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Ikea releases a pair of affordable USB-C chargers (www.theverge.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.ml
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[–] 73 points 2 years ago* (28 children)

This feels like an advertisement article...single port USB-C PD chargers with 20-30W output in the <$10 range are not at all hard to find already.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago* (14 children)

    Quality, higher-wattage ones are harder to come by at that price (e.g. 45W and up are $20+ for decent brands), but I can get a 2-pack of name-brand (Anker) 20W chargers for $10-15.

    I'm guessing Ikea is just rebranding crappy chargers, so no thank you, I would rather not have my phone, tablet, etc get broken because I was too cheap to spend an extra $10 on a better brand charger.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    What are you basing your 'guess' on? IKEA typically design their own products. They already produce Smart home speakers. Why do you suppose that this would be a rebranded product from somebody else?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    They're making a big bet on smart home stuff, which is why they're designing that kind of stuff more. They want to keep their customers coming back for smart home stuff so they can build an ecosystem, whereas they probably don't care about USB chargers nearly as much.

    I'm guessing they're fine (they're probably testing it), but I highly doubt they're actually designing the USB chargers, and they're probably not buying from a known brand (price would be too high).

    20W chargers are cheap from name brands (2 pack for ~€10), but 45W chargers aren't (like €20-30 for a basic 45W charger). So if they're selling 45W chargers for cheap, they're just likely rebranded stuff from a cheap manufacturer.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Your sources don't say anything about the design, only manufacturing. The chargers could still very well be designed by IKEA, but made by another company. That sort of stuff is really common industry and can help keep the price down. This doesn't mean that the product is cheaply designed or a literal rebrand of an existing product

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    The second one does, here's a quote:

    More basic items come directly from suppliers to skip the design and conception stage. However, it isn’t as easy as picking out items from a catalog. IKEA works with their world-class buyers to check the quality of the products and negotiate the price.

    ...

    This means that they have to keep their shelves stocked with products to keep up with demand, so using both manufacturers and supplies ensures that new products will consistently make a turnaround.

    I would assume a USB charger would fall under the "more basic items" part.

    I take this to mean that instead of designing a product to be manufactured elsewhere, they sometimes buy products to relabel and put on the shelves, without going through any form of design process (though I'm guessing they do test this stuff).

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I've reconsidered my view of Anker being a quality brand. I bought a USB C hub of their's that was supposed to provide 100W power delivery, but it couldn't keep a 65W Dell laptop happy. So, I powered the Dell separately and still used the hub. After a while the display port started to cut out.

    I've also bought a USB C PD cable of their's that was supposed to support 100W power delivery. With my 85W MacBook I noticed that the cable was starting to get hard (non-bendy) spots in it. Soon after my MacBook would report being unplugged when I did anything that would draw significant power.

    Ok, so I go over to Amazon and start looking at reviews that are 2 or 3 stars and holy shit. I got the distinct feeling that these were the real reviews. They're not good.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (4 children)

    Ikea has been releasing some banger electronics at mid-level pricing.

    I don't know the quality, but if it's similar to IKEAs other stuff, I'm on board. I have furniture from them that's been going on for 30 years that was supposed to be my "starter furniture". And with the widespread Chinese knockoff BS that's all over Amazon, I'm strongly considering it.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    IKEA 30 years ago was also making better furniture than they are today though. All their entry-level furniture is absolute shit these days, thin veneer on cardboard strength fiber board and screws made of metal softer than warm butter.

    Anything in a quality that will last more than a few years costs almost the same as any other furniture store.

    In only have experience with their ZigBee lightbulps, and they suck ass.

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    [–] 40 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (9 children)

    This dual-port charger can only output 45W of power when using one port at a time, with the output halved at 22W to each device when plugging in two simultaneously.

    Yes. That's literally how max power ratings on devices like this work. And, to be that guy, even when plugging in two devices and getting 22.5W on each socket, the charger is still outputting 45W.

    This feels like a paid advert written by Ikea's press department - not The Verge itself.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    45kW wall charger holy hell lol

    You could run like 5 houses off that chsrger

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Lol. The perils of replying to Lemmy posts while in work mode.

    Helluva Thunderbolt cable, eh?

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Lmao I tried if DALLE could come up with such a cable, but it just generated some random shit

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    It's even better, using the much superior kolowats over the deprecated kilowatts

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Not to be nitpicky but 45kW? That seems like a hell of a charger and I'd like to see the ISB-C cable that can handle that ;)

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    [–] 36 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    Would be interesting to see a tear down of these to see how safe they are.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    First thing I found on the ikea website is a recall of the older USB charger.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It says right there in your screenshot that it's the CABLE that can become damaged.

    Like 90% of all the apple cables I've ever seen. But I guess that's different.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    But I guess that's different.

    Yes, because they're talking about the mains supply cable which carries hazardous voltages, not the charging cable.

    Nobody gives a crap if 5 volts is exposed. Many more craps are given once you get above a hundred volts.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    It says right there

    This is the point where I start to worry about my reading comprehension. It's too late for a severe case of ADHD, and too early for a dementia. What the fuck, brain!?

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    [–] 11 points 2 years ago

    unavailable for delivery, pickup, and out of stock The secret to it

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    [–] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    IKEA is my favorite electronics store.

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    • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    This is definitely a paid advert

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    • [–] [B] 3 points 2 years ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Ikea is now selling a pair of its own USB-C chargers that start at just $7.99.

    Ikea’s chargers are compatible with Power Delivery (PD 3.0), Quick Charge (QC4+), and Programmable Power Supply (PPS) specs.

    Both chargers come with a sheet of colored stickers that lets you “personalize” them — useful in households where kids or flatmates can easily mix them up.

    At the time of writing Anker’s most affordable single-port USB-C charger has an MSRP of $13.99 and offers 20W of power, while getting 30W of power typically costs $19.99 (though both are currently discounted).

    Although you should always check the small print for the charging standards (and voltage / current) your device needs to charge at its fastest, 30W should be enough to fast-charge some Samsung devices and iPhones, and even matches the wattage of the base charger Apple supplies with its M2-powered MacBook Air.

    45W should be able to handle some faster-charging devices too — though, again, be sure to check the fine print.

    The original article contains 241 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 31%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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    [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    🦈

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