Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

My guess is that it's dependent on the ambient temperature, but that's just a guess! I can't imagine what the restriction on peak power would be other than temperature rise, though...

brandall10• 10 months ago

I have a generic slim GAN charger that does a similar stepdown, 65W -> 45W. Different form factor, but same 80g weight.

Peak power tends to last about 10 minutes or so.

mikepurvis2• 10 months ago

I bet their telemetry shows that a lot of people grab a quick charge while in the shower or the like, and that 10mins is a good amount of time for that.

Or put another way, past ten mins it’s just as likely the phone will be plugged in for hours or overnight and the charge speed is irrelevant.

fiatpandas• 10 months ago

I believe it’s around 15 minutes.

jofzar2• 10 months ago

18 mins

https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/1nfhctl/hands...

okasaki• 10 months ago

There doesn't really seem to be anything interesting about this.

Also while the US plug makes some pretty compact power adapters, the effect is largely ruined in the EU and UK with their wider more cumbersome plugs.

Lio• 10 months ago

Apple make an excellent UK 20W charger with folding pins.

Physically the design is pretty much the same as this new 60/40W version, so I would expect them to eventually offer a 60/40W folding pin UK charger too.

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MUVT3B/A/20w-usb-c-pow...

ridiculous_fish• 10 months ago

What's interesting about it is that it supports SPR AVS, which is a new USB power delivery spec. I'm not aware of any other chargers that support this.

https://www.chargerlab.com/complete-pd-3-2-spr-avs-specifica...

nicoburns• 10 months ago

A lot support PPS, which seems like it offers a superset of SPR AVS's functionality? http://spravs.com/iphone-17-spr-avs-vs-pps

torgoguys• 10 months ago

There doesn't really seem to be anything interesting about this.

Agreed. Seriously, am I missing something or are the compact chargers from various other companies at least as compelling as this? I've got a nice one from Lenovo with high output and a smaller form factor than this. (Several other manufacturers have a similar size and output so nothing special about Lenovo here). The Apple one, while maybe smaller then their usual, is still bigger and appears to be short and "fat" which can limit where you can plug it sometimes.

Or is just another "but this time it is from Apple" kind of thing. (All the vapor chamber talk from a few days ago had me scratching my head too.)

MBCook• 10 months ago

It’s slightly interesting in a “look how much stuff they crammed in there” way, but that would be true of a lot of other tiny chargers too.

Having read the article, I’m a little surprised this hit the front page. It’s well done as a tear down. But that’s all it is.

jnieminen• 10 months ago

How does one distinguish between all the tiny devils in the details between all possible chargers to have the maximum efficiency in ones iPhone charging?

coder5435• 10 months ago

There really aren’t any nuances to be aware of here. If the charger can provide 45W or more, it will charge your iPhone 17 Pro as fast as it can go. If you have an older iPhone, you don’t even need that much.

The Apple charger is mildly interesting because they made a slightly smaller than usual one that displays a dynamic behavior where it boosts up to 60W. That’s it.

(If you actually mean efficiency of energy delivered, and not time efficiency… the energy efficiency of charging your own personal phone is completely irrelevant to anything. You could save many times that amount of energy per year by switching to a heat pump water heater, or a heat pump clothes dryer, but most people haven’t.)

Gigachad• 10 months ago

There was some speculation that chargers would need the AVS spec to full speed charge the new iPhones, rather than just any USB-PD. Has that been tested yet?

LeoPanthera• 10 months ago

I write on mine with a marker. Ugly, but useful.

xandrius2• 10 months ago

Or put some colored tape.

Reason0775• 10 months ago

Hopefully Apple releases a UK version of this adapter soon. The design looks very similar to my beloved Apple UK 20W charger [1]. I’d buy a 40-60W version in a heartbeat!

[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-20W-USB-C-Power-Adapter/dp/B0...

dwood_dev• 10 months ago

Similar design is a Ugreen Nexode 45 watt charger[0]. Folding prongs, May be ever so slightly larger. I just purchased one for an upcoming trip.

0: https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Foldable-Charger-Support-Com...

Reason0775• 10 months ago

My Apple 20W UK charger measures 49 × 45 × 30 mm, making it much smaller than this Ugreen one (50 x 50 x 42 mm).

