USB-C Charger Questions?

[paulyron]

I have a dell xps 15 9520 laptop.  It uses a usb-c charging cable that came with dell and is 130w so I use this to charge my dell xps laptop and have it plugged in when using it.

 

 

I have an iphone 13 mini that is my main phone.  When I bought it, it came with the usb-c to lightning cable but it did not come with that wall adapter which surprised me back then but then I read that is how apple has done it the last few years.   Seems like they assume you have an adapter.   I also have an older iphone SE that I used before that and have that old small apple wall charger that is 5 watts I believe where you connect it to the wall and the usb a to lightning cable to charge the iphone SE.  I'm sure you all know what wall charger I'm talking about with the old iphones. 

 

 

I then bought a Apple 20W usb-c charger as I read if you use that with the iphone 13 mini, it would charge the iphone a lot faster than compared if you charge it with the older cables I have.  I remember testing it and it was true.  Much faster to charge the iphone 13 mini with the 20W adapter as opposed to the 5W wall charger. 

 

 

 

[paulyron]

Now this is where I am very confused.  I read that a lot of people have 140w or 100w or 65w usb-c chargers and these are usually from anker.  Or it could be one of those apple magsafe 3 cables from apple?  I would read about how people would charge their phone with those 140w or 100w or 65w usb-c chargers.  The confusing thing here is those cost like $40 and up.  There are some that cost $100 even.  The apple magsafe 3 cables are like $80?  

 

 

1.  Why do people buy these 140w or 100w or 65w usb-c chargers for their phones?  Are these people usually android users and not apple users?  I find the Apple 20W usb-c adapter really fast at charging the iphone 13 mini and it's only 20W.  I mean don't most iphone users use this to charge their iphones?  But some want to charge it even faster so they have for a 140w or 100w or 65w charger?  But what chargers do most android phone users use?  I haven't had an android phone in a while but you can't just buy the Apple 20W usb-c adapter that cost $20 or so to use it?  Or it's not compatible?  Or they just want to charge their phone much faster?   

 

 

Also some of these usb-c charger seem to charge laptops as well as long as it doesn't draw lot of power.  I don't understand the point of this.  If you have your laptop with you... and your charger... why do you need this 140w or 100w or 65w charger with you?  Since no matter what, you still going to need an outlet to connect your laptop to?  Or is there something I'm missing here?

 

 

2.  I read that people who have a macbook have those magsafe 3 cable to charge their macbook?  I don't get it.  Why would you pay $80 for it... if your macbook already came with a charger?  Or is there something I'm missing here?  Is it because the magsafe isn't as heavy as the macbook charger if you carry your mac around?  That is the only thing I could possibly think of?  

 

 

3.  I recently bought an anker 737 powerbank that came with only a usb c to usb c cable.  I was surprised how come it didn't come with a cable to charge it to an outlet.  Apparently they also assumed you have a usb-c adapter similar to like apple?  Well I used my Apple 20W usb-c cable along with the anker supplied usb c to usb c cable and was able to charge the anker to 100% but it took a long time.  It took like over 4 hours at least to charge from under 20% to 100% battery.  I also could possibly use my dell xps 15 9520 usb-c charger that is rated 130 watts right to charge the anker?  Few people said I could and it would charge the anker 737 even faster.  I do know dell would only allow max 90w or 100w but still it would be faster than the Apple 20w.  

 

 

But why do people buy these 140w or 100w or 65w usb wall chargers?  In my situation, it isn't necessary right?  I don't know what is the purpose of this unless you want to charge your device very fast?  In my situation, would it even make sense buying any of these usb-c wall chargers from anker?  

[it_dont_work]

17 minutes ago, paulyron said:

Why do people buy these 140w or 100w or 65w usb-c chargers for their phones? 

Probably because they have one for a laptop already. 

 

I've one personally because it smooths the power from my house's inverter a little more robustly when the pump or induction cooker kicks in or god forbid when my generator turns on (fucking power from that thing is dirty), but my case is a little unique being only solar/batteries.

