moondog

For the first time ever, I'm quite pleased to be in a position in which all of my devices are USB-C compliant (for charging, data transfers, peripherals).

This should greatly aid in my efforts to keep my laptop bag organized and as light as possible.

Towards this end, I'd like to equip myself with at least one charging block and cable.

One of my laptops (Xiaomi that's about the same size as a MacBook Air) came with a stock USB-C setup. The other one (~14" HP) came with an A/C power adapter, but supposedly it can charge just as fast through its USB port.

I want to semi-retire both my existing USB-C charging block and the A/C adapter in favor of a new charging block that is compatible with both laptops and can still be used with my phone/tablet without frying either. I want to say that one of the two computers needs 65 or more watts and the other one needs 80+ watts. In spite of the fact that small is an important priority, I am guessing that very small charging blocks might not be up to snuff in terms of performance or my wear and tear habits (I like to think I'm gentle, but this isn't always the case).

On the cable front, I recently watched a YT video from the Myth Busters guys, in which they compared Apple's fancy USB-C cable with $10 versions. I'm pretty sure they were shilling for Apple because their presentation made the Apple cable look 100x nicer than the cheap cables, and the underlying message was along the lines of, "if you care about your computer, it needs this". As much as I love my devices, I've determined that none of them really warrant a $120 cable that has pretty high odds of retiring in a random hotel room over course of a year.

That having been said, I don't want to go super cheap either. I guess I'm looking for cables that are kind of durable and have sufficient throughput to do my computers justice. Data transfers are of secondary importance (I don't require super fast, but I dislike breaks, especially if they result in me wasting time).

In summary, I'd appreciate feedback from you guys on: 1. charging blocks; 2. cables. I realize that there is tons of information about this stuff on the internet, but I trust and respect your combined wisdom and field experience.

TYA

KRSW

Duplicate Post

KRSW

The biggest issue you're going to run into is that most multi-port USB-C PD bricks won't put out full output when more than one port is in use. I wish the manufacturers would come up with one which did. The larger wattage chargers also get exponentially heavier. If you're concerned with weight, you're better off going with two smaller chargers than one to rule them all. This also gives you some redundancy, which isn't a bad thing on the road.

I'm currently using these:
(Nekteck 65W USB C Charger GaN II with 6.6ft Cable). At $25, including cable, you can't go too wrong with these. Folding prongs. Compact. Pretty light-weight too. Single USB-C port.

(UGREEN RG 65W USB C Charger, Nexode 3-Port Robot GaN Fast Charger Block) Feels a bit better built than the Nekteck. It is shaped like a robot with a cute LED "face" that indicates the status... Power / Connected / Charging. It lacks folding prongs, but comes with magnetic "feet" to cover the prongs. Has 2x USB-C, 1x USB-A. Like all of the multi-ports, plugging in multiple devices will reduce the amount of power it puts out.

(Anker USB C 120W, 547 Charger, PowerPort III 4-Port Charging Station). This thing weighs 500g / 1 LB! Once you get past that, it will deliver 2x 65W USB-C connections simultaneously. Or 1x 90W + 1x 20W, or 1x 60W, 1x 30W, 1x20W, or 1x 50W, 30W, 20W, 20W. It does have a cord, which I find to be a plus when traveling. Other than it won't deliver full power with multiple devices connected and weighs a ton, I have no qualms about it. It is nice to be able to plug in my mobile phone and computer and not have the computer complain about reduced power.

(Anker 511 USB Travel Power Strip, 2 Outlets & 3USB Ports, 5ft Soft Extension Cord 30W) Think of this as a power strip with built in 30w charger. 2x USB-A ports, 1x USB-C, 2x 110v/240v outlets. The unique feature here is the ultra-soft, ultra-flexible cord. It's as flexible as a soft rope. I use this constantly when I travel, with the laptop bricks plugged into it. Then have the best of both worlds -- the bricks can run full power and I let this guy charge my mobile phone

Cables:
(INIU USB C to USB C Cable, (6ft, 2-Pack) 100W). So far these haven't let me down. Braided cable, slim metal ends, and one of the ends has an LED which lights up when connected to let you know there's power flowing. Unfortunately due to the limitations of USB-C, BOTH ends of the cable have to be connected for the LED to illuminate. They sell some USB-A to USB-C cables wherein the USB-C connector is illuminated 24/7 which makes it great for finding the end of the cable.

So, no ideal solutions on the market yet, but these are the best I've been able to come up with for travel. There are some desktop USB-C charger stations which do have higher outputs, but are too large and too heavy for travel. Perhaps in the future we'll see it.

nerd

I use a small 65W GaN charger and usually a 3ft cable.

I've never put much thought into the cable. If I am going to need a shorter one, I grab a shorter one as well (for my phone). They all get the job done.

gfunkdave

Cheap cables might not be made with all copper conductors or might have other issues. I've seen people post pictures of super cheap cables whose connectors burned up. I would only buy a cable from a reputable brand, vs saving the extra few bucks. Any big hardware manufacturer, Anker, Aukey, Monoprice are all interchangeable.

I think that if you want a cable for more than 65W you need to buy one specifically certified for that. I plug my laptop in with a 4' Anker braided cable with an Anker 65W GaN power supply and it works fine.

moondog

Many thanks for all of the advice, thus far. I've decide to order a few of the items that KRSW recommended. Whatever doesn't make the cut for spots in my computer bag certainly don't go to waste.

