The USB C standard is one of the best things to happen to the industry in the last decade. The connector does not stop offering improvements, with faster speeds, and charging powers that allow even large chargers to be dispensed with. Now, the standard is updated to break the 100 W barrier, and allow devices with a power of up to 240 W to be charged.
Charging at 240 W will be a reality after the announcement of the USB-IF , in charge of designing the new connectivity standards. The association has announced USB C 2.1 connectivity , which introduces this new charging power into cables. But its implementation will not be easy.
USB PD goes from 100 to 240 W
Currently, many lightweight laptops use simple USB C chargers to charge, allowing you to use the same charger for your mobile phone as for your computer. However, for gaming laptops this is not the case, and many usually include chargers of more than 200 W to cope with the high consumption that these devices have with high-performance processors and graphics that consume more than 200 W when they are used. is playing or doing intensive tasks.
The USB C charging feature is known as USB C Power Delivery, or USB PD , where the current specification peaks at 100 W. That figure has greatly limited advancement in some laptops, where many can be USB charged up to 100 W , but require the original charger to reach higher figures.
Extended Power Range (EPR): watch out for cables
For example, the Lenovo Legion 5 launched this year feature USB PD on the rear USB C connector, accepting charging up to 100 W (20 V and 5 A), where the charger needs to be at least 65 W to charge the battery while it is on, or 45W so you can charge when it is off or in sleep.
With this new revision of the standard, it will no longer be necessary to walk with two chargers. The USB-IF has called the new function ” Extended Power Range “, or EPR, to make it easier to identify.
The important thing for this new standard is that it will be necessary to buy new chargers and new cables capable of supporting these figures. Cables must withstand up to 50V and 5A to be compliant with the specification. The USB-IF also alerts manufacturers, where they will have to make some changes to make them safer because sparks may occur when disconnecting the cable if an arc is formed greater than 12 volts. In the case of using old cables, as the USB C standard allows compatibility checks before starting to work, the cable would not work directly and there would be no security problems.
In short, soon we will begin to see USB chargers larger than the current ones, but that will allow us to do without the huge chargers that laptops have to use today. An example of devices that could benefit from this are the new iMac, which use a 143 W charger, and with the new standard could use a simple USB connector instead of the power connector they use in the central part. These functionalities are also compatible with the future USB 4 standard.