What's up with current chargers

[ChaosNicro]

Hey y'all,

Recently I thought about getting a PD-capable charging block to swap my Laptops Wall-brick with an adapter. I had looked at them originally when GaN blocks became a thing, but both then and now, two things held me back.

 

- A lot of 4+ port models opt for power cords instead of directly embedded plugs. USB-C is slightly smaller than A, so size shouldn't matter and you are going to connect cables anyway so why not have the block in the outlet?

 

- While the chargers need USB-C for high-power charging, PCs still mainly favor A, since a lot of peripherals still use it. This means you need male USB-C to X cables for charging, but USB-A to X cables for data transfer. Which is a devide, I thought we had settled.

 

My PC is ~5 years old and has one back-panel C slot. But current cases seem to have 1-2 front-panel slots max.

 

Am I off-base here?

And on a sidenote, are there more manufacturers to look at other than Anker and UGREEN for quality chargers?

 

Thanks

[Levent]

This entire thread makes no sense.

7 minutes ago, ChaosNicro said:

A lot of 4+ port models opt for power cords instead of directly embedded plugs. USB-C is slightly smaller than A, so size shouldn't matter and you are going to connect cables anyway so why not have the block in the outlet?

I would rather have a charging station than have to try and find decent quality long USB cables.

9 minutes ago, ChaosNicro said:

While the chargers need USB-C for high-power charging, PCs still mainly favor A, since a lot of peripherals still use it. This means you need male USB-C to X cables for charging, but USB-A to X cables for data transfer. Which is a devide, I thought we had settled.

???

 

There is nothing wrong chargers out there.

 

[tkitch]

outlets tend to be in inconvenient places, so if I'm plugging in multiple things?  I generally want it somewhere more central.

 

A Cord on the charger lets me put it somewhere useful, so I can easily plug in.

 

USB A isn't for charging anything of consequence.  USB C is for charging.

 

Otherwise, your post is kinda confusing AF and I have no idea what you're asking for. 

[manikyath]

i'm trying to delve trough your mind twists here.. and i think the part you're missing is this:

 

the reason USB-PD chargers all have type C ports, is because afaik PD is only part of the spec of type C ports, and type A ports are only meant to ever output 5 volts (as opposed to PD going 9, 12, and even higher) 

 

as for needing "all sorts of cables" in two forms.. i can actually list every 'standard' cable you could possibly need right here:

- USB-A to mini B

- USB-A to micro B

- USB-A to USB-C

- USB-A to lightning

- USB-C to mini B

- USB-C to micro B

- USB-C to USB-C

- USB-C to ightning

 

this list assuming you still have anything at all that still has a mini B port, and that you might have a micro B device that you wont just charge off the computer.

 

so.. in practisce, realisticly, we're talking about 5 different cables if you have an iphone, or 3 if you dont.

[Biohazard777]

Others have already answered your question, so I'll just address your side-note:

30 minutes ago, ChaosNicro said:

And on a sidenote, are there more manufacturers to look at other than Anker and UGREEN for quality chargers?

I would put Ugreen in the same bag as Asometech, and that bag I surely wouldn't label as "quality" .
Anyhow, I bought a couple of these cheapo chargers:

And it works *ok with my old ThinkPad L390.
Measuring power draw from the socket it uses ~60W with CPU stress test running and battery being charged at the same time.

*It does get hot to touch, so I took a picture with my thermal cam:

Not great, but it doesn't get worse than that... Bare in mind this is at max load.

You have to use C1 port for PD, but the seller does mention that:

 

TL;DR
For traveling / in a pinch it gets the job done.
But if the laptop is going to be mostly stationary and under heavy use... do use the original Lenovo power brick.

[saintlouisbagels]

25 minutes ago, ChaosNicro said:

- A lot of 4+ port models opt for power cords instead of directly embedded plugs. USB-C is slightly smaller than A, so size shouldn't matter and you are going to connect cables anyway so why not have the block in the outlet?

Just because the USB-C is smaller, it doesn't mean all of the internal electronics can be just as small. We're still working with physics (heat management) and a bunch of different logic and safety. Just get two 2-port or 3-port chargers if a cable is an inconvenience.

 

28 minutes ago, ChaosNicro said:

- While the chargers need USB-C for high-power charging, PCs still mainly favor A, since a lot of peripherals still use it. This means you need male USB-C to X cables for charging, but USB-A to X cables for data transfer. Which is a devide, I thought we had settled.

PC's mainly favor USB-A because most devices are still USB-A and that likely won't be changing for a long time because of the amount of USB-A devices still out in the field.

USB Power Delivery (PD) is only specced for USB-C whereas USB-A is meant for 5V and low amps.

The second half of this is completely a non-issue.

[Kilrah]

1 hour ago, ChaosNicro said:

A lot of 4+ port models opt for power cords instead of directly embedded plugs.

Simply because they'll be more powerful, bigger and heavier, and a large/heavy brick becomes impractical to have directly connected to a socket without running into space constraints or having it falling off.

[ChaosNicro]

Thanks for the replies. I guess my assumption was that because GaN-chargers on average take less components than a silica-equivalent, there would be space for more ports. But most offers just have smaller blocks instead, I guess it doesn't scale that way.

Other than that, I was just salty to need more than one type of cable. But my PC is just older. Having 2 front-panel slots would solve that.

As for the comment about UGREEN, I 100% agree, it's still just a repackaged Aliexpress-seller most of the time in my experience, but there just aren't many companies to name here.

[NavyCobra1417]

While all of my charging hubs are direct to wall socket, I wouldn't say it's better. 

 

They're mildly more convenient with the trade off that they sometimes fall out of wall sockets, or block adjacent ports on power bars.