I'm guessing an Apple 40-60W UK version might come in somewhere in between in size?

There's also the Anker Nano 45W, at 49 × 49 × 34 mm: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DPR2VYQF

londons_explore9• 10 months ago

China makes a 50 watt PD version with 2 ports already.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EuPD4j8

It can deliver 50 watts entirely to 1 port, unlike most others where they mean 25 watts per port.

$5.50 with free shipping.

lotsofpulp• 10 months ago

I’m seeing $17+.

justinparus• 10 months ago

Does it follow the protocol properly? I’ve had some chargers that don’t default to the lowest output for dumb usb-c devices

quickthrowman3• 10 months ago

Please do not save money by using unlisted electrical equipment. Spend the extra $20 for a product that is tested and listed by UL/CE/ETL, it’s not worth burning a building down over $20.

You couldn’t pay me enough money to plug this into a building’s electrical distribution system, it’s drawing ~3A at 120V (60W at 5V plus inefficiency) and in a very small form factor, I sure hope the engineering and QA of that $5 charger is up to par. Did they include an internal fuse or did they forego that to save $0.03? Who knows!

lxgr6• 10 months ago

Wow, that does look very neat for an Apple charger. The prongs are individually foldable, right?

I wish there was something like this for Europlug chargers. Ironically, the most compact USB adapter for me so far is one with a US plug, combined with an US-to-Europlug adapter, which can be made very compact, but seem a bit risky at 220V, given that US plugs expose the prongs while connected.

madaxe_again• 10 months ago

On the U.K. plug, the pins are linked by a mechanism to the earth pin, to prevent the user from plugging it in without the earth pin too - so foldable en masse, rather than individually.

Reason0775• 10 months ago

"Wow, that does look very neat for an Apple charger. The prongs are individually foldable, right?"

Better than that. You just move the biggest (earth) pin and the other pins fold automatically with it (in the opposite direction!), via a perfectly weighted/sprung mechanical linkage. It's a very smooth, elegant, robust action. Whoever designed it should get some design awards!

hinkley4• 10 months ago

Don’t buy Apple products from Amazon. Especially power or cables. The counterfeiting is out of control, and they have no plans to fix it

chedabob• 10 months ago

They are getting rid of comingling which should reduce some of the counterfeiting problems: https://www.geekwire.com/2025/after-years-of-backlash-amazon...

draebek• 10 months ago

Are you sure of that? For years now I think Amazon and Apple have an agreement where only Apple or Apple-approved third-party vendors can sell Apple products on Amazon?

https://9to5toys.com/2018/11/09/apple-and-amazon-deal-iphone... https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-pumps-up-its-amazon-l...

(I think there may be a few other top-tier brands who get this special treatment from Amazon.)

Aurornis3• 10 months ago

Anecdote: I’ve bought at least a dozen Apple accessories recently and it’s been fine.

Just don’t buy from random listings with vendors named TREGARBLE or something. Inspect it upon arrival and send it back if it’s a problem.

umpalumpaaa2• 10 months ago

The pictures in the article are very nice and well done but I could not stop noticing the dirty yellow cable they used in some shots…

lysace• 10 months ago

Didn't see that, but they do tend to look that way after some real-world usage.

umpalumpaaa2• 10 months ago

Yeah its just a shame – the photos look so professional and clean otherwise.

rr8082• 10 months ago

Is there a way to slow down these high power chargers? Sometimes I want a fast charge but mostly I want slow to getting hot. I realize overnight charging phones are smart enough to do this but otherwise seems to be impossible without having two different chargers.

analog31• 10 months ago

The device being charged controls the charging current. Typically for smaller gadgets, a single resistor connected to the charge controller IC sets the current. Bigger things like laptops may be more sophisticated.

0_____0• 10 months ago

Re: more sophisticated

USB-PD now has a standard for having sink devices request a particular current from the charger, meaning that you could actually remove a converter from the sink device side, because with a programmable source, the current limiting happens on the power supply side. Cool stuff especially for small electronics like wearables.

Generally though if you want to charge with USB-PD and accept all kinds of chargers, the sink device will have to have its own charge control PMIC.

All this negotiation happens over a side band via the "CC" pins on the USB-C connector.

