Thursday, September 23rd 2021
EU Commission Pushing Forward with Unified Electronics Charger Standard and Unbundling of Chargers
What can only be called a long running drama, the EU has once again put its foot down when it comes to chargers for various consumer electronics devices, although it's mostly about smartphones and regular old mobile phones these days. The whole thing took off some time in 2009, although back then, it was a voluntary effort and according to today's press release by the EU Commission, we're down from 30 to three "competing" standards (micro USB, lightning and USB-C), but apparently that is still not good enough.
As such, the EU Commission has now decided that USB-C is the answer to their prayers and it'll now be an enforced standard for a wide range of devices if they're to be allowed to be sold in the EU. We doubt this will go down well with many device manufacturers, Apple being the obvious one here, even though the company has been slowly transitioning to USB-C on its tablets, none of its phones are using USB-C today. The following device categories are affected: smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers and handheld video game consoles.It's unclear as to why the device port has to be USB-C, although a move to USB-C cables for everything does make things simpler, but as long as the charger itself uses USB-C, it's hard to understand why the device end must use USB-C. There's nothing inherently wrong with USB-C, but the USB-C standard is a bit of a mess, even for charging and the EU Commission has a very "loose" proposal here where they're pushing for the USB Power Delivery standard to be the only charging standard allowed over USB-C.
Even USB PD isn't a uniform standard and there are at least four major revisions with multiple minor versions. If we assume the EU Commission goes for USB PD 3.1, then we're looking at a pretty future proof standard that can deliver up to 240 W at 48 V, but this would require different cables than what we're using today. However, if USB PD 3.0 is chosen, then anything that needs more than 100 W at 20 V isn't going to work. Admittedly no smartphone in the world is going to need to be charged at 240 W, but the issue with setting standards like this, is that they tend to filter down, or more likely filter out in this case, to other markets and devices, which means that setting the bar too low, isn't good.
It makes even more sense to go for the most advanced standard when the EU Commission also wants to unbundle the chargers, as it means that your USB PD charger can be used to power many other devices that might have different power requirements from your smartphone or tablet. This appears to be one of the goals here, judging by the amount of different devices the EU Commission already set its sight on, but they might even have limited themselves a bit here, since most laptops can and should be charged over USB-C as well. In fact, Apple is pretty much the pioneer here, which also makes their obsession with keeping the lightning connector on their phones a bit counterintuitive.
Where we're not following the EU Commission's logic is where they claim that as many as 38 percent of consumers are said to have experienced problems with their charges due to incompatibility problems. If anything this seems to suggest that most consumers haven't paid attention to what kind of device they own. On the other hand it also seems crazy that consumers in the EU have spent €2.4 billion per year on buying chargers for their electronics, since they apparently don't always come with chargers. Again, this suggests that consumers aren't paying attention to what they're buying and maybe clearer labelling would solve these problems.
Furthermore, the EU Commission claims that some 11,000 tonnes of e-waste is produced annually from chargers and power adapters that are being thrown away, since they're not compatible with newer devices. This problem could be solved to a degree by moving to USB-C, but as mentioned above, the USB PD standard has also evolved over time, so if you have a USB PD 1.0 charger, it might not be compatible with your new USB PD 3.0 device, as at some point the Voltages changed. One thing that is certain is that there's no such thing as future proof electronics, as it's impossible to predict future requirements, but as technology develops and improves, we sometimes move to entirely different standards that are vastly superior to what came before.
In as much as a common charging standard sounds great, we're not going to see universal chargers, regardless of what the EU Commission is hoping for. This comes down to one simple thing, cost. You can get a 30 W USB PD charger for as little as €10 (sticking with the EU here), which is going to be more than good enough for charging most of the devices in the EU Commission's list, but it's unlikely it'll be powerful enough to charge your laptop or even more demanding smartphones and tablets. A "cheap" 100 W USB PD charger on the other hand will set you back at least €40, although they can often charge multiple devices at once and wouldn't have a problem powering a laptop.
