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Comment by babypuncher | Hacker News Reader

How are barrel connectors still a thing? Apple figured out the correct way to hook up a power supply over a decade ago. Of all the design decisions manufacturers like to copy from Apple, why do they avoid this one like the plague?

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If you're taking about magsafe, it's patented. Apple reverted to USB-C charging on all current models, which is not as cool as magsafe, but on the bright side, you can now charge on either side and use the port for other things when not charging.

Somehow Microsoft is able to produce magnetic chargers for their Surface devices though. It'd be nice if Apple would allow the patent to be breached now that they're not using it.

Apple holds a patent on magnetic charging, Microsoft holds a patent on magnetic charging + data ports, as well as a patent on magnetic USB-C now. I'm not sure how well these would hold up against Apple's patents in court, but I think the two companies both have so many lawyers and so many patents that there's a bit of a mutually assured destruction situation with either going after the other on charging technology.

I can appreciate the simplicity and utility of having x identical ports on my laptop and they are all capable of doing everything. That is a worthwhile trade-off in my book, even if I personally would still prefer the option to use MagSafe.

Other manufacturers have figured out how to replicate the experience without infringing on Apple's patents, their solutions just aren't as commonly used as I wish they were.

IMO Razer did it better - on my 13" Stealth, there's one USB-C port on each side and one USB-A as well. Not having to look for the * dongle everytime I need to plug in anything is such a blessing after owning MacBooks - and I can still charge the laptop on both sides, with Apple chargers no less.

I tripped over my USB-C cord recently - having never done so with 'magsafe' - and you know what? it pulled cleanly out, I didn't fall, neither did the laptop. And it wasn't some perfect angle that enabled that either.

In my experience, magsafe just meant that it disconnects on cord tugs so slight that they wouldn't even have moved the laptop if the connection weren't magnetic. Anything with the force to harm you or your laptop disengages connectors other than magsafe too.

The big issue with barrel connectors is how long they are. When the cord is yanked at a wide angle, the outer edge of the barrel connector acts as a fulcrum, turning the inner barrel into a first class lever. With such long barrels, the transfer of force to the tip on the inside can be enough to rip the connector off its solder joints.

USB-C largely mitigates this simply by being a shorter connector than most barrels.

As a counterpoint, at least on the laptop models I'm most familiar with, the power barrel connector is not on any board (it's connected to the motherboard by a wire), so even if it breaks, it won't damage the board (and it's easy to replace). On the other hand, the USB-C socket is soldered directly to the motherboard (though with an extra mechanical support screwed on top).

I could be wrong, but IIRC there is a limit on how much power can be delivered over USB-C that is arguably easy to hit for powerful laptops.

Perhaps that's one reason among others.

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Edit: Could the downvoter explain the downvote please?

Edit2: Quick googling tells me USB Type C supports upto 100W power delivery [1], while an example laptop, such as X1 Extreme Gen 2 can go up to 129W of power draw under load [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#Power

[2] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Extreme-201...

That just means you can't use such a laptop under near peak load while the battery is empty or absent.

Actually, I like that they don't deviate from the standard on that one. It makes the power supply easy to replace, especially considering all those places in the world where people have never heard of System76.

> Actually, I like that they don't deviate from the standard on that one.

USB C charging is a standard, and it's the standard most laptops and other devices follow these days.

like someone else said, the page confirms this thing supports USB-C PD. but USB-C power delivery adds expensive complexity to the hardware that is not necessary otherwise

FWIW the USB-C port is power delivery compatible.

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