BadBadJellyBean• 10 months ago

It's up to the device. If I have an alarm for the morning my pixel 7 slow charges over the night so that it's full when the alarm goes off. Modern charging standards give all the control to the client device.

tialaramex• 10 months ago

Is that with a dock, or without? My Pixel showed me a menu of choices for how to behave when first shown its wireless charging dock (charge to full ASAP, assume we'll need to be charged by alarm time, and some others) but I agree that a device can choose to do this from any power source, I don't feel like it gave the same choice when plugged in to a wall, maybe I'm wrong or it's in a menu somewhere.

Moto74513• 10 months ago

On newer MacBooks you can turn on a similar battery protection mechanism to the phones. I believe vs the phones the smaller chargers won’t stress these cells since they’re a lot larger. 20-40W into a 15Wh battery is more stress than the same through a 52Wh (MBA) battery. A 1C charging rate is healthy.

Filligree• 10 months ago

I've always wondered if lower rates are a problem. Off-topic, but the best my solar panels can do is 0.1C into the battery bank.

appreciatorBus3• 10 months ago

I still keep a few 5 watt chargers around and use them for overnight charging whenever possible. I reserve the use of high power chargers for the odd occasion when I need the speed.

joecool10292• 10 months ago

Probably wearing your batteries out more. Bunch of studies done have found fast charging causes no additional degradation. Unless you hold the charge below 90% or something letting them dwell at 100% for hours is worse.

Lammy• 10 months ago

This is why I'm glad my phone has a cooling fan that can be set to come on during fast charging https://i.imgur.com/05lhMJA.jpeg

ssl-3• 10 months ago

The charging smarts are always in the phone, and always have been. Just because a USB port has 15 or 30 or a gazillion Watts available doesn't mean that the phone is required to consume that much. Similarly, the wall outlets in your house may be able to supply a couple of thousand Watts -- but that doesn't mean that a device plugged in is required to use all of that.

And batteries can charge pretty fast these days. Modern pocket supercomputers keep track of battery temperature to keep things within defined limits during charging.

AFAIK the real problem, longevity-wise, for these batteries in normal use is the time spent at extremes of charge (<20% or >80%, ish).

That all said: Sure, some phones have options.

My Samsung phone does some man-behind-the-curtain tricks to attempt to make it reach 100% just before it predicts that I'll unplug it (eg, when I wake up). The idea is to maximize the charge on the phone while also keeping it at 100% SoC for as little time as practical. This probably works great for people with regular schedules (which is to say: people who are not like me).

This phone also lets me explicitly disable various fast-charge modes. I think there's at least two different modes that I can turn off (but I leave them all turned on).

And there's also a mode that limits the maximum charge to 85%, to promote long-term battery health. I have this mode engage automatically when using wireless charging, which is something I only do with the wireless charging cradle on my car's dashboard. (I do want the phone to be powered while I drive, but I don't normally need anything to work extra-hard to cram that last 15% into the battery when I'm on a long drive. It's a good balance, for me.)

ianburrell• 10 months ago

You could convert from USB-C to USB-A and back. MicroUSB adapters are popular to chain for devices that only charge on USB-A. There are also adapters just force legacy USB charging for same problem devices. Then your phone will only charge at 12W.

makeitdouble• 10 months ago

If you really want to, you can plug a USB tester (e.g. AVHzY) between your charger and device and manually force the charging mode.

Rebelgecko• 10 months ago

If you buy a crappy one it'll thermal throttle itself after a few minutes

tgsovlerkhgsel• 10 months ago

I use USB-A ports on a dumb charger, but most likely, it'd be best for the battery to use a charger with PPS support (programmable power supply - the device can request finely tuned voltages, reducing losses and thus heat inside the device).

gambiting• 10 months ago

On my Samsung S24 Ultra I have a routine set up where it automatically disables fast charging during the night, but enables it again during the day - the logic being that I don't mind if the phone charges slowly while I sleep, but if I plug it in during the day then I probably want the quickest top-up possible.

jaygreco• 10 months ago

Is it just me or are those chokes a little bit messy? They look…kinda sloppy vs what I would expect.

niccl• 10 months ago

I thought that. they look hand-wound. I'm sure they can't be, unless this is a prototype that escaped somehow

brcmthrowaway• 10 months ago

All this info but wheres the rating out of 10?

ryukoposting4• 10 months ago

This is very cool, I might actually get one to charge my laptop.