The only thing that is certain is that consumers won't be getting that €5 or €10 the currently bundled charger is worth back from the device makers, since we've already seen some companies that have removed the charger from the box, but seemingly didn't lower the price of their devices with an equivalent amount. This doesn't even take into consideration the reduced weight and volume per unit, which would reduce shipping costs for the device manufacturer.
At the end of the day, this is a tricky subject and although the EU does have some very valid points, it would seem that simply requiring that all chargers use a USB-C port and adhere to the USB PD standard would've been enough, it looks like we're going to see a lot more devices use USB-C ports for charging. This isn't a bad thing as such, but it does feel a bit forced, even though there are some underlying reasons behind it. It's not a done deal yet and things may still change before it becomes a legal requirement.
Photo by By Ilya Plekhanov - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46517325
Source:
The EU Commission
As such, the EU Commission has now decided that USB-C is the answer to their prayers and it'll now be an enforced standard for a wide range of devices if they're to be allowed to be sold in the EU. We doubt this will go down well with many device manufacturers, Apple being the obvious one here, even though the company has been slowly transitioning to USB-C on its tablets, none of its phones are using USB-C today. The following device categories are affected: smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers and handheld video game consoles.It's unclear as to why the device port has to be USB-C, although a move to USB-C cables for everything does make things simpler, but as long as the charger itself uses USB-C, it's hard to understand why the device end must use USB-C. There's nothing inherently wrong with USB-C, but the USB-C standard is a bit of a mess, even for charging and the EU Commission has a very "loose" proposal here where they're pushing for the USB Power Delivery standard to be the only charging standard allowed over USB-C.
Even USB PD isn't a uniform standard and there are at least four major revisions with multiple minor versions. If we assume the EU Commission goes for USB PD 3.1, then we're looking at a pretty future proof standard that can deliver up to 240 W at 48 V, but this would require different cables than what we're using today. However, if USB PD 3.0 is chosen, then anything that needs more than 100 W at 20 V isn't going to work. Admittedly no smartphone in the world is going to need to be charged at 240 W, but the issue with setting standards like this, is that they tend to filter down, or more likely filter out in this case, to other markets and devices, which means that setting the bar too low, isn't good.
It makes even more sense to go for the most advanced standard when the EU Commission also wants to unbundle the chargers, as it means that your USB PD charger can be used to power many other devices that might have different power requirements from your smartphone or tablet. This appears to be one of the goals here, judging by the amount of different devices the EU Commission already set its sight on, but they might even have limited themselves a bit here, since most laptops can and should be charged over USB-C as well. In fact, Apple is pretty much the pioneer here, which also makes their obsession with keeping the lightning connector on their phones a bit counterintuitive.
Where we're not following the EU Commission's logic is where they claim that as many as 38 percent of consumers are said to have experienced problems with their charges due to incompatibility problems. If anything this seems to suggest that most consumers haven't paid attention to what kind of device they own. On the other hand it also seems crazy that consumers in the EU have spent €2.4 billion per year on buying chargers for their electronics, since they apparently don't always come with chargers. Again, this suggests that consumers aren't paying attention to what they're buying and maybe clearer labelling would solve these problems.
Furthermore, the EU Commission claims that some 11,000 tonnes of e-waste is produced annually from chargers and power adapters that are being thrown away, since they're not compatible with newer devices. This problem could be solved to a degree by moving to USB-C, but as mentioned above, the USB PD standard has also evolved over time, so if you have a USB PD 1.0 charger, it might not be compatible with your new USB PD 3.0 device, as at some point the Voltages changed. One thing that is certain is that there's no such thing as future proof electronics, as it's impossible to predict future requirements, but as technology develops and improves, we sometimes move to entirely different standards that are vastly superior to what came before.
In as much as a common charging standard sounds great, we're not going to see universal chargers, regardless of what the EU Commission is hoping for. This comes down to one simple thing, cost. You can get a 30 W USB PD charger for as little as €10 (sticking with the EU here), which is going to be more than good enough for charging most of the devices in the EU Commission's list, but it's unlikely it'll be powerful enough to charge your laptop or even more demanding smartphones and tablets. A "cheap" 100 W USB PD charger on the other hand will set you back at least €40, although they can often charge multiple devices at once and wouldn't have a problem powering a laptop.
