569
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
569 points (99.5% liked)
Technology
84302 readers
4128 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
So the shape of the plug is the same for all devices regardless of the spec... doesn't it just make things more confusing for non techies? I can already see people saying their new laptop is broken because their 5v 0.67A power brick won't charge it, or buying a USB-c charger just to find out it doesn't work. A lot of aftermarket chargers claim to support up to 120W etc. Except they mean 120W is a sum of all ports for a 5 port charger so really it's only 20W. For techies it can get annoying too if you like to play with hardware. You can just feed appropriate voltage DC over those barrel connectors, for example from a car battery with a buck converter or AA/18650 in series and it will work while usb-c charging needs to be negotiated.
That is called deceptive marketing.
There has been a lot of marketing done towards non techies regarding charge speeds, so most common people do know about it. Plus most people will also just buy the one the companies will suggest or bundle.
A little side thing that's also important is that in Europe the salespeople aren't simply trying to get you to buy their product with the highest markup, which means you'll get people that will actually look up your laptop and sell you a correct charger.
Aftermarket crap is a thing though, but from what I've seen most people will understand it's because they bought cheap Chinese stuff.
Nope.