Off topic, here is the Adam Savage video about the Apple cable I mentioned above:


You only need to watch about 2 minutes in order to get the idea.

MalFr

If it helps I have a Ugreen 100w charger, 2 usb-c and also 1 usb-a and 1 usb-c for charging lower powered devices. I generally use 1 full power usbc for my laptop and the usb-a for my phone, and seems to work quite well, with a reasonable power/weight ratio.
also use a 2m 100w cable, as wall sockets are often not conveniently sited.

potfish

I just started looking at this and bought some tools to compare the performance of USB-C cables, because I have a box of Micro- and Mini-USB cables that are largely junk and I'm trying to avoid the same happening as my USB-C collection grows. This is only talking about charging efficiency, not data transfer, and not build quality, price or anything else.

I am just starting out with this but I have measured three so far:
One cheap no-name
Apple one that came with my iPhone 15
UGREEN 100W cable
All three of them are 3.3ft, give or take an inch or so.

The short version of the results is:
No-name = 0.240 ohms, Apple = 0.205 ohms, UGREEN = 0.120 ohms

Power loss = current squared x resistance

With my Apple USB-C charger rated 9V 2.2A that means I'm losing this much in the cable:
No-name = 1.14W, Apple = 0.99W, UGREEN = 0.59W
With power in being 9V x 2.2A = 19.8W the percentages lost are
No-name = 5.8%, Apple = 5.1%, UGREEN = 3.0%

At 5V 2.2A the power lost would be the same in Watts, but the power in is lower so the percentage lost is higher.

For an 80W laptop charge, that is presumably 20V 4A. The numbers would theoretically be:
No-name = 3.84W, Apple = 3.27W, UGREEN = 1.92W
With the higher power going in, the percentages are still in the 2-4% range but the issue is the pure power loss numbers. Watts burned = heat generated and nearly 4W in a 3.3ft cable would get hot for sure.

I say theoretically because you wouldn't want to put 4A through the cables that aren't rated for it, but you get my point - buying a good cable does make a difference. And also, what Apple ships with their product isn't necessarily premium.

Of course, another great way to reduce the resistance of a cable is to buy a shorter one... this is often overlooked but if you don't need a 3.3ft cable, such as if you're using a charger that has a cable to the wall and you can use a 6" or 1ft cable from the charger to the device, then that will waste less power.

LIH Prem

You also might consider the Anker 100W GAN II 3-port charger. Diagrams in the link show the power delivered to each port depending on which ports are being used. It weighs 7.2 ounces and it's currently $42.99

gfunkdave

that's a great price for a quality power supply. I have the and use it to charge phone/iPad/Kindle or power my laptop. But for essentially the same price the 100W one is no brainer. The only issue I have with the 735, and don't know if it applies to the 100W version, is that it is a little long and heavy and can have trouble staying in an outlet that doesn't grip the prongs well. It comes with a suction cup frame thingy that is supposed to mitigate this.

edit: it appears the . As far as I can tell the difference is that the Prime version can allocate the 100W to any of the USB-C ports based on demand, while the non prime one has fixed limits for each port. But it's also $20 more.

KRSW

I also had the Anker 735 but gave it away at my office due to issues with it falling out of the wall. No suction cups came with mine at the time. It falls out of regular outlets, let alone well-worn ones at hotels and airlines. That's why I always carried the Anker 711 power strip, so it could lay flat on the floor or table and not fall out. It's also where I like Anker 547 as it does come with a cord, so the weight isn't on the plug.

The new Prime model can output 100w max across all of the ports, but still reduces power when more than one device is connected. Sadly, they don't detail how this is done.

I'm still waiting for a no-compromises unit which can deliver full power on all ports simultaneously. In theory such a unit should have better longevity and be more reliable as the circuitry won't be driven as hard in normal usage.

gfunkdave

Wouldn't that be a 222.5W power supply then? That's a lot of power to pull through a little gizmo. I bet it would get pretty hot. The USB-A port on the Ankers is limited to 22.5W...I'm actually not sure how they get 4.5A out of it. I didn't know there was anything that could pull that much power out of a USB-A port.

Internaut

I never seem to get it quite right but you'll have gathered that anything with Anker or Ugreen written on it is going to be pretty solid. That's also my experience.

KRSW

Is 200+w a lot of power? It depends. The more efficient the circuitry, the less heat, so quality design + quality components could make it happen. Do some intelligent thermal design rather than stuffing it in an insulated plastic case and it this becomes quite doable.

Case in point: My 2009 Macbook Pro's adapter gets almost too hot to touch and is easily 4x the physical size of the Nektek I listed and 6x the size of the UGreen I posted....and it's barely pushing 35W under load. Processor's only 25W TDP, it has an LED backlight and I've retrofitted it with an SSD. I have the UGreen robot plugged in right now and it feels like it's about 36-37C.

As far as USB-A goes, Android's been capable of charging at 36W since 2016. Snapdragon has been capable of charging at 100W since 2017. I believe there are even some which can take a full charge in 15 minutes now.

moondog

Please forgive me for these rookie questions, but is there anything wrong with charging a phone using such a powerful block? I also notice that some of the Anker and Ugreen charging blocks have multiple USB-C ports (e.g. labeled 100 and 10, perhaps). Is it recommended to use the lower number for phones because they are only phones and you don't want to give 'em too much juice?