Wednesday, October 5th 2022
USB-C Chargers Are the Future: European Union Signs Common Charging Standard Into Law
From 2024, all mobile devices in the European Union will have to use USB-C as the standard charging port, courtesy of a new law that was passed by the European Parliament. This means that mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems and earbuds, all have to sport a USB-C port for charging in the near future. Many of these devices already do, with the main exception being Apple, although many lower-end devices still rely on micro USB, due to the lower cost. The European Parliament voted 602 in favour of the new law, with only 13 parliamentarians being against and eight that abstained, which shows that most EU nations were in favour of the move.
From 2026, laptops which adhere to the USB PD 3.0 standard, i.e. up to 100 Watts, will be required to charge via USB-C as well. As such, it seems like the EU didn't enforce support for USB PD 3.1, which goes up to 240 Watts. The EU is also planning on enforcing a common wireless charging standard, which is expected to come into effect by the end of 2024. It's not clear which standard will be chosen, but it's highly likely to be the Qi standard, as it's the most commonly used wireless charging standard.
Source:
The European Parliament
From 2026, laptops which adhere to the USB PD 3.0 standard, i.e. up to 100 Watts, will be required to charge via USB-C as well. As such, it seems like the EU didn't enforce support for USB PD 3.1, which goes up to 240 Watts. The EU is also planning on enforcing a common wireless charging standard, which is expected to come into effect by the end of 2024. It's not clear which standard will be chosen, but it's highly likely to be the Qi standard, as it's the most commonly used wireless charging standard.
105 Comments on USB-C Chargers Are the Future: European Union Signs Common Charging Standard Into Law
2) laws change all the time
3) innovation is not the same as adoption. If the existence of a standard stops you from making an improved one, that's not due to the law, that's due to self-imposed fatalism.
This whole argument is a logical fallacy, rooted in hopelessly naïve ideas of so-called liberal capitalism. There is no contradiction between restriction and innovation - the opposite is arguably true, as constraints foster creative problem solving. The absence of a commonly agreed upon or mandated standard is in no way whatsoever a guarantee that a better solution will arrive. Nor is there any contradiction whatsoever between an open and freely available standard being mandated by law and any work towards creating an improved standard in the future - standards are replaced constantly. The literal job of most standards bodies is to maintain current standards and develop new ones. At the same time. The argument that a mandated standard is somehow contrary to innovation is pure ideological BS, promoted by corporations so that they can come up with BS proprietary solutions to squeeze more money out of customers. Like, you know, Apple has a decades-long history of doing.
Also, your ideas of future connectivity show some ... well, shall we say utopian ideas of what is possible. We're already seeing a massive drop-off in the rate of increase in I/O speeds, and we've long since run into the point where more bandwidth = more money, as cables and transcievers become increasingly expensive as bandwidth increases. USB 2.0 (5m max cable length) was cheap and 40x faster than USB 1.1. USB 3.0 (3m max cable length) wasn't that expensive, and was 10x the speed of 2.0. USB 3.2 (3m max cable length) is rather expensive, and 2x-4x the speed of 3.0. USB 4 (0.8m max cable length) is very expensive, and 2x faster than 3.2g2x2. The new USB 4 80Gbps is another 2x increase, and we're looking at TB3-like cabling and transciever costs, meaning ~1m max passive cable length sub-$100, ~2m max passive cable length no matter the cost (and those cables are overall very rare), and stupidly expensive active cables for any reasonable length. And you're somehow imagining that in a decade we'll have found a way of transferring ~12x the data of yet-to-be-released 80G USB, 24x the speed of current TB3/USB4, and that this will somehow be at a cost that is feasible for regular people? Yeah, sorry, that isn't happening. Not to forget, of course, that nobody actually needs those USB speeds. Even USB 3.2 is seeing limited adoption, let alone 3.2g2x2 or TB3. The higher you go in bandwidth, the fewer applications can actually make use of that bandwidth in a meaningful way.If anything, we need to move towards lowering power draws, not increasing them. I see no reason why increasing output power above 240W should be a goal of any future device charging standard. At that point you're looking at specialized equipment anyhow.
As an example, my old Nexus 5x phone used USB-C with USB 2.0 and PD 1.something (one of the initial versions, 5V 3A for a cool 15W, not the fastest and at the time was even a bit harder to find accessories because qualcomm quickcharge was a lot more prevalent).
Go use a 30 pin apple cable on your iphone 13.
Go charge your pre USB-C macbook from ANYTHING that wasnt the factory charger
It's like i'm seeing deliberate hiding from reality here:
If a USB-C cable is compatible with USB 1.1 through 4.0, WHY THE F*CK would you assume it WONT be compatible with future standards, exactly as they are right now?
