers together (or, more likely, connecting an A-to-A cable between two computers in an attempt to do networking, which was a thing you actually could do with other types of cables in use at the time, before everyone had ethernet).
USB-C takes the other option: explicitly allowing it and saying in the spec that devices should be able to handle that.
I'm sorta surprised to hear this. As a hobbyist i've done a bunch of keyboards with usb-c and it's pretty trivial (flux, melt, swipe across) and if someone like me can do it i'd be shocked if a...
I'm sorta surprised to hear this. As a hobbyist i've done a bunch of keyboards with usb-c and it's pretty trivial (flux, melt, swipe across) and if someone like me can do it i'd be shocked if a professional couldn't. I get that not all situations are going to be as easy to access, but that strikes me as a problem no matter how many conductors you have?
Phone boards are a lot more densely packed, and lotta usb-c connectors in phones actually have pins under the connector body in 2 rows, similar to this connector, means that its pretty much reflow...
Phone boards are a lot more densely packed, and lotta usb-c connectors in phones actually have pins under the connector body in 2 rows, similar to this connector, means that its pretty much reflow or bust for a full 20 pin connection usb.
I know some hobby usb-c connectors only have the usb3 or even usb2 pins, because people like it for its form factor but dont need gb/s speeds for their keyboard.
This page shows the connector I’m referring to, which was a full 20 like all the others I’ve done: https://mechwild.com/guides/build-guides/mercutio-build-guide/ I guess on a phone board it might...
I have no idea how charging ports in particular are in this regard, but there are absolutely tons of other cases where repairability is hindered by an inability to get appropriate parts. One of...
I would've thought that the difficulty of port replacement in modern devices would be the specialized tools required to replace the actual port/socket on the board, as opposed to the ability to obtain the part like the article says
I have no idea how charging ports in particular are in this regard, but there are absolutely tons of other cases where repairability is hindered by an inability to get appropriate parts. One of the key points of right to repair is ensuring that parts are available for people to buy for repairs. I don't know how much this actually impacts charging ports, but it's certainly a symbolic victory if nothing else -- Apple has no power to restrict your ability to buy a replacement USB-C port as opposed to their own proprietary port.
I was honing in specifically on the charging ports because that's what this article is about. But I get your point when it comes to other types of parts - Apple goes through great lengths to...
I was honing in specifically on the charging ports because that's what this article is about. But I get your point when it comes to other types of parts - Apple goes through great lengths to prevent third party replacement screens and cameras, or example. I'm all about right to repair, but I find it odd that USB-C is being used as an example here. Even though the port itself is standardized, there would be nothing to stop Apple from embedding it into a permanent proprietary housing or something that still makes it so that you can't easily obtain a third party replacement.
I don't think I've successfully been able to repair a phone since 2018? Essentially, what I've run into every single time, is that's it's more economical to purchase a new model than to bother...
I don't think I've successfully been able to repair a phone since 2018? Essentially, what I've run into every single time, is that's it's more economical to purchase a new model than to bother with a cracked screen or a busted port on an existing one.
I genuinely do not know how repair shops make money nowadays, it seems like every affordable model for sale is built in a way that makes it resistant to repair. Pieces are apparently glued instead of screwed, and the wiring is minute enough to make it nigh impossible to repair.
I really hate this, and it feels so disgusting to me that the world is set up this way. It's late stage capitalism at it's finest.
This feels overly optimistic. I haven't done phone repairs before, but from what I've seen in teardown videos, there seems to be quite the variety in breakout boards and ribbon connectors for type...
We’ve largely stayed out of the USB-C mandate fight, because it’s not directly related to repair. But still, repair should be positively impacted by this legislation—USB-C ports are typically cheaper to replace than proprietary connectors like Apple’s Lightning port, due to broader availability. On top of this, the shift means we should be able to expect a certain degree of interoperability of spare parts. One wouldn’t need to purchase a port specific to their device’s make (assuming that parts pairing isn’t implemented to prevent the use of non-original assemblies).
This feels overly optimistic. I haven't done phone repairs before, but from what I've seen in teardown videos, there seems to be quite the variety in breakout boards and ribbon connectors for type C ports in the smartphone space, plus phone firmware tends to be quite brittle, expecting very specific hardware configurations with little wiggle room for changing things out.