That being said...

I can't be the only person who consciously avoids fast-charging my phone. My whole apartment is full of wireless charging pads intentionally plugged into weak chargers (wireless charging avoids putting wear on the USB port). 60 watts can't possibly be healthy for a battery small enough to fit into a phone.

Marsymars2• 10 months ago

How do you manage that with magsafe/qi 2 chargers if you want to benefit from the greater efficiency and magnetic alignment? They’re all USB-C, and you can’t trivially buy USB-C chargers that are good for only 5W.

runjake• 10 months ago

We have a bunch that are USB-A to micro-USB to the charger?

If you want to use the newer chargers, I’d think you’d want cooling and airflow. At some point, I want to build a MagSafe stand with a low RPM silent fan on it.

ryukoposting4• 10 months ago

My phone doesn't support magnetic alignment, so I'm not really concerned with that. While I can't speak for other phones, my S24 has a setting that limits charging power to 10W, which is fine enough for me. I'd love a 5W limiter, though. The rest of the formula is a combination of Apple and Ikea. Stick to the name brand stuff, the horrors within the average 10-30W USB charger would make any electrical engineer cower in fear.

I really like Ikea's cheaper Smahagel chargers, by the way. They have very good electrical separation, they're cheap, and only run at 5W. The way they're shaped makes it easier to cram a bunch of them into a power strip, which is nice. Can't speak for the USB-C Ikea chargers though.

LorenDB2• 10 months ago

Meanwhile me with a 100 W charger for my OnePlus 13...

kstrauser• 10 months ago

My current thinking is that the phone shouldn’t negotiate a higher wattage than it wants. Hypothetically, you could bolt it to a 1000W charger, and if it only asks for 30W, that’s all it’ll get.

gruez• 10 months ago

The concern isn't that a 9000W charger will fry a phone expecting 30W, it's that charging at 30W subjects the phone/battery to more stress/wear than charging at 5W.

teekert• 10 months ago

Sure, but it’ll balance a fast charge with battery longevity. And you may not want any balance. You may just want longevity.

amelius2• 10 months ago

If it doesn't get hot you're good, I would say.

SomaticPirate• 10 months ago

I believe current battery technology is optimized for fast charging. You are incurring damage every time your battery goes below 20% or exceeds 80% (see current EV charging recommendations).

Even LinusTechTips did a video that showed the length of charging doing more damage than fast charging. For the concern about thermal damage, most phones will throttle their charge if they become too warm.

Personally, I feel my wireless charger in the car does the most damage. It generates more heat and holds the battery in a charging state for longer

arvinsim3• 10 months ago

I agree. I started using wireless charging with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. After a year of use, I am already near the 80% max capacity.

My previous phones never even got below 90% in their lifetime.

red3693• 10 months ago

Thanks for bringing up that LinusTechsTips video - I'll try and track it down. I would not have expected that conclusion. I've already said in another comment on this thread that I'd expect the opposite!

MobiusHorizons• 10 months ago

Wireless charging may avoid putting wear on the USB port, but it typically does negatively impact battery health due to higher heat while charging. I suppose with a sufficiently low power charger this may not be a factor, though.

Spooky232• 10 months ago

You aren’t, but that concern is mostly superstition.

I work at a place with a huge phone fleet. We have interns study our telemetry and records because I kids like phones and they find ways to save us money. We allow for low friction replacements of phones at 12 months — the average replacement is ~27. The most common issues are cracked screens and excessive scratching on iPhone 16 and a Samsung I cannot recall. Batteries are only an issue for field devices subject to excessive cold or heat.

Unless you’re trying to keep the thing going 5 years, you’re likely seeing marginal benefits.

jcgl2• 10 months ago

Unless you’re trying to keep the thing going 5 years, you’re likely seeing marginal benefits.

