One of the key issues for technology is power, and as we\u2019ve shifted to more portable gadgets \u2013 from mobile phones and tablets to laptops replacing desktops \u2013 keeping them charged has become a more complex affair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your phone might have one charging plug, your tablet another, and your laptop one more again, leading to a complex nightmare of cables to keep an eye on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cables naturally love to tangle with each other, get lost behind desks or simply forgotten when you\u2019ve got to go out. Depending on the age of the batteries in your devices, that could lead to a device that\u2019s going to run out of power right when you need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, there is\u2026 sort of. For some years now there\u2019s been a shift towards using the USB C standard for power and data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
USB (Universal Serial Bus) has been around for years now, but if you\u2019ve got an older device that uses it, the chances are that it uses the trapezoidal style micro-USB plug. USB-C is a slightly newer standard, and it\u2019s very easy to work out if the plug you\u2019re holding or using is a USB C type plug. If it has rounded sides and doesn\u2019t have a \u2018wrong\u2019 way to plug it in, it\u2019s USB-C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, over time we\u2019ve seen a few revisions of USB-C over the years that change up the power and data capabilities of the plug type. Some devices can only shift data at lower speeds, and likewise charge a little slower too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where USB Power Delivery comes into play. While many of the first USB C devices were smaller gadgets such as phones, where the expected power input wasn\u2019t terribly high, it becomes more complex if you want to safely and quickly charge larger gadgets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The USB Power Delivery (USB-C PD) standard allows for a single charger to give a verified power rating of up to 100W, depending on the device need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The smart thing here is that if you\u2019re using a USB-C PD capable device and a USB-C PD charger, the two devices can talk to each other, negotiate a charging rate and then deliver that power as fast as your device can take it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So you can take, for example, a charger for a MacBook Pro that needs a high wattage, and charge a Samsung Note 10 that needs (and can only take) a much lower wattage without impacting safety or even charging speed. Both sides of the charger and device equation communicate their abilities and needs, and charging can happen in an optimal way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
USB-C PD isn\u2019t the answer to every single charging problem, mind you. If your needs are for higher power, as you get with some heavier duty graphics laptops and gaming laptops, USB-C PD can\u2019t quite meet the charging needs you\u2019re likely to have to run a top-shelf PC and graphics card solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re using a USB-C PD battery pack or charger with an older device that just happens to have a USB-C connector but doesn\u2019t itself use the standard, you\u2019ll drop down to a much slower \u2013 but still safe \u2013 charging rate, which means it\u2019ll take longer to charge your gadget even though the charger would technically be capable of faster rates. It can also be a touch hit-and-miss with some of the third-party fast charging systems used by some mobiles, although again the standard essentially calls for a dialling down of charging rates if all devices can\u2019t properly communicate the safest charging rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n