And besides that wildly unrealistic idea of power, what future deficiency are you imagining USB-C to have, that would necessitate a replacement connector standard within the next decade?This is exactly why USB-C is such a good choice for this - it's easily adapted with passive adapters to USB-A, and natively supports signalling for a wealth of connectivity - ranging from USB 2.0 (I think 1.1 has been deprecated, but I might be wrong?) to USB4/TB4, assuming the cable is built to that spec, to DP 1.4 (and 2.0), and much more. It'll even work for future 80Gbps USB4. And with the newest PD spec supports 48V5A power - with every charger, host device and sink device supporting various fallback modes natively if any link in the chain doesn't support whatever is the highest spec available. I honestly can't see any realistic, widespread future use case where USB-C wouldn't be up to the task. >80Gbps data transfers just aren't particularly useful for most people. Nor is >240W charging. Nor >8k120 video, nor whatever else you might start imagining. USB 2.0 is still the most common connectivity standard, after all.
So guess who would be forced to buy yet “another charger”?
Also, why wouldn't you plug your phone or iPad into your Oculus charger? If it's a PD USB-C charger, it's universal by default. That's the entire point. If the charger is available and you need it, why not use it?
I completely agree with Apple's choice to not include a charger in the box with recent iPhones.
The Oculus chargrer is only 10W don't think I haven't checkedI generally use my iPad Charger if I want a "quick charge"
I really dislike phone makers that still think USB 2.0 is good enough though, there's really no reason why USB 2.0 should be acceptable for data connections on any modern phone where the chipset supports USB 3.x.USB PD is a spec that supports a wide range of Voltages and if your device supports what's know as PPS mode, it supports even more Voltages.
5 Volts is the baseline, with 9, 15 and 20 Volts being the next steps. PPS does 3.3 to 21.0 Volts and should be able to do it in steps of 20 mV.
The EU seems to be mandating USB PD 3.0, which the above Voltages are for.
USB PD 3.1 adds 28, 36 and 48 Volts, but all are still limited to 5 Ampere.
USB PD support from 0.5A to 5A and the Voltages I listed.
Anything below 0.5A would be when the charger has finished charging the battery and going in to maintainance mode.
If your concern are about specific charger, well, that's a different matter.
Companies sell various chargers with different output options, so you're simply going to have to read the specs for the specific charger.
I'd recommend that you watch this YouTube channel.
www.youtube.com/c/AllThingsOnePlace
I did manage to find the better info in meantime:
"USB 1.1 mandated power delivery of 2.5W (5V, 500mA) and USB 3.0 brought this up to 4.5W (5V, 900mA).
The USB Battery Charging Specification (USB BC), released in August 2007, increased the power further up to 7.5W (5V, 1.5A)"
...
"The power rules introduced in USB PD 2.0 stipulate multiple normative voltages and current, to promote smoother power delivery and consumption among devices. The rules also established five supportable power-supply levels—15W, 27W, 45W, 60W, and 100W—with normative voltage and current determined by the power supply to be supported. For example, a provider capable of 15W must support 5V, 3A; while a provider of 45W must support all the following: 5V 3A; 9V 3A; and 15V 3A."
...
"If the USB cable in use has not passed USB-IF certification tests, for example, system policy will not allow power flowing through that cable to exceed 2.5W (5V, 0.5A)."
So in short, any PD 3.0 charger should offer at least 15W capability if cable is certified and end device is capable of PD 3.0, while obviously negotiating between 0-15W depending on end device. If cable is unsuitable it will drop to 2.5W (USB 1.1 requirement). Charger that's not capable of 15W is not PD 3.0 compliant, and thus shouldn't be sold with new devices after EU rule kicks in.
My current phone uses 22.5W which is "good enough" in practical use. Going down to 15W worst case is drop by a third (33.33%) which is noticable but iz would still be OK. Next step is 27W so most midrange and above phones will probably go with that, and that's faster than what I have now. Phones like S22 (base model) are 25W so would logically be 27W. Phones like S22 Plus/Ultra are 45W so will probably keep 45W under PD 3.0 (or step to 60W). And so on.
No new device with charger after 2024 should be below 15W.
Say your mouse bundled a 4.5W charger (when did mouses bundled chargers? anyway, say it did), that charger will charge at max 4.5W and be slow as fuck to charge a phone. But it's still compatible.
Previous example, samsung makes whatever 100w charger. They can't make it incompatible with an iPhone without violating the PD spec, the iPhone asks for less power (whatever apple designed for) and the samsung charger has to provide it. Just like laptop usb chargers, say 65w (common size for a small laptop brick), it will charge any old phone at whatever max that phone charges.