Not GP, but yes: that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. I think that people should generally expect 5+ years out of their devices. And in a world where user-replaceable batteries are decreasingly common, it makes increasing sense to change habits to preserve the built-in battery.

xandrius2• 10 months ago

What's wrong with expecting 5 years? Am I insane to expect an electronic device to last as much as possible? And if I had to come up with s number, I'd say 10 years at least.

ryukoposting4• 10 months ago

Unless you’re trying to keep the thing going 5 years, you’re likely seeing marginal benefits.

My last phone went for 6 years, and the only reason I replaced it is because one of my banking apps dropped support for Android 8.

ezfe• 10 months ago

Wireless charging is undoing all the gains of low charging speed because it's so much higher temp.

SirMaster• 10 months ago

My phone doesn't get hot at all with wireless charging using a low watt power source though.

Also I am using magsafe which due to the magnet alignment leads to a high efficiency transfer at least.

jorvi2• 10 months ago

Its so classically Apple that just when most brands are starting to standardize on PPS (Programmable Power Supply) to allow any voltage to be used, they come with an alternate standard AVS (Adjustable Voltage Supply) just to force people to buy their certified chargers.

The sole benefit of AVS over PPS is that AVS goes beyond 100W. But these chargers only do 60W. And it would have cost Apple almost nothing to also add PPS to their phones and chargers.

Edit: hello fanboys :)

CharlesW2• 10 months ago

AVS was created by the USB PD specification team (the USB Promoter Group/USB-IF), not Apple. AVS was introduced as part of PD 3.1 in 2021, albeit for >100W only. I believe Google was technically first out of the gate with a charger that supports the PDS 3.2 flavor of AVS.

jorvi2• 10 months ago

You're completely ignoring that Apple is purposely choosing not to also add support PPS and instead use AVS so they can push people from generic Anker / Belkin / Baseus PPS chargers to their own Apple chargers. For a while anyway.

It would make more sense if they used it for their MacBook chargers, but AFAIK the sole charger they having going beyond 100W is the 16" Pro charger at 140W. Every other Macbook charger is between 45W-96W.

LorenDB2• 10 months ago

I wonder what temperature this thing hits. I have an even smaller 65 W GAN charger[0] that gets pretty toasty under load. I can't really see Apple wanting to ship a toasty charger, though.

[0] https://rollingsquare.com/products/supertiny-the-smallest-65...

nenenejej2• 10 months ago

Chargers that get to hot then thermal cut off (out of action for an hour) are so annoying.

thenthenthen2• 10 months ago

I remember the old macbook pro chargers, they and the cable would get so hot it melted the insulation of the cable (over time). Not to mention the self-desoldering GPU’s inside the actual laptops.

joecool10292• 10 months ago

I don't think it was heat melting the insulation, blame the TPE used reacting. Anyways thread from the last time Apple charger stuff was discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28054090

dylan6042• 10 months ago

I had 2 cables that melted like this. I eventually bought the newer version with a different insulator. Used with the same charger and same laptop, but no melting.

jofzar2• 10 months ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/1nfhctl/hands...

Hot but not too hot

privatelypublic• 10 months ago

60C is still more than enough to burn you. Just, not the instant you touch it.

londons_explore9• 10 months ago

Toastyness is regulated by law for anyone sticking to the law.

Many devices are made larger simply to have more surface area to spread the heat over to stay within the law.

tacosalsa• 10 months ago

Wow, that's really small. Only 43 cm3 (without the plug) for the EU version. I own an a Anker Nano II 65W GaN Charger and that's already small with 64 cm3. I can imagine that Rolling Square one getting even hotter with that low amount of material, and thus cooling.

_-_-__-_-_-• 10 months ago

I have an Anker nano II that get's very hot while charging my laptop (~25-35W average). I should run a thermometer on it. If I held it for more than a second, I might get a burn.

faangguyindia• 10 months ago

i went with ugreen gan charger, it has outlasted my apple chargers.

qnleigh• 10 months ago

Why do so many websites disable pinch-to-zoom for mobile users? This page is full of interesting close-up photos, but at least on my Android phone, I can't zoom in to see any of the details. Who benefits from disabling this feature?

cortesoft• 10 months ago

I am able to pinch to zoom fine on my iPhone

dicknuckle• 10 months ago

The issue seems to be with Chrome based browsers.

kpw94• 10 months ago

A workaround: Long press on image, "open image in a new tab"

GuB-42• 10 months ago

That's something you can override in the accessibility options, both in Chrome and in Firefox.