The only thing that is certain is that consumers won't be getting that €5 or €10 the currently bundled charger is worth back from the device makers, since we've already seen some companies that have removed the charger from the box, but seemingly didn't lower the price of their devices with an equivalent amount. This doesn't even take into consideration the reduced weight and volume per unit, which would reduce shipping costs for the device manufacturer.
At the end of the day, this is a tricky subject and although the EU does have some very valid points, it would seem that simply requiring that all chargers use a USB-C port and adhere to the USB PD standard would've been enough, it looks like we're going to see a lot more devices use USB-C ports for charging. This isn't a bad thing as such, but it does feel a bit forced, even though there are some underlying reasons behind it. It's not a done deal yet and things may still change before it becomes a legal requirement.
Photo by By Ilya Plekhanov - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46517325
100 Comments on EU Commission Pushing Forward with Unified Electronics Charger Standard and Unbundling of Chargers
Admittedly it's a couple of years old now, but I paid around $600 for the Zenfone 6 when I got it. Had a Nokia 8 (with USB 3.0) prior to it, but they dropped support for it and never launched anything in the same category again (I don't count the 9, as it was POS).
I would actually like something sub 6-inches, but the Zenfone 8 disappointed by dropping the microSD card slot and obviously still using USB 2.0... At least Asus sticks to the USB PD charging standard.
It's getting harder and harder buying phones these days, as I like the "budget flagship" sort of range, but it appears to be dead. And no, I'm not even looking at the PRC brands, sorry.
Oh and yes, an audio jack is a must.
But with your need to not to have that darn camera hole, you don't have many options left besides Sony. The through the screen cameras are horrid too. Each time opening Fold3 it produces rainbow effect in the opening grid on bright background and nobody writes about it. Maybe ask your relatives to pick up something from listings. Obviously you have to like Sony as they still carry the Ericsson legacy in some things up to this day, they use the same repair tool set and same EMMA software updater, that's best in class and miles above any other manufacturer.
Regarding PRC, exactly those devices are to blame to screwing up the USB implementations, or basically any compatibility rules regarding anything. People don't understand, that cables differ, they have complaints, hey fast charging does not work anymore(sees some 3rd parity cheap cable), the seller told him, that it should work. Nor the seller nor client is smart enough to distinct differences in between those, it is hard to blame, they look all the same in their eyes, because there is small amount of good china cables also. So EU ruling should be harder on regulating the crap coming from PRC, let it be cables, phones or routers.
I am in for more strict rulings... there is too much plastic waste generated and shipping in from Shenzhen.
Almost nobody bats an eye about that here, everyone does insurance, especially for higher priced units, so YOLO.
Regarding 5G, well, not that I am paying for it anyways, but a nice to have. I have to understand the behavior regarding battery life etc just to be ready for complaints.
There are idiot people who enable eSIM to their smartwatches with around 300mAh battery while working in some office bunker with one bar network strength and heck, my watch holds on for few hours. People do not understand that the radio part and transmission powers are the same as in a phone, yet the battery is 20times less.
And yes, most of the really weird USB things seem to be out of the PRC. Like external drive housings with a USB-A connector, which is against the USB IF rules, as A-A is not allowed. So when will Oz have nationwide 4G coverage?
If you get a drive with a Type C... sheesh the price jump...
I'll leave this here as well...
www.thelondoneconomic.com/business-economics/business/uk-will-have-own-patriotic-plug-reactions-as-eu-common-charger-smartphones-to-cut-e-waste-291945/
The issue with USB4 is that it appears that it doesn't have to be TB compatible and TB networking is apparently not supported, it remains proprietary to TB.
Not going to make it easier for consumers for sure. Thank you card to Intel by snail mail.
This may help someone.
BITD I used a USB 2 transfer cable to transfer some mission-critical files to a new computer when USB thumb drives were too expensive, too small, and too slow. These cables were not cheap.