Agreed. Apple, Samsung and other companies that are manufacturing millions of units are not using off-the-shelf parts. They are often designing each and every individual component for their own...
Agreed. Apple, Samsung and other companies that are manufacturing millions of units are not using off-the-shelf parts. They are often designing each and every individual component for their own specific proprietary purposes. I don't have much hope for the movement to USB-C to spread to other component types. Using USB-C instead of Lightning should've been a no-brainer to start with. But it still took an entire decade for European courts to finally adopt this mandate. It's not going to spread to other specialized components like screens, cameras, sensors, etc which are all designed and manufactured specifically for individual companies and products.
Mandating selling product without a bundled power brick is huge. I have one high-end USB-C power brick that can deliver up to 150W at one time, enough for my two Thinkpads and the Steam Deck.
I only need 2 of those for 95% of charging needs. They're more efficient than almost any other brick that ships with a device, and will outlast most, especially since I can replace the cables.
I eagerly await a future where devices don't include power bricks at all, taking the same stance as "batteries not included."
Has charger that can charge 3 things. "Oh cool, me too!"
Has 2 of said charger. "How many steam decks is this guy multi boxing on". 🤣
To be more serious, my tablet charger just died, and I replaced it with a Ugreen 100 Watt charger (actually a good Chinese company, have used enough of their peripherals and cables to be very happy)....These high wattage chargers with USB C are a massive game changer, I can run my tablet, charge my phone or other device, and run something (headphones, wireless charger) low voltage off the other port. You know, instead of 2-3 proprietary chargers for each thing. Cuts down on bag clutter massively.
I currently only have 1 of them in the living room, but it's on the to-buy list to replace the chargers in the kitchen.
Ah, I thought you meant you had two chargers, sorry.
Which charger are you using?
Anker 747
Worth every penny. Paired it with a few 10-ft USB-C cables. Eliminated 3 bricks near the sofa, whose cables were just a bit short for comfort, and this one has much less idle phantom consumption.
I've got the Anker 737 GaN when it was on sale on Amazon, paid like 70€ for it: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09WD21LL
120W is more than ehough to charge every single thing I have, three at a time. (2x USB-C + 1xUSB-A)
Yea, mine is on sale for like $86 now and I wanted some headroom for flexibility.
The floating chat widget on that page with the looping gif of the guy waving is almost enough to make me never want to buy anything from Anker ever again. Holy shit is that annoying.
They’ve already had that honour for over a year as far as I’m concerned, but that may well be the most absurdly irritating overlay I’ve ever seen and I cannot imagine who thought it was a good idea (or what metrics could possibly indicate that it works).
It absolutely sucks that they did that with their cameras, but unfortunately there's absolutely nothing as good as Anker when it comes to charging products
Wait, what? How are you using a 150W charger for two laptops and a steam deck? Is the charging speed super slow in that case? I wouldn't even be able to use it to charge my phone and my laptop at full speed, as my laptop has 130W charging and my phone has 25W
Largest battery you can take on a flight (and therefore the largest you’ll find in the vast majority of laptops) is 100Wh, and the Steam Deck is 40Wh, so that’s only an hour and a half to charge all three simultaneously.*
*Yes you might get ~15% or so efficiency loss from theoretical max, but I’m also assuming the largest possible battery size charging from absolutely empty, so I think it’s fair to call it a wash.
Not everything pulls full wattage/amperage. Typically it's one laptop charging in standby, other in use but with full battery, so only pulling 60W or less, then the Deck also pulling < 50 W.
Does USB-C really impact repairability? I would've thought that the difficulty of port replacement in modern devices would be the specialized tools required to replace the actual port/socket on the board, as opposed to the ability to obtain the part like the article says. Do phone repair shops really have the tools to replace USB-C ports on today's phones?
micro-usb only has 5 conductors, and compared to other parts on the board is a very doable solder job. Not every shop will do it, but its not out of the question, either. USB-C, however, has ~20 conductors, if I remember correctly. Much harder solder job.
A quick Google search seems to show that USB-C has 20 conductors and Lightning has 8. Given the title of the article, wouldn't this switch make it more difficult to repair?