IMHO, it should be the default, I have never been in a situation where it caused a problem, but I have been in plenty of situations where it helped.

showmexyz• 10 months ago

Thank you. This is one of those things that annoyed me so much sometimes I would just leave the site.

QQ00• 10 months ago

turning the desktop mode on in the browser always worked for me to bypass such limitations on the mobile browser. just tested it and the pinching and zooming works fine.

jstrieb3• 10 months ago

This teardown is great!

At my work, we have an X-ray machine for PCB reverse engineering. On Fridays we throw in random stuff from around the office, and sometimes make videos about what we find inside.

A few weeks ago we released an X-ray teardown of several other, older chargers. Very interesting to compare with these fancy new ones!

https://youtu.be/4h4qabPsPfI

copperx2• 10 months ago

Would a CT scanner work better for your use case? (ignoring cost)

arccy• 10 months ago

don't those have giant magnets....

Aurornis3• 10 months ago

A high res 2D X-ray is preferable for a PCB, which is nearly a 2D rectangle itself.

tecleandor4• 10 months ago

Ha! I laughed at the "my left ear enjoyed it" comment.

Note that the audio mix for the microphone fell in the left channel only.

Apart from that, interesting images!

jstrieb3• 10 months ago

I'll let the right people know, thanks to you and the YouTube commenter!

What a funny, positive way to point out our error.

amelius2• 10 months ago

At my work, we have an X-ray machine for PCB reverse engineering.

Curious, does this machine get past the top copper layer?

jstrieb3• 10 months ago

Here is the other video we've released so far if anyone is curious:

https://youtu.be/z09X_ZnAcLs

Happy to take recommendations for other stuff to drop in there and film!

Also if this sounds cool to you, we're hiring US citizens.

https://redballoonsecurity.com/company/careers/

geerlingguy• 10 months ago

Apple has a history of some quality and extremely compact power supplies.

I have to wonder if they have a team with an EE paired with an origami artist, with how creative some of the layouts get.

sugarpimpdorsey• 10 months ago

Does Apple even design their own chargers? I know previous chargers have been built by Samsung, Flextronics, and other power electronics companies.

Apple sells Anker chargers from within their online store and possibly retail too so I figured they threw in the towel long ago. Honestly it seems quite overpriced when you can get a similar Anker GaN charger for much less.

And no, this isn't 2004 anymore, non-OEM chargers are outstanding as long as they're not $2 crap off AliExpress.

When Apple stopped including the charger in the box with iPhone as a sleazy money grab, it was a tacit admission that non-OEM chargers reigned supreme. Still didn't stop the pious and devout from shelling out an extra $25 though.

Moto74513• 10 months ago

For a while Samsung made a lot of everything Apple made. I think that’s maybe more coincidence than ODM.

That said, if it were the case it wouldn’t be the first time. The LG 5K display was very much an Apple/LG project the former wasn’t happy to put their name on (in its defense, I have a revision 2 model and think it’s great). Logitech made Apple keyboards and Mice for a long time (no idea if that’s still the case) and would happily let you know in System Profiler or a manufacturing sticker somewhere in the product. In the 90s, many printing products were straight up HP and Cannon printers with a rainbow Apple logo. I’m guessing we wouldn’t really hear as much about the ODM rebrands of minor devices that work out that don’t make it obvious what they are.

fuzzfactor4• 10 months ago

Does Apple even design their own chargers?

Good question. For this one it says right on the package, designed by Apple in California.

dangus3• 10 months ago

Quality, yes. Extremely compact, no.

Something like the Anker Prime 100W GaN charger is far more compact than any charger Apple has shipped.

Now, granted, many compact chargers lie about how long they can provide sustained power. That's exactly what this "dynamic" charger is doing, except that it's being more up-front about the fact that it's not a 60W charger, it's a "60W until it's inevitably too hot" charger.

ksec• 10 months ago

I wish they could do a 2 port version. During holiday I tend to charge both my Phone and Battery pack at the same time over night. Unless All Hotels around the world start doing integrated GaN 30 to 40W charging port as standard I will still need to bring my own USB-C Adaptor.

