Benefit of USB-C power instead of the power connector?

I just got a Lenovo V14 G3 laptop. It's quite nice, though not top-end. I hate soldered memory but this at least has one SO-DIMM slot, and more importantly, a power button that isn't embedded in the keyboard (especially not between Delete and Backspace like many have). But, it can use USB-C for power, or a dedicated power connector. Obviously that adds to the cost, but then Lenovo included a USB-C power adapter, so that power connector is just unused, but the USB-C port is blocked. I've always considered a dedicated power connector to be better since it doesn't use up the lone USB-C port on many laptops, so it kind of sucks although I doubt I'll really need it. But is there really any benefit to using the USB-C port for power other than standardization, so you could use any USB-C Power Delivery adapter/dock that has enough wattage? (The power connector is one of those teeny-tiny ones that have little strength to them, so it's a little better in that respect.)

And if I'm at home I don't care about the USB-C port being blocked

Well, what if you need to use a USB-C device? Assuming you don't have other free ports and