And I remember seeing cables like that plugable one, though I don't think I've ever used or sold one. At least it's USB 3.0, so it might even be faster than GbE!
why is standard bad ? well imagine back when they invented electric plugs and every single country (or region in a country) having different plugs how the fuck would manufacturer build electric items if they have to make a model per region just to make sure people can plug them. which is why every single fucking electric plug is standardized in EU or US and you only have something like only 4-5 standards total in the world. just like you don't have 100 standard when it comes to alternate electricity output in a given country, and those standards have spread homogeneously in Europe. and to me that is a good thing.
people not "checking" properly their cable like the writer says sure is a thing but then you can't even trust what you buy, quality of USB cable varies too much and very often you end up buying a cable that charge but doesn't do data, or charge very poorly. not everyone wants to spend 30min carefully checking the box of the product and rather would just grab any cable and KNOW FOR SURE that it will work for their phone. which is why this thing is pushed.
A big country called Denmark decided it was a good idea to have its own plugs and sockets, because why not? It works with all ungrounded EU plugs, but none of the grounded ones.
The Italian has their own plug, but at least that's a really old one, but again doesn't work with grounded plus unless you have a hybrid socket.
The French and Germans came up with different grounding solutions and now the rest of Europe is sort of split between the two, but at least you can get a cable that works with both.
If we count broadly, there's actually no less than 14 different standards for power sockets around the world, as Thailand decided to do their own plugs as well and Brazil made a variant of the IEC 60906-1 standard, which so far only South Africa has adopted. South Korea uses a variant of the CEE7 standard, but it's not identical. Israel also has its own unique plugs and sockets. India and some other ex British colonies (including South Africa) uses the older, rounded pin version of the UK's now square pins. This doesn't take into account higher Amperage sockets which many countries use.
So unfortunately it isn't as few as four or five and it's nothing nearly as homogenous as you thought. In fact, even the earthed US plugs don't work in for example Japan and older buildings in Taiwan, as they don't have earth pins in their sockets and this is why you sometimes find cables with it simply broken off. Some of the US polarised plugs also don't work in older sockets in many countries outside the US, even though 100-115V is used. It should also be pointed out that half of Japan is 50Hz and half is 60Hz, so you can't use many devices made for the US market in parts of Japan and getting a frequency converter is prohibitively expensive for most consumers.
You might wonder why I even know this. Well, I was involved in developing a smart plug at one point and this ended up being something of an issue if it was going to be sold to multiple markets. We only ended up doing an earthed US version.
As for USB-C cables, did you know there's such a thing as a E-Mark chip involved? Anything that requires a charging current of more than 3A is required to feature such a chip in each end of the cable, or the charger can't deliver more than 3A. I would bet that 99.99% of consumers have no idea about this. Also, a lot of the high current cables only do USB 2.0 speeds for data, which I'm sure most people also aren't aware of.
I'm by no means against USB-C becoming a defacto charging standard, but it's a swamp of little hidden sub standards that no normal consumer will be able to work out. As such, I would like to see the EU step in and have clearly defined regulation here, not simply say USB-C with PD. That's open to way too much interpretation and if you read some of the previous comments here, you'll understand why.
Standardization.
But I do agree that a standard laptop charger plug would be nice, and I personally like the square lenovo connector since it stays firmly in place and due to it's shape it doesn't seem to suffer as much damage over time compared to regular barrel type connectors.
USB PD 3.1 is capable of 48V at 5A or 240W.
There are plenty of 100W USB-C chargers in the market and there are some 200W ones. Just because they're not available in you local shop, doesn't mean they don't exist.
As for what you say about "most laptops", that's just plain wrong. The vast majority of laptops use 15W U-series CPUs/APUs, and typically come bundled with 45W chargers (some have 65W ones) - which are perfectly capable of charging the battery while the laptop is in use. It might not charge quickly if you're running a video render, but ... that's expected. A U-series laptop will typically peak above 45W power draw, but that's for short bursts, and thermal and power limits will keep total system power at ~30W or thereabouts including the APU/CPU, SSD, display, and everything else. (Notebookcheck.net covers system power draw in various conditions in their reviews, have a look there if you're curious.) 90W chargers used to be the norm, but that was back when M-series 25+W chips were dominant, which IIRC ended with Sandy Bridge.
