You can tell they're non trivial if you do any kind of HF radio stuff. When you plug one in the higher end of the spectrum fills with one kind of wideband digital looking noise for about a second, and then another noise there after.
Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
111–120 of 324 posts
Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
#112Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…
I'm one of those annoying people that has never had MacBook charger perish or fray, until very recently I still had a 2011 MBP and its original charger was fine. But yes I've seen people with dangerously broken chargers before, I have noticed they're often people with cracked phone screens - I wonder if they're perhaps people that are either more physically active with their hardware or perhaps more careless with looking after it.
Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
#113Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…
I'm one of those annoying people that has never had MacBook charger perish or fray, until very recently I still had a 2011 MBP and its original charger was fine. But yes I've seen people with dangerously broken chargers before, I have noticed they're often people with cracked phone screens - I wonder if they're perhaps people that are either more physically active with their hardware or perhaps more careless with loo…
I have a cat. None of my other charging cables are vulnerable except my macbook pro one. I've already lost two! Even if they made it easier to replace just the cable that goes from the adapter to the macbook it would be a big win for me.
Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
They usually work, but I've never seen a legitimate name brand coming from Hong Kong via eBay. My experience was mostly in sporting equipment, and the stuff that I ordered looked and smelled like it was "Adidas" or "Nike," and even said "Nike," but it obviously wasn't made by Adidas or Nike.
Aren't the actual, truly genuine Lenovo parts made there, too? Hong Kong is a Chinese territory.
Lots of actual stuff is made (or shipped) from Hong Kong. I don't know enough about the specifics of Lenovo, I'm just saying I've bought and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of items on eBay, and I've never yet seen a "genuine" name brand on eBay that shipped from Hong Kong that was actually legitimate.
If I had to bet money on it, I would guess that these are the same type of things that you find in Chinese "fake markets" - name brand items that would pass as name brand to anyone who is not very, very familiar with the brand. If it works it doesn't matter in the end, but I've seen some real duds from those types of markets, as well. Maybe they "fell off the truck," but my money is on that they're fakes that are designed to resemble the real thing as closely as they can.
Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
#115You can tell they're non trivial if you do any kind of HF radio stuff. When you plug one in the higher end of the spectrum fills with one kind of wideband digital looking noise for about a second, and then another noise there after.
That's interesting. What frequency range are you looking at, and how do you examine it? The charger waits one second after being plugged into the laptop before enabling the output voltage, so that would explain some of the behavior you see.
Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
#116My takeaway from this is that the $80 Apple charger is definitely safer and has higher-quality components than the $12 cheapo Chinese charger, but not nearly so much better that it solely explains the price difference, and that Apple is making a healthy margin on these things. So my question is, is anyone selling a quality charger without the Apple tax? Is there anyone making, say, $40 chargers that have the componen…
The problem is the market at the moment is terrible. When buy genuine Apple or Samsung you know the quality is good. But when you pay something closer to what it should cost, who knows what you're getting? Could be a decent charger, could be heavily marked up Chinese junk.
I recently bought a VESA monitor conversion kit for an apple display (why Apple can get away with charging $1000 for a 27 inch display is beyond me) that turned out to be a knock off. It looked IDENTICAL to the official apple version on the outside but the screws didn't line up perfectly and it was clearly an inferior product. I'm not planning on skimping again, even for essentially just a hunk of machined metal.
Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
#117Fraying on the charger (dc-carrying) cable is definitely an issue, but my biggest gripe about these chargers is the form factor of the AC-carrying part of the power cord. I can't speak to non-US chargers, but the three-prong cord that plugs into the wall has no coiling shape. If the plug itself had a self-clip (like at the end of the charging cable), at least I could keep my cord from unrolling in my bag and expandin…
I'll just leave this here... https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--HwBqLe3...
Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
#118My takeaway from this is that the $80 Apple charger is definitely safer and has higher-quality components than the $12 cheapo Chinese charger, but not nearly so much better that it solely explains the price difference, and that Apple is making a healthy margin on these things. So my question is, is anyone selling a quality charger without the Apple tax? Is there anyone making, say, $40 chargers that have the componen…
The problem is the market at the moment is terrible. When buy genuine Apple or Samsung you know the quality is good. But when you pay something closer to what it should cost, who knows what you're getting? Could be a decent charger, could be heavily marked up Chinese junk.
Wouldn't the fact that the lower priced stuff is usually junk indicate that what it "should" cost is closer to what Apple charges?
Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
#119What I wonder: EVERYTHING is available as China knockoffs, but I have yet to see a fake, replacement MagSafe connector...
the Chinese don't want to loose that business I guess
Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
#120You know what's not surprisingly complex? My feeling about how screwed I felt when I got the Macbook and its charger consisted only of straight-to-plug wall wart, power cord to Mac, as opposed to cord-to-wall-wart, wall wart, power cord to Mac. They halved the length of the cord while forcing you to stick your wall wart right into the socket, crowding out other cords if it's on a small power strip. That and the fact…
Is this the new model? I got the 2012 version (UK) and got the modular charger with cord-to-wall-wart plus wall-wart-only...
Yes. It's the MacBook Air-like fanless one [1] with only 2 ports: headphone and USB-C. And half a power cable. And no MagSafe. Did I mention I'm a little bitter?