Even the same 60W max, 30W per port is enough to charge both to full in 2-3 hours.

copperx2• 10 months ago

Why would it have to be GaN? a 40W charger wouldn't suffice at a hotel?

Zee2• 10 months ago

From my experience every hotel integrated charger is barely 5V 0.5A, much less PD or anything else. Parent comment was talking about the integrated usb chargers in rooms, if I’m understanding correctly (hence the need to still bring their own)

arvinsim3• 10 months ago

UGreen and Anker has me already covered for these types of powerful but small chargers. They are not limited to one port like the Apple chargers are.

dylan6042• 10 months ago

Are they full power to both ports simultaneously, or do they split between them?

fpoling• 10 months ago

I have 3-port UGreen. It is either 60 to one port or 40-20 to two or something like 40-5-15 to 3.

minimaxir• 10 months ago

Anker's multiport chargers split differently depending on attached device configuration, but there is always a higher-charging port.

dmonitor• 10 months ago

The one thing I like about the Apple charging bricks is how on certain models the prongs can be swapped out for a cable, which is very useful when the wall plug is cramped. However, this device doesn't seem to incorporate that so I'm not sure what benefit it has over an Anker.

chvid2• 10 months ago

Great that Apple is making smaller chargers. I use a 65w anker 715 charger which weighs 120g for my laptop - ridiculously small compared to the massive 140w charger the laptop came with.

londons_explore9• 10 months ago

I use a tiny 15 watt charger for my laptop.

It can just about charge the laptop whilst web browsing, but if anything CPU heavy happens then the battery discharges a bit.

But over a whole workday I find the charger is enough, and I prefer a smaller lighter charger over the ability to run a game 24x7.

chvid2• 10 months ago

Yes. I probably could do with an even smaller charger.

fuzzfactor4• 10 months ago

I have one of the first Thinkpads to have a USB-c socket, and the PC can be recharged slowly that way using a low-wattage adapter, but then it will not draw any power at all from the charger when you turn the laptop on, you get a message informing you of this.

bArray2• 10 months ago

Amazing tear down and such compact design, but it's such a shame that these devices are glued together. Every time you see a glued device, just think "future e-waste".

madeofpalk• 10 months ago

This criticism seems fair of devices with consumable parts, like batteries. But of a charger? How can this be anything other than waste once it's no longer useful?

oulipo23• 10 months ago

Exactly! Shameless plug: we do a repairable design for e-bike battery which uses no glue (https://gouach.com)

fuzzfactor4• 10 months ago

Not bad, I thought the folding prongs on this Apple adapter made it a fairly shameless plug itself :)

bArray2• 10 months ago

Really nice, and in the future those cells could be upcycled or repaired. The design is also quite dense.

To be clear, I have designed high-density electronics myself which were repairable - it's tough but doable.

pppp• 10 months ago

Anyone else think those inductor windings look sloppy like they were done by hand instead of a machine?

tyleo4• 10 months ago

If anyone is in the market for power adapters I find SlimQ to be top tier.

https://slimq.life/

pshirshov• 10 months ago

Would you bother to explain your motivation?

tyleo4• 10 months ago

My motivation for buying one was that I used to have a huge laptop charger and my SlimQ is much easier to carry around.

My motivation for sharing is that I like the product and thought others might too. People responding in a thread about power adapters might be in the market for power adapters so I want to help them find good products.

lloydatkinson• 10 months ago

I was mildly impressed until it got to the wall of slack-jawed selfies featuring titles like “gen-streamer” and my scam alarm bell started ringing.

tyleo4• 10 months ago

I own a couple of these devices and they are the real deal but I understand how that can be off putting.

Full disclosure: they use some Chinese shipping service I’ve never heard of that may raise scam alerts further.

The adapters are smaller than comparables I have and work with every device I’ve tried. That being said, I haven’t done a teardown and I’ve only used them about half a year so far.

snops• 10 months ago

The best part I find about ChargerLab teardowns is identifying all the passive and discrete components.

Western distributors tend to only stock western/japanese brands of these, but they can make up a sizable fraction of the BOM (especially electrolytic capacitors) so knowing who the big players are comfortable with using is very handy. LCSC stock a lot, but its nice to know which suppliers have been proven in use.

