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All new laptops must have USB-C to be sold in the European Union(EU) (www.rte.ie)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.zip
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EU rules on common chargers apply to laptops from today. It means that all new laptops sold in the European Union must now support USB-C charging.

In December 2024, the rules came into force for mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, videogame consoles, and portable speakers.

Laptop manufacturers were given a longer lead in time to allow for redesign and transition to the common charging system.

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[–] 28 points 4 months ago

You left out the most important word in the title: Charging.

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    [–] 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

    USB C maxes out at 240 Watts. Is that enough? A modern laptop GPU can use up to 175 Watts on its own...

    Edit: I looked it up and apparently laptops are allowed to have other charging ports and to rely on those for operating at full capacity. As long as they can charge at all from USB C, they're compliant, even if they run in a reduced-capability low-power mode unless you plug them in via their other charging port.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago*

    hp have a couple of really beefy workstation laptops that come with power brick/docking station combo units, and they do this. the connector from the dock is a barrel plug and a usb-c in a single plastic housing, spaced like they are on the machine:

    on the later models of the dock they are separate but held together with magnets, but gen 1 and 2 had that monstrosity on them.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    That's mostly acceptable.

    Though most laptops today do alright. We have a couple 2019 laptops with C charging and they're fine.

    My concern is the C port wearing out (which I've seen) and having to replace the entire board. This law needs to specify the port be separate from the main board too.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    I've had multiple work laptops from various manufacturers since 2020 with usbc ports and none of them have broken. And those have been attached to docks a few times every day by average.

    Also, as I work in IT dept and we have thousands of laptops, havent heard anyone at work that their laptop has broken a port.

    I'm not saying it wouldnt happen, but I think the likelyhood of usbc port breaking is pretty much the same as with barrel port breaking, honestly.

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    • [+] -10 points 4 months ago* (5 children)

    Fuck that, make them support Thunderbolt instead.

    All the benefits of USB-C but way, WAY more bandwidth. You get a MacBook with Thunderbolt, you can run so much off that one port. Like 2-3 monitors, Ethernet, USB-A, USB-C, memory card readers... Mine has Thunderbolt 4 which is 40GBit. IIRC USB 3.0 is 5? 10? USB-C isn't anything, it's just the shape of the plug. The base iPhone, for example, has USB-C, but it's USB 2.0 speeds. Which is damn near criminal. I like the common charging cable idea, but dammit, grow some teeth/balls and mandate the port be fucking useful. (IIRC Thunderbolt also allows faster charging speeds, but I'm not 100% on that.)

    Edit: to clarify, Thunderbolt is NOT unique to Mac. Mac just uses it. IIRC it was made by Intel, and PCs can have it, too. But a lot of PCs cut corners, so where a MacBook with "only 1 or 2 USB-C ports" is actually giving you Thunderbolt, a PC with four USB-C ports might have one or two be USB 3.0 and the rest be USB 2.0. Require all of them to be Thunderbolt and you open so many doors. (You also raise the price floor, to be absolutely fair.)

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 child)

    USB4 is upto 80Gbit (technically 120Gbit) with 240Watts of power.

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  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Okay, then that. The idea being that the port can be used for more/other things. IDGAF what it’s called, it’s the versatility I’m after here.

    Fuck the tribal shit, I just want power and versatility.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

    Fuck the tribal shit, I just want power and versatility.

    That's USB C in a nutshell. A unified port that has intense power and bandwidth capabilities in a simple form factor that has now been mandated as required on devices by a major world power.

    Thunderbolt is actually old news at this point, as they effectively merged.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 child)

    We have a few 2019-ish laptops that do all this over USB C already.

    Thunderbolt is no advantage, and it's proprietary to Apple IIRC.

    Edit: Looks like initially Apple developed the core of what would become Thunderbolt, then shared it with Intel to develop.

    Since then the tech has largely merged with USB4.

    https://tedium.co/2021/03/03/intel-apple-thunderbolt-history/

    Recently, Intel made a move that promises to turn Thunderbolt into the standard it did not become upon its initial public release a decade ago.

    It essentially gave the specifications away to the USB Implementers Forum, allowing the faster Thunderbolt 3 standard to effectively become the basis for the new USB4 standard, which Apple Silicon devices now use

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