IIRC, Dell uses a non-standard approach to the 135W charging… So, no standard EPR charger (i.e. those which enable 140W @ 28V@5A, 180W/36V@5A and/or 240W/48V@5A will enable it, only Dell’s chargers which support the non-standard protocol will work.

Considering it's dell, i think that's entirely likely.
I do remember something about that when i was researching a travel charger and ISTR it was one of the contributory reasons, along with weight, cost and size) as to why i chose a 100w device instead. That was many moons ago now, and my memory has moved on... :)

I really like my Invzi 100W USB-C adapter. Works super well and is tiny. I also got the Anker 100W one and for some reason it had issues with some of my devices.

My 2c.
During travel, I carry one laptop (ultrabook), 1 Kindle, 2 phones, RX100 camera, USB-C earphones. Below are some of the blocks that I have used over the years and have tried/supported many cable projects on a couple of crowd-funding platforms.

Overall I have settled on the following combo:
1. Cable-1: InCharge XL, 2m, 100W universal cable. Can do any-to-any connector type (USB-C, USB-A, MicroUSB, and Lightning) - Charges all devices; not suitable for high-speed data transfer
2. Cable-2: Monoprice Thunderbolt Cable, 1m, 240W, 40Gbps - Used as backup for USB-C to USB-C charging, and for high-speed display and data transfer.
3. Primary Charger - Anker Prime 3 port 67W GaN
4. Backup Charger - Chargeasap Omega, 4 port (goes in the checked bag)

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d00d216830.jpg
Top: Hyperjuice 100W, SlimQ 65W, Omega 100W ; Bottom: Anker Prime 67W, Anker nano 65W


Have other versions of cables and chargers as well. Would be happy to provide specifics.
Cheers!

Just one comment on the above post: It’s a personal decision, but do be aware that the USB-C to Lightning + to micro-USB as well as the USB-C to USB-A adapters are both out of spec.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trav...l#post35142834

• There are ways to have at least the C-to-A adapter properly keyed & thus appropriately safe (if not explicitly in-spec, not sure on that), which InCharge did not apply.
• C-to-micro: only tested-as-safe adapter I’ve heard of is the Innergie I noted above; others have posted that it only works with Innergie chargers, but I used it with my Belkin just fine.
• C-to-Lightning cannot be in-spec, apparently. However, using a micro-to-Lightning adapter with the Innergie adapter above should work.

[MENTION=78680]car[/MENTION]jack : Thank you for adding that clarification. Cheers!

Let's say you have a really nice (i.e. highest quality you can find on Amazon without broaching audiophile turf) USB-C cable or two, and want to be able to use it without a charging block when you're on the go. Can you guys think of any airlines, airports, hotels, cars, restaurant chains, etc that provide enough boost from their own ports to make this possible? As I mentioned in my OP a year back, I'm really into weight optimization, and even my smallest charging block is burdensome.

I think USB-C ports are becoming more common as places buy new furniture that has USB charging built in, but I doubt many of those ports can output the 65W that you'd need for most laptops. They probably top out at 18 or 30 watts, which is good for charging a phone or tablet and not much more.

Just tried an experiment on a Skoda Octavia I've rented in Ireland. Using a relatively high quality USB-C cable in one of the car's USB ports, I'm getting 45W so I probably can charge most but not all devices requiring USB PD. It's a new model with just 2K km on it so I don't know about models from earlier years, but I've never gotten the impression that Skodas are cars with cutting edge tech so I would suspect a number of 2025 and 2026 models now offer this level of charging power. If you're driving for stretches of several hours, you can probably recharge a device or two from empty using these ports.

