I think people are missing the point of supporting this much wattage as a USB-IF standard. There are already 130W power supplies from Dell, so it's going to happen with or without standardization, and I'd rather it happen with. It's also not just laptops that might be powered by this. The article mentions all-in-one computers like Mac might use this, and I could imagine it replacing those awful AC adapters used on monitors with no internal power supply.
USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
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Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
#42I look forward to USB 4.1a Type C.2 Phase iii.b Gen 3E and the 482646282 different cable capability combinations that all plug in and have no distinction of those capabilities whatsoever. I also look forward to all the necessary and helpful posts telling me how the identical ports on my laptop are in fact diffferent despite their identical appearance. But at least everything uses the same plug, so that’s nice.
there's also the very real danger of identical ports bricking devices. See the nintendo switch issue where some users have bricked their devices due to nintendo's implementation of USB C. This limits the chargers you can use and nintendo may well deny a warranty claim if a third-party charger was used.
Not the best source - https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/87vmud/the_...
Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, I share that worry, but isn’t the “-PD” part of “USB-PD” a negotiation step? I have very little worry that my carpet can accidentally negotiate 60w and up. I _am_ worried about cheap USB-PD devices that forgoe this negotiation as it is complex and expensive to implement.
There's the cheap devices but even more worrisome are cheap, possibly not up-to-spec cables. If you buy a fake cable that pretends to have display-port alternate mode or something but doesn't, meh, you're out 10 bucks. But if it pretends to be able to carry 200 W but isn't and burns your house down instead, you might be out a tad bit more...
Should be detectable though, at least in many circumstances.
USB-PD has bidirectional communication, so at least in theory both ends could know how the cable is performing by comparing voltage and current measurements at either end.
If the cable drops too many Watts, the load can be disconnected.
Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
#44I look forward to USB 4.1a Type C.2 Phase iii.b Gen 3E and the 482646282 different cable capability combinations that all plug in and have no distinction of those capabilities whatsoever. I also look forward to all the necessary and helpful posts telling me how the identical ports on my laptop are in fact diffferent despite their identical appearance. But at least everything uses the same plug, so that’s nice.
there's also the very real danger of identical ports bricking devices. See the nintendo switch issue where some users have bricked their devices due to nintendo's implementation of USB C. This limits the chargers you can use and nintendo may well deny a warranty claim if a third-party charger was used. Not the best source - https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/87vmud/the_...
Not true, the bricking was from was blatantly broken chargers putting 9 volts onto low-voltage signal pins.
Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
#45That's arc welding power, 50 volts at 5 amps. I fail to see how a connector is going to last more than a few cycles under load. Also, don't use that near anything flammable.
Arc welding is typically 50-500 amps.
Presumably this would be a negotiated system like USB-PD, where only a tiny amount of power is available at connection and with pins physically configured to ensure breaking connection in order you may be able to shut down the higher power before the main contacts disengage).
Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
#46... and no one will have the slightest clue what their chargers, cables and devices support.
Simple. The really bulky chargers will be suitable for charging laptops. Everything else is for phones.
If that becomes that standard to judge by, then there will be really bulky chargers from China containing lead weights with inadequate circuitry.
Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
#47Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
#48Laptops shouldn't ever need 240W. That's just getting stupid. Buy a desktop if this is what you need!
No thanks, I’ll keep my gaming laptop. Far more portable than a desktop, lots of compute overhead, and I can use it for games. At home it’s basically a desktop with external keyboard and monitors.
Oh yeah, and when it’s not being used with the dedicated graphics card, it gets 6-9 hours of battery life.
Oh, almost forgot - it’s lighter and about the same size as my 2012 13” MBP.
Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
there's also the very real danger of identical ports bricking devices. See the nintendo switch issue where some users have bricked their devices due to nintendo's implementation of USB C. This limits the chargers you can use and nintendo may well deny a warranty claim if a third-party charger was used. Not the best source - https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/87vmud/the_...
Not true, the bricking was from was blatantly broken chargers putting 9 volts onto low-voltage signal pins.
that's one explanation but there is another that is relevant to this thread - Nintendo diverging from the USB C standard implementation. End of the day, standards exist for a reason and nintendo diverged from the standard
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/heres-why-nintendo-sw...
If the port fails open—meaning pins just don't make electrical contact—there's usually no real harm done. But if they fail short—meaning pins are bridged electrically to pins they have no business connecting to—you may easily overvolt a pin. Remember that 6V absolute maximum rating on the Configuration Channel of the Switch's USB-C PD chip? Well, it's only 0.5mm away from the VBus (main power line), which carries 15V.
Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why not just use a desktop? Gaming laptops that contain high-end GPUs can consume this much power while charging the battery and running games. And such laptops are still way more portable than a desktop. You can lift the laptop and keep it in your car, drive off and have a gaming PC ready-to-use where ever you end up. Same cannot be done with any desktop.
Typically they're throttled by poor thermals. I'd be interested to know if anyone has recommendations for rtx grade laptops with nice CPUs in 15-17 inch form factor that doesn't throttle but are still somewhat portable. I have not found any but I think I've been testing too thin ones (XPS and Blade).
Have you checked out Thinkpad P15/P17? I can't speak to as to if and how (probably to some extent unless in ideal climate) they throttle, but generally Thinkpad P series are holding up pretty well (obviously at the cost of slimness). Can be configured with up to Quadro RTX 5000 Max-Q 16GB.
EDIT: Judging by notebookcheck, you should also check out HP ZBook Fury 15 G7, Thinkpad T15g, Dell Precision 7550, and MSI WS66.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-P15-Gen-1-lapt...