Aurornis3• 10 months ago

but its nice to know which suppliers have been proven in use.

Watch out. Some of the suppliers you’ve never heard of are capable of delivering good parts to companies like Apple but still have ultra cheap parts available retail.

You can’t rely on brand names in this space.

jqpabc123• 10 months ago

Very innovative --- if it had multiple ports and had been released in 2019.

fnord77• 10 months ago

I'm really impressed by Anker's 30w charger that's the size of Apple's original 5w charger.

ellisv3• 10 months ago

I wish they'd discount their 35W dual port chargers or that I could find a similar 3rd party charger.

My main criteria are (1) dual USB-C ports to charge multiple devices in one location, (2) compact enough to not block the other receptacle, and (3) ports face down/to the side so can fit between the wall and furniture. Unfortunately most chargers fail at least one of these.

mkoc• 10 months ago

Depending on your location and exact geometry needs the IKEA SJÖSS might do it.

ellisv3• 10 months ago

The IKEA SJÖSS has ports on the front face rather than down or side.

nja• 10 months ago

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it may fit the use case.

I've recently been replacing some of the wiring in my house as part of a renovation, and I discovered that Leviton sells outlets with PD USB-C built in now! Not talking about the useless 2A USB-A "built-in" chargers of yore, now they actually have proper PD up to 60W!

They do also sell non-PD, so it requires some careful checking of the model numbers. And the 60W one is pretty large (the in-wall part) so it might not quite fit in an existing wallbox if it is a small one. But briefly: - T5636: two USB-C PD, up to 60W total / 60W individual or 30W each if both in use - T5635: two USB-C PD, up to 30W total / 30W individual or 15W each for both - T5634: one USB-C PD and one USB-A. USB-A is 10W and USB-C is up to 50W (even if both are in use) They also make T8xx versions of these that have 20A receptacles (NEMA 5-20R) but those are harder to find.

They also make other T56xx/T58xx which have non-PD USB-C, good for places like bathrooms where shavers/etc work fine on 5V.

I've found that putting a few of these around has eliminated a lot of the Anker chargers I used to have sticking out everywhere. They're completely in-wall and they leave both outlets free. If I need 100W for my computer, I'll still use a separate charger, but otherwise these are fine.

The only point they don't hit on your list is the ports facing down, but because they're flush at the wall, that means they don't interfere with furniture (any more than having any plug plugged into the outlets at all would).

If you're in Europe/elsewhere, not sure if other manufacturers make similar devices. I know Legrand makes some 30W PD ones in the US market, and as they're French, maybe they make them for others as well.

ellisv3• 10 months ago

This is good to know!

I might use these in my basement remodel since I can easily install deeper boxes. A right angle connector cable would also solve the issue of the port direction.

turtlebits• 10 months ago

YMMV, but if you have an older house, these outlets may not fit.

SomeHacker442• 10 months ago

Regarding ChargerLAB's products:

I have an HP Zbook G1a laptop that uses 140W USB PD charging. However, except for the HP charger, I have not found a charger or cable pair that works. After a while they start cycling charging on and off. Under heavy load that happens almost immediately. Under light loads it might take hours.

Is there a ChargerLAB product that can explain what exactly is going on between the computer and the charger?

I have used Anker, Insignia and some random USB-C PD chargers and cables rated for 100-140-240W from various vendors.

systemswizard• 10 months ago

They’re doing a handshake with the adapter to see it’s not an HP charger, Dell does this too on its docks

nicolaslem2• 10 months ago

I don't think that's it because I have seen some reports of this behavior online with the official charger.

nicolaslem2• 10 months ago

I have this laptop and this is so frustrating. I am hoping that they can fix this with a firmware update.

mikeinseattle• 10 months ago

Very cool to see more incredibly detailed and well photographed teardowns outside of Ifixit.

Wonder if they could compare this to GAN options from Anker or other competitors?

Still kind of annoyed how much my apple power adapter weighs, but I'm too cheap to really buy another one just so it weighs less haha.

qingcharles• 10 months ago

In the age of ultra-miniaturization it's fun to still see through-hole components that would be recognizable to someone from 100 years ago.

Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

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