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Comment by peterwwillis | Hacker News Reader

Lenovo, come on, it's mid-2018. How hard is it to add USB-C charging? Hasn't it been around for like four years? Do we really need more proprietary chargers?

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I believe all the T and X series laptops now come with USB-C charging (definitely enjoying this on my X1 Yoga Gen 2). One problem with USB power delivery seems to be an upper limit of 100 Watts -- maybe that's a reason they don't use it for this machine.

My Carbon X1 came with a 65W USB-C charger. It can output up to 20V. It rapidly charges my Pixel 2 as well as the Lenovo.

At times I also use the charger that came with my X1 Yoga to charge my Samsung S9. It works great!

Dell's TB16 supplies 130w through USB-C to the XPS 13. More info there: https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln296825/usb-...

135W charger exceeds the 100W capacity of USB-C

It could still charge at 100W through USB-C, it would simply take longer.

I guess the reason it needs a 100W charger might be that at load the laptop might use more than 100W, and therefore wouldn't charge

Well I use the 30W charger (from the 12 inch Macbook) to charge my 15 inch MBP instead of the 87W one, and I run the machine at full blast pretty often. Yes, it's possible to use more power than it can deliver, but on average it charges just fine.

Anecdotal, I know, but 87/30 is a much bigger ratio than 135/100.

I prefer the 30W charger because it is smaller and easier to carry.

> Yes, it's possible to use more power than it can deliver, but on average it charges just fine.

I would not pay $2000+ for a laptop that turns off while I am using it. Particularly so for a "workstation" one.

If you are concerned about 100W chargers not being enough, use the 135W charger (that comes with the machine) then?

That doesn't mean that people who want to use other 100W USB-C chargers should be denied this convenience...

Which is odd for a new SKU because the lenovo ThinkPad T480 I'm typing this reply on is USB-C based charging.

I quite like Lenovos charger though. It's the only one I have not managed to destroy in a year of owning a laptop.

It could use magsafe. That thing has a death grip on my laptop.

Apple definitely has a patent on that. (I'm not exactly sure how patents work, but they filed one on Magsafe as late as 2017)

There's quite a few USB-C magnetic breakaway adapters on Amazon etc

Apple knows that if they tried to sue every random manufacturer making $5 magsafe clones they would end up losing more money on legal fees.

If Lenovo did it though...

They could also easily make their own break off usb-c.... but they don’t.

And Apple got the idea for magnetic break-away connectors on tabletop deep fryers. It should not have been patentable.

Yeah I'm out on this count alone.

I just had my Dad over with his IBM laptop and it had the most unusual proprietary connector I've every seen. Worst thing is he had brought an IBM charger, just not the right one, it was the old style round-one they had that that worked with everything for years.

For what it's worth, my Lenovo X1 Carbon (2017 model) the only method to charge is via USB-C.

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