Hacker News Reader

Ethernet doesn't support 240 W.

I am very happy that I can charge my phone and laptop from the same charger, and don't ever have to worry about whether the cable I'm using will be a fire hazard.

View on HN

PoE has been around for longer, and while it doesn't go that high (90W --- but at much longer distances), it uses passive cables just fine.

POE is an quite expensive thing to implement on a board. Flyback transformers are essentially required to support the standard.

At the cost of much higher complexity on each end. USB-C still supports completely passive old chargers and devices.

The cable can still be a fire hazard if it’s a cheap cable that lies about its rated wattage, no?

That goes for anything that lies about its rating though

Right but consumers are much more likely to buy a cheap USB charge cable that lies about its rating (via internal chip) than an Ethernet cable that lies about its rating on the package.

It doesn’t seem to be a huge problem with extension cords.

Do ethernet cables even specify a wattage?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com