And remember, all laptop chargers are rated for continuous output - if it's rated for 45W and sold in a decently regulated market, it can deliver 45W 24/7 in normal ambient temperatures. These charger ratings and laptop power draws have been the norm since long before the advent of USB-C charging. USB-PD 3.1/USB-C 2.1 is capable of delivering up to 240W (which is entirely safe by increasing voltage instead of amperage, though this will require cables rated for the voltage), but is just announced and has yet to come to market, but some companies (like Dell) have been using above-spec/semi-proprietary USB-C chargers before the implementation of USB-PD 3.1. AFAIK the 130W XPS 15 charger is the most prominent example. An XPS 15 will charge just fine with a standard 100W PD charger, though it will of course drain slowly if placed under a full CPU+GPU load - but that's a 45W H-series CPU + ~50W dGPU system. Under desktop usage it's mostly fine even with a 65 or 45W charger, though of course charging will be slower the lower you go, and the threshold for battery drain under load will be lower the lower you go. Still, while USB-C hasn't been suitable for gaming laptops or anything above entry-level dGPU laptops until now, but that's changing too.
USB-PD chargers are also easily converted to power barrel jack chargers, with something like the Innergie Magicable, as long as your laptop runs at ~20V (anything rated from ~18-22V is likely fine with 20V input) and 5A or less.
I was specifically referring to the idea of using a mechanical adaptor going from a USB-C charger to a laptop's dedicated charging port, witch will not work simply due to the fact that they require a specific voltage witch the charger and laptop need to handshake upon before charging can begin. Said handshake would require a Charging Downstream Port (CDP) witch according to USB specs uses the data pins to negotiate voltage and amperage, and I am 100% sure a 2 pin barrel type generic charging port on a laptop will not be able to communicate with a USB charger when using a mechanical adaptor. perhaps it's my English, it's not my native language.
As such, only laptops designed to charge trough a usb-c port can do what you are proposing, and only using special USB-C chargers that can provide up to 20V via USB Power Delivery protocol (USB-PD) - like this one: Amazon.com: 65W 45W Universal Laptop Charger USB C Fast Charger,Type C Laptop Power Adapter Laptop Power Supply for Mac Book Pro,Lenovo,Dell,HP,ASUS,Acer,Nintendo Switch and Other Laptops/Smart Phones with USB C : Electronics
In my above comment I was referring to generic USB chargers, like ones used for phones, tablets and other devices, not ones compatible with laptops.
Now back to the part where I WAS WRONG - the USB-C connector with it's tiny prongs can handle up to 100w safely, but the charger and laptop must be specifically compatible and support USB Power Delivery protocol (USB-PD), as said 100w USB-C chargers are designed for laptops an are able to provide up to 20v @ 5A. Just because I don't know about something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Still, as a consumer who does not make use of ultra portable or low power laptops, this is of little use to me.
Abstract from USB-C documentation:
"SB Power Delivery (USB-PD) refers to the protocol that allows a "power provider," a cable and a "power consumer" to agree on the current and voltage levels. Because power can flow in either direction, the role of provider and consumer can change at any time.
This smart charging protocol enables devices to negotiate voltage, current and direction of power and data flow over the USB cable. Negotiations are governed by power rules and offer a range of voltage and current configurations. For example, a phone needing 18W might negotiate 9V and 3A from the power source."
and
"Do all USB-C ports have the same functionality?
No. Even though all USB-C ports look the same, the features they support can vary widely. For example, a USB-C port on a wall charger will only charge devices. Ports on laptops may vary in the level of power they supply and the speed of data transmission. Some laptop USB-C ports support data only, power only or a combination of the two so check your machine's specifications before buying peripherals."
anyway I don't understand wtf are they doing, they can make good devices but if nobody knows you're making phones, kinda pointless; and I doubt selling 2.5k phones to some niche, might support them for a while
also why the fuck is everyone making big phones? can't at least make them slimmer?