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.
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...
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Looks very compact. "peak 60W, stable 40W" what length of time can it do 60W?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
i went with ugreen gan charger, it has outlasted my apple chargers.
If anyone is in the market for power adapters I find SlimQ to be top tier.
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?
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…
I'm really impressed by Anker's 30w charger that's the size of Apple's original 5w charger.
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".
All this info but wheres the rating out of 10?
Anyone else think those inductor windings look sloppy like they were done by hand instead of a machine?
Site seems to be down?
Very innovative --- if it had multiple ports and had been released in 2019.
Is it just me or are those chokes a little bit messy? They look…kinda sloppy vs what I would expect.
GaN in action!
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.
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 :)
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