i hate when Laptops would use some proprietary port, nice to see this.
I’m a bit torn. EU is really going hard on these regulations. It’s very convenient to have a single type of port that just works with all devices, sure, but legislating this for laptops may be overkill. There may be good reasons for other types of charging ports on laptops. Granted I’m not very knowledgeable about this particular topic so I’m not sure what the costs and benefits to different charging ports are, but somehow I also doubt that a lot of these regulators are.
I believe laptops can still charge with whatever port they want, but they have to support USB-C aswell
I have a USB c charging MacBook, and a MagSafe charger.
The MagSafe is far superior, I hope both are kept but the eu needs to back off on the forcing standards a bit.
What are you on about? It’s the best of both worlds. You have your magsafe charger, which is the best way to charge, and a USB c charger in case of emergency.
You’re not going to be running Llama on USB c, but it will work in a pinch
Yeah as long as it’s both and not only usb c I’m fine with it.
I have a usbc only MacBook Pro (with the useless touchbar screen thing) and it sucks. Slows down the machine if 2 things are plugged in on the same side and I’m never confident that the charger is charging.
Yeah as long as it’s both and only usb c I’m fine with it.
I have a usbc only MacBook Pro (with the useless touchbar screen thing) and it sucks. Slows down the machine if 2 things are plugged in on the same side and I’m never confident that the charger is charging.
It’s good for any charger development that’s been an anti-consumer practice, but chargers like the old magsafe and the Surface chargers are honestly better. The amount of times someone trips on it makes a magnetic charger a lifesaver.
i just use my USB C with a little adaptor on my Surface Pro 7+ (that now runs LMDE). You can charge via the SP port or the USB C port but I always seem to have something plugged in the USB port
Apple just does Magsafe + USB-C now, or did last time I had an MBP at least (M2 Pro for work)
Which is perfect, but you can also get a USB-C cord with a magnetically attached plug.
The problem with those are that they’re not USB compliant, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll be stable with whatever device you use them on.
By definition or usually?
USB compliance? Most certainly, there’s no way to do it that would be compliant. Some of them are good quality and will work for a lot of devices, but once you get to noncompliance land, you’re at the mercy of trusting the manufacturer.
Last MBP I had was a 2019 for work and it was all just type C. My brother’s 2012 was the one on mind.
They brought magsafe back with the 16" and 14" MBPs. The older ones are USB-C only.
I recently upgraded from a 2018 model to a 2025 one. The 2018 model was USBC only but the 2025 one supports both USBC and MagSafe.
Honestly I kinda like it. I prefer the magnet but if another USBC charger happens to be more convenient I can just use that instead.
Seems kinda arbitrary when the spec goes up to 240W
I think the idea is 100W minimum
EU declares phones and laptops that charge at less than 100W illegal.
Stock prices of 10 chinese smartphone makers dectuples, rest of industry plumets.I do love my 120w phone charger though, friggin incredible.
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.
How many people have 240W chargers laying around?
I’d guess a high percentage of the people with laptops that can draw that much power
Really?
Unless you have a dedicated GPU I don’t see 240W being practical
Most systems have a CPU with a TDP of around 35-60W
I’m not sure I understand where you’re coming from, let me just clear up where I’m coming from in case I’m confusing things:
Obviously most users won’t have a laptop that can draw 240W
Though additionally, laptops that are able to draw 240W do exist today (there’s even some that come with 360W barrel jack chargers now IIRC). Yes, they’re for enthusiasts or professionals, but they still exist, so unless the spec prevented it*, they should be included in consideration too IMO
Given this is legislation that applies with a pretty broad stroke, I was making the point it’s kinda arbitrary to stop applying it at 100W.
*Another commenter made the very good point though, that the 240W standard is simply too new to be part of this legislation. So kinda satisfied with that answer
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
because of the knobs in this thread who are arguing that usb c sucks and there should be something better and proprietary.
It doesn’t suck, but pretending it’s doesn’t have faults is dumb. Like pointing out is significantly more physically fragile than other power connectors.
A “does absolutely everything” solution is always going to have a ton of compromises.
Usb C is kind of great though.
deleted by creator
With the new iphones having usb c I have experienced charging nirvana and it is as great as the prophecies foretold.