Don't get me wrong, I'm totally in favor of this just from a standardization perspective. Apple users will, in general, benefit from being able to buy whatever cables they want and adopting a standard that's already used everywhere else. But I'm curious about how this is being viewed under a repairability lens.
Yah, if you can get lighting connectors. I was talking about micro-usb vs usb-c. Even still, screw micro-usb, horrible mechanical design on that port.
If the alternative is one of those old cylindrical chargers that have the cable tied directly to a very-specific voltage brick, I'll take MicroUSB anyday.
I'd love to be able to throw away my giant box of misc bricks. I don't forsee doing so for at least another decade or two though.
The alternative could have been mini-usb, which had a very solid mechanical design, or for some of the larger phones, even usb-a...
USB A is explicitly only supposed to be used on the host side. It's a feature to stop people from doing things like connecting two chargers together (or, more likely, connecting an A-to-A cable between two computers in an attempt to do networking, which was a thing you actually could do with other types of cables in use at the time, before everyone had ethernet).
USB-C takes the other option: explicitly allowing it and saying in the spec that devices should be able to handle that.
One of the issues I have with USB c is that a lot fall under can or may. It can have 20 conductors it could just be the same as USB 2 with only 5.
I'm sorta surprised to hear this. As a hobbyist i've done a bunch of keyboards with usb-c and it's pretty trivial (flux, melt, swipe across) and if someone like me can do it i'd be shocked if a professional couldn't. I get that not all situations are going to be as easy to access, but that strikes me as a problem no matter how many conductors you have?
Phone boards are a lot more densely packed, and lotta usb-c connectors in phones actually have pins under the connector body in 2 rows, similar to this connector, means that its pretty much reflow or bust for a full 20 pin connection usb.
I know some hobby usb-c connectors only have the usb3 or even usb2 pins, because people like it for its form factor but dont need gb/s speeds for their keyboard.
This page shows the connector I’m referring to, which was a full 20 like all the others I’ve done: https://mechwild.com/guides/build-guides/mercutio-build-guide/
I guess on a phone board it might be tricky but I’m curious as to how it changes
Ohh, that's a through hole one! yah, that would be much easier. Phone ones are all surface mount, that Ive seen.
Oh duh. I avoid surface mount so constantly I forgot it was an option.
I have no idea how charging ports in particular are in this regard, but there are absolutely tons of other cases where repairability is hindered by an inability to get appropriate parts. One of the key points of right to repair is ensuring that parts are available for people to buy for repairs. I don't know how much this actually impacts charging ports, but it's certainly a symbolic victory if nothing else -- Apple has no power to restrict your ability to buy a replacement USB-C port as opposed to their own proprietary port.
I was honing in specifically on the charging ports because that's what this article is about. But I get your point when it comes to other types of parts - Apple goes through great lengths to prevent third party replacement screens and cameras, or example. I'm all about right to repair, but I find it odd that USB-C is being used as an example here. Even though the port itself is standardized, there would be nothing to stop Apple from embedding it into a permanent proprietary housing or something that still makes it so that you can't easily obtain a third party replacement.
I don't think I've successfully been able to repair a phone since 2018? Essentially, what I've run into every single time, is that's it's more economical to purchase a new model than to bother with a cracked screen or a busted port on an existing one.
I genuinely do not know how repair shops make money nowadays, it seems like every affordable model for sale is built in a way that makes it resistant to repair. Pieces are apparently glued instead of screwed, and the wiring is minute enough to make it nigh impossible to repair.
I really hate this, and it feels so disgusting to me that the world is set up this way. It's late stage capitalism at it's finest.
This feels overly optimistic. I haven't done phone repairs before, but from what I've seen in teardown videos, there seems to be quite the variety in breakout boards and ribbon connectors for type C ports in the smartphone space, plus phone firmware tends to be quite brittle, expecting very specific hardware configurations with little wiggle room for changing things out.
Agreed. Apple, Samsung and other companies that are manufacturing millions of units are not using off-the-shelf parts. They are often designing each and every individual component for their own specific proprietary purposes. I don't have much hope for the movement to USB-C to spread to other component types. Using USB-C instead of Lightning should've been a no-brainer to start with. But it still took an entire decade for European courts to finally adopt this mandate. It's not going to spread to other specialized components like screens, cameras, sensors, etc which are all designed and manufactured specifically for individual companies and products.