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Comment by fiddlerwoaroof | Hacker News Reader

Recent Macs have cords that come in three parts: brick-to-plug, brick, brick-to-laptop. It’s one of my favorite changes in the newer MacBook models.

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High power (~100W) charging with USB-C has been a game changer for me. I barely even remember the days when every electronic device came with its own grotty little power brick I had to keep track of and carry around with the device.

I guess time will tell how reliable USB-C connectors are, but my naive impression is that the female connectors (device side) are very simple with no springs or other moving parts. I imagine my nice USB-C chargers (mostly Apple) will be useful for as long as USB-C lasts as an active standard.

I’ve personally found usb-c ports aren’t great longevity wise. They have a similar issue as I had with micro-USB: they stop clamping onto the plug and then you don’t get a reliable connection. I’ve found Lightning ports more reliable (with periodic lint cleaning) but it’s a shame that it’s a proprietary standard.

I've been using this magnetic USB-C adapter on my laptop to reduce the wear and tear on the port: https://a.co/d/4JCadfi.

I've been using it since March with no complaints. It'd be great if manufacturers could standardize on something like this so that the port could be flush.

They can't; Apple has a patent on Magsafe.

Since they already make it and sell it, they can (standardize too).

They just can't call it Magsafe (trademarked) or use the patented Magsafe design.

Just because someone is doing something, doesn't mean anyone can do something without Apple filing a lawsuit. The small players are small enough to fly under the radar. A consortium standardizing would be a target.

MagSafe is derived from a magnetic power connection that deep fat fryers used to keep dangerous accidents from happening in the kitchen

First time hearing this, super interesting. Got any links to read more on how this prevents a dangerous accident? What does it do to stop the accident, from sparking the oil and ignoring it if the cord is accidentally sheered and exposed?

https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2001/CPSC-Announ...

Looks like the magsafe patent will expire in 3 years: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7311526B2/en

Also lightning (the connector used in iphones starting in 2012) is different from magsafe (the connector used in macbooks starting in 2006).

We bought a similar, “the last cable” and they all lost connection after the metal got worn down in a year. Yet they where supposedly the best of this type.

There’s also been reports of fire due to friction and dirt

For micro USB, I have found that this is almost always because some dirt is trapped and packed in the bottom of the socket - preventing the cable from being inserted deep enough. Cleaning with a toothpick or similar has fixed it each time.

This simple thimg, as easy it is after someone points it out, extebded my old Pixel 2s lige by, so far, another year.

According to the standard, the USB Type-C connectors should have a much longer lifetime than the USB Type-A connectors or any other older USB connectors and also than most other kinds of connectors.

IIRC, the USB Type-C connectors should survive at least 12000 insertion cycles.

In practice, this does not seem to be true, so I assume that many USB Type-C connectors substitute the more expensive alloys and coatings that they should use for the metal contacts in order to achieve conformity with the standard with cheaper alloys, and this is not something that a normal user can check when buying a device.

Try to clean up your port with a needle. I am doing this with my phone about once a year. It is almost 4 years old now, no reason to complain.

Extra credit for being able to charge your laptop easily in the car. Before this, you needed either a power inverter or a special DC connector.

Are cars starting to have USB-C PD connectors?

The most "advanced" I've seen are wireless chargers. My dad's 2021 Toyota only has USB-A.

My Thinkpad, depending on BIOS revision, will trickle charge from a 5V1A charger. Not great, but not horrible.

I know Vaio used to advertise that as a feature.

That's a great feature.

When I got a new HP laptop with USB-C charging a few years back, I hoped it would support that, too. It didn't. My current one doesn't, either.

My MacBook Air M1 can, although I only tested it with a 2.xA charger, not a 1A charger.

My Tesla 2021 ModelY came with 4 USB-C ports (plus one in the glove compartment which is only for the camera memory stick). They support PD but they only go up to 9V at about 25W, which seems pretty dumb for a car that contains a 75kWh battery. They'll recharge a laptop but slowly. Still, I'm glad they exist.

The car has a two-phone Qi charger as well.

That is actually not so new if I remember correctly this model begun with the 2016 USB-C models. Glad they kept it this way while reintroducing the magsafe connector for "brick-to-laptop".

Yeah, 2016+ is still new to me :) I used 2015 MacBooks until a couple years ago.

That has been available in Macs since 20+ years. It depends on the model, as not all get this.

My 2015 MacBook Pro and all the previous MacBook chargers I’ve seen have two-part chargers: the brick-to-laptop connection was hardwired into the brick and typically would fail and require buying a whole new charger. Starting around 2016, MacBooks fixed this issue.

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