I must believe what the prophecies say about laptop chargers is true, that one day we shall all charge our laptops with the same port.
As someone with a USB-C phone and laptop: yes, it’s this good.
I can use laptop charger to charge my phone, and yes, phone charger to charge my laptop (although it takes a while).
I can grab a power bank (got a 65w 40000mAh one) and add juice to both phone and laptop through the same tiny USB-C cable.
I am never lost without power.
Remember, Wwth great power comes great responsibility!
They need to require the USB C ports to be user replaceable.
I have had countless B ports (the tiny ones) fail on me but have yet to have a single C to fail.
What are you doing or am I especially lucky?
You must have gotten lucky. The USB C port on my laptop no longer works for data and it will stop charging if the cable gets bumped. I’ve always been very careful with it. I never plug the charger in unless the laptop is sitting on a desk.
I’ve had a few mini and micro B connectors fail, but those are easy to replace as long as they haven’t been ripped off the board.
honestly the ports are whatever, I care more about the shitty TI PD controllers that always break and are programmed and not replaceable even by people who can replace the ports.
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.
fortunately lots of laptop repair shops have this
Still not user replaceable. Should be mandated as a separate board. It’s such an elementary thing to need to replace, USB-C ports that are plugged and unplugged on a daily basis need to be replaced eventually and there’s literally nothing stopping manufacturers from putting it on a separate board on a laptop if they can do it on phones.
And what about the thing that the user replaceable part is plugged into?
… What?
The motherboard?
That’s expensive to replace. Which is why the single most important plug on the device should be separately replaceable by a user with a screwdriver kit. Even apple used to do it that way for Magsafe, but unfortunately not for some usb c laptops.
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.
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.
AFAIK it was the EU that forced Apple to adopt USB-C, at least on iPhones, dunno if that applies to their laptops too.
For phones and tablets. Apple has been using usb-c on their laptops for a while.
Also, want to mention that USB4 standard is compatible with Thunderbolt 4 and therefore makes 1 connector compatible with all the devices. AFAIK that was not forced by EU but a cooperation between Apple and USB designer groups. But I might be wrong on that one.
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.
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.
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.
80% of phones charge over 100 watt now?
And here I felt special with my 120w phone charger…
As Lemmyman posted above:
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.
So when you write:
I swear they are doing this on purpose.
What is the conspiracy you are implying?
Oh okay that makes sense. The conspiracy im implying is that its already a proven thing in the us that politicians will pass a very weak bill that doesnt really change anything so they can use the excuse of RTR protections already existing. Actually a lot of places do this with diversity and environmental laws as well. I just got really annoyed with the battery one cause they exclude so many phones.
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.
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
I’m not sure a USB C cable exists that could charge my gaming laptop, even if my laptop supported it.
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.
USB-Cloaka
I did not know that word until just now. Thanks :p
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.
In this case many modern laptops (if not all) support or are sold with a docking station. You got your block that has all the needed ports with one specific port for PD that will accept charge.
From what I’ve heard of people using docking station - it is super convenient. You just bring your laptop to home/work and connect 1 USB-C and you got all the devices already connected to it. Unplug and leave only with laptop.On the go, barely anyone uses many ports.
I highly doubt that people are willing to take tons of hardware on their travel. Keyboard, mouse and a screen is already there. You do not need any audio interfaces, printers, Ethernet cables, microphones, additional monitors, many USB flash drives or wireless charger stations for your phones/watch/headphones when you’re on the go. You just need laptop and maybe wired headphones.
USB-C connector is just an ability to get a charging cable anywhere regardless of laptop’s brand, model, barrel charger polarity or wattage. 1 USB power block, 1 type-C cable is all it needs. And these things are extremely common. Not like some Acer Aspire laptop’s super rare double voltage proprietary connector power block that can be only ordered off their company’s website.
There are extremely cheap dongles that split data from power. They work with most phones, too.
With a barrel jack you’d probably lose room for another USB-C. There is really no reason to prefer USB-C over a jack.
It makes a lot more sense for portable devices. The idea of a desktop PC that’s nothing but usb-c front and back seems silly. However, my work laptop connects via usb-c to the docking station and that’s pretty awesome. Through the usb-c ports I get multiple monitors, power, ethernet, audio, and of course peripherals and storage and other USB devices.
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.