USB PD requires negotiation and it will go to whatever the lowest common denominator is (push comes to shove, the 5V 500mA is always available, slow but it works)
Current is controlled by the sinking device (within certain constrains, usb psu design is complicated, if it gets too low protections will trigger, but still), if the iphone asks to be charged slow at 5v 1A it will get that drip feed from a 100w charger no problem if that charger meets the PD specifications.
USB BC has been depreciated for quite some time.Again, depreciated and replaced with USB PD 3.0. Wattages are as you should know, a combination of Volts times Amps.Not true. I don't know where you found this.
What you need, is a USB PD emarker in the cables if your device draws more than 3 Ampere.It would be quite pointless to get a really low Wattage charger anyhow, I really don't get what you're after here.I dout you'll be able to find a USB PD charger that is rated at less than 20 Watts, since a 20 Watt charger can deliver less power.
Again, I really don't understand what you're after here.
You ask a question about minimum specs and then start going on about what is the lowest legal USB PD charger to be able to be sold is.
Whats the relevance? A sensible person wouldn't buy a crappy charger and besides, if you want to charge something else than your phone, say a tablet or a laptop, you're going to want a 65 Watt rated charger or better.
The whole point here is that we now have a charging standard that can output mulitple Voltages at up to 5 Amps (depending on the charger) that alows use to use a single charger to charge multiple types of devices. Why are you looking for the worst possible scenario?
As for asking questions and then wanting different answer, @TheLostSwede , my only fault is not being clear enough resulting in you not understanding question in the first (second or third) place. I have asked 3x what is the minimum allowed spec. I'm unsure how is that hard to grasp. I didn't ask what's the lowest current it can provide, I can read just about everywhere that PD negotiates and varies in small 30mA & mV steps, but I did not ask that. When I ask what's lowest legal speed of a car on a highway you don't answer that car can go 0-100km/h. There is a legal MINIMUM in some countries and you aren't allowed to drive a tractor at 5km/h on highway, you need to go 60km/h at least. Same way I wanted to know lowest "legal" (in-spec) wattage that charger must provide for it to be called USB PD 3.0 certified. And so far answer looks to be - "same as PD 2.0 which starts at 15W".
Quotes I gave were historical as I bolded word MANDATED just for your eyes, so you can see that USB 1.1 at first MANDATED 2.5W, then USB 3.0 brought that to 5W, and finally PD 2.0 brought that to 15W. PD 3.0 did not change that so no quote, yet PD 2.0 isn't obsolete or deprecated because PD 3.0 builds on it.
Btw this was my source:
www.renesas.com/us/en/support/engineer-school/usb-power-delivery-01-usb-type-c
But hey, if they were wrong so am I. I guess I should now get my evening reading, they say it's "just" 410 pages of USB specs... It might be easy to get lost in translation when original work is 410 pages of specs.
Also, yes, USB 2.0 sucks for data transfer, but then again, everyone wants you to store your data in their cloud, they won't make it easy for you to move it around locally.
And another thing that I hate is that while phones do come with a USB-C plug, most chargers still come with USB-A. Ever migrated data on your Android phone, only to be asked to plug your charging cable into both phones for speedier data transfer? Good luck, when your charging cable is USB-C on one end and USB-A on the other.
When people ask for minimum specs and we're discussing a specification, it's a bit hard to grasp that you were talking about the physical chargers, even though, in all fairness, the article was about chargers.
This is admittedly about the EU as well, but keep in mind that USB PD devices are used globally and that there will be different "minimum" spec in different parts of the world.
For anyone thinking about getting a USB PD charger, get something decent, especially if it has more than one port, since the output sharing can be a bit strange, so the main port gets 75% of the output power and the secondary one gets 25% or something along those lines.That's a Qualcomm Quick Charge remenant, which should be going away.
My Pixel 6 came with a USB-C to USB-C cable, albeit a USB 2.0 cable, even though the phone can do USB 3.x speeds.
The main reason for the USB 2.0 data speeds, is because you get a relatively thin and flexible cable, compared to the ones that does higher speeds.
I bought a "fancy" Lindy 20 Gbps cable and it's anything but flexible and the same goes with the 20 Gbps cable that came with my monitor.
My guess here is that the phone makers don't want to "scare" consumer by including a really stiff cable, while at the same time, they can save some money by bundling a much cheaper USB 2.0 data cable.
Or, like you said, it could be a cost saving thing.
They also could take a lesson from Ikea on how to properly pack stuff, one of the points in the excuse was that it made packages flatter but they could do that by moving the charger to the bottom of the phone instead of bellow. They could do this and more with the cables, circle it around the phone could make for much smaller boxes