Comment on The EU common charger : USB-C

• i_r_n00b@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Right but MicroUSB was not enshrined into law as a standard like this.

  Tbh I’m conflicted because on one hand it’s great to have a common standard, but on the other this might very well impede progress. Also does USBC even provide enough wattage to power a gaming laptop?

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  • efstajas@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Right but MicroUSB was not enshrined into law as a standard like this.

    Which doesn’t mean that it can’t / won’t be changed. It’s in the EU’s best interest to update the law should the industry push for a new standard, so they will. Of course USB-C can and will be updated to handle newer protocol & charging specs over time, so it’ll be a long time before that’ll be necessary.

    but on the other this might very well impede progress

    I really don’t see how it realistically could. Look at the history of mobile phones so far. Almost the entire industry standardized around USB on their own rather early, and deviations from this (e.g. Apple) only very briefly provided an actual consumer benefit before they became horrible nuisances and cash grabs. The industry has and will continue to develop improvements to the USB spec, and now thanks to this law no-one is allowed to deviate from the common standard anymore. It’s a win for everyone except companies that want to cash grab on proprietary bullshit.

    Also does USBC even provide enough wattage to power a gaming laptop?

    It supplies up to 240 watts with USB-PD. The standard just says they need to be power-able via USB C though — it doesn’t forbid additional charging connectors (like Apple’s magsafe or the barrel jacks found often on gaming laptops).

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    • LukeMedia@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Good point with that last bit, I have a gaming laptop that comes with a big DC Barrel plug and power brick, which is essentially needed for playing games. However, it also lets you charge with USB-C which is what I use when travelling/doing productive work. I see no reason why this approach can’t be applied more regularly, as it increases flexibility and maintains compatibility with the standard.

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      • efstajas@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yep. My MacBook pro comes with a magsafe cable and beefy power brick, which is great, but I end up mostly just using a smaller brick and USB-C because I can charge my phone with the same cable. The smaller brick doesn’t hit the max wattage of the thing, but I barely max it out anyway, so it ends up totally fine. Plus all of the MacBook’s USB-C ports accept charge, meaning you can plug it in on either side. This level of flexibility is just amazing, and I dread thinking back to the days when you had to travel with 4 different chargers for all your tech. Now it’s just one!

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  • darn@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    USB-PD is something that continues to evolve over time, so if usb-c doesn’t power a gaming laptop right now, they’ll make it work down the road

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