[dizmo]

1. The battery in the iPhone 13 Mini is minuscule; about half the size of most phones these days. You could buy the Apple charger, but why? It's quite slow and there are plenty of chargers that are cheaper that offer greater performance.  You need a larger wattage charger if you want to run the laptop plugged in. If it's not rated high enough, you'll simply drain the battery.

 

2. Magsafe is safer. If someone knocks your laptop it's not going to be affected by the cord.

 

3. Apple isn't the only one to use USB C; in fact they were one of the last.

 

Probably wouldn't make sense. You'd have to check the charge rates your devices accept and decide from there.

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, paulyron said:

But some want to charge it even faster so they have for a 140w or 100w or 65w charger?

Your device does not charge any faster if you attach it to a charger that can provide more power. A charger makes power available, it does not push power into the device. The device will only draw whatever power it needs from the charger. So unless the original charger is underpowered, it's not going to improve anything.

 

I don't know about other people, but I bought a 65-Watt USB charger for one reason: mine has 4 ports. So I can charge e.g. my phone, my bike lamps and bike computer at the same time, without needing four chargers attached to wall sockets all over the place.

[Poinkachu]

2 hours ago, paulyron said:

Also some of these usb-c charger seem to charge laptops as well as long as it doesn't draw lot of power.  I don't understand the point of this.  If you have your laptop with you... and your charger... why do you need this 140w or 100w or 65w charger with you?  Since no matter what, you still going to need an outlet to connect your laptop to?  Or is there something I'm missing here?

 

But why do people buy these 140w or 100w or 65w usb wall chargers?  In my situation, it isn't necessary right?  I don't know what is the purpose of this unless you want to charge your device very fast?  In my situation, would it even make sense buying any of these usb-c wall chargers from anker?  

For me,

My laptop's power brick is 300w, it is seriously heavy & bulky. And since it is that powerful, it's not USB-C.

So, I do plan to buy a usb c charger that is capable of at least 100w at 20v 5a on one of it's port, so I can charge the laptop through USB PD.

It can do 135w through the USB-C port, but trying to buy usb-c charger that can do 20v 6.75A is annoying, so......

 

Why?
Because a GaN charger is at least smaller in size, and I can use it to charge my phone & other peripherals too while I'm outside.

And since some comes with multiple ports, that means I can charge a lot of stuffs at the same time.

Does it charge slower than my laptop's power brick? well yeah. But it should be enough for emergency situations where I need to use my laptop for way too long outside the house. If I only do low graphic productivity / work stuffs, the 100w charger should be able to keep up too if I am using the laptop while connected to wall somewhere.

 

And in situations where I need to charge multiple stuffs, it definitely is better than charging 1 by 1 or bringing multiple chargers.

[TheGreatestGazoo]

13 hours ago, paulyron said:

3.  I recently bought an anker 737 powerbank that came with only a usb c to usb c cable.  I was surprised how come it didn't come with a cable to charge it to an outlet.  Apparently they also assumed you have a usb-c adapter similar to like apple?  Well I used my Apple 20W usb-c cable along with the anker supplied usb c to usb c cable and was able to charge the anker to 100% but it took a long time.  It took like over 4 hours at least to charge from under 20% to 100% battery.

 

The Anker 737 powerbank battery is almost TEN times larger (24,000mAh vs. 2,438mAh) than the iPhone Mini's battery. That's why it take so much longer to charge.

[Rocketdog2112]

140 watts to charge a phone? 

I can smell the batteries cooking from here... 

[Mihle]

I believe the phone chargers that I have that came with my current and previous phone is 30-35w or so and I use those to charge at home.

 

At school when I have my laptop charger with me anyway, because I have my laptop, I just use that to charge my phone too as it's USB C too. Its 95W but I believe my phone charges ar max 35w or do anyway. Its mostly because then Only has to carry one charger.

 

Having one of those chargers with multiple outputs may have been useful as I could charge both at the same time but I live fine without it as phone doesn't need to charge that long if needed.