I don't expect you'll find much support at hotels or restaurants--I still stay in the occasional hotel without any USB ports at all and a decent number of places offering only USB-A. Even if USB-C is offered at a hotel, I suspect you'll only get the fast charge option that's great for phones but worthless for laptops and USB-C PD batteries. The ports on flat screen TVs might offer an option but only if the hotel did a recent upgrade or was recently built. I've found restaurants that are marginally better than hotels and some where if you can borrow some juice, it's probably because the bartender/server loans you his charging setup. Neither hotels nor restaurants are as good as airports, but again I think that most travelers will find that USB-C fast charge is the highest recharge option. Given the long lead time for most aircraft upgrades, I'd be surprised if many of the airlines currently offer this, and even if offered, there are planes in many fleets that don't yet carry the airline's latest tech upgrades.

I'm sure there are significant but only occasional exceptions to the charging world as I see it currently. Maybe in five years, we can leave our blocks at home. Or the charging world witll have come up with some sort of new charging protocol that will render our current standards obsolete. But I don't think you can leave your charging block at home yet.

Also I'm not sure where this idea of different cable qualities comes from. Sure, there are some sketchy cheap cables out there but anything with the usb-c certification should be fine up to 65W. Special cert is needed for higher power (and those cables have a chip that identifies them as high power capable if you plug in a higher power charger).

So far as i remember the later seats on AF and maybe KL SH aircraft have usb-c 65w seat charging - not tried it though seen it several times. Apart from that, i’ve not seen usb-c charging for the public in the wild.

Unless that 45W output from the port was capped to only be offered as 15V, i.e. at @3A (from what I remember of current chargers, a cap at 15V is unlikely, but I guess possible), it would also need to be [email protected].
(IIRC, if a charger is 20V capable, it must also support 5V, 9V and 15V, as well can optionally support 12V and /or PPS).

Any device which is rated for >45W input also must accept 20V (even if it does 140W/28V, 180W/36V or 240W/48V EPR charging).

So while it may not charge fast, that 45W inflow (at 20V) should at least top up the device unless it is on and drawing significant power (most laptops will use ~<20W at idle, down to even <5W), and even then that 45W will supplement and help slow the power drain on the battery.

(Some devices will take 15V, as well as possibly even 5V, 9V and/or 12V too, but trying to research if any specific device will do so is a pain to figure out… I do know the Surface Pro and Macbook Air are two such devices, however, they accept all the way down to 5V.)

But yes, better to just carry a <100g charger.



Both my old Lenovo and Dell work ultrabooks used to complain about the 30W ([email protected]) charger that I plugged them into when travelling, but they would charge, albeit slowly… most of what I did just did not consume much energy; the security crapware running in the background probably consumed more. I’d say it was under 25W 95% of the time, the remaining power from the charger (after conversion back for the battery) was enough to basically trickle-charge the battery.

Having said that, again, preferably you’d want the charger’s 30W to particularly include [email protected], not just 15V@2A: I think the former is prevalent, but I guess the latter could exist.

I probably would not have tried that with a proper heavy-duty workstation or gaming laptop, however.


And yes, most non-sketchy brands’ USB-C cables of same power & data specs will perform the same. A 60W cable will carry 60W.
(Yes, shielding can maybe play a part, but I’ve not heard of issues if just considering mainline brands, they should have that aspect down).

I'd never recommend plugging into any public USB-C (or -A) port. Mostly for OPSEC reasons, but also because they'll almost always be a few generations behind the current standards. Builtins, furniture, etc. are likely to have a far longer usable life than the USB tech they "support".

Does them being old pose an actual threat to devices? Or, is it just that they aren't optimized? (I don't care about the latter.)

A capacitor (or other component?) going bad could damage a charging device, and will happen more often with older AC/DC adapters.. But if no component issue, probably not.

If the port is out-of-spec, however, that’s a different story, regardless of age.

(The OpSec angle on public chargers… almost certainly extremely remote and should not be a concern due to in-built controls on phones, but I too don’t plug into them directly. If needed,

I plug my power bank into the charging port, i.e. put a ‘dumb’ device between the public port and my phone, then pass-through to my phone, but would just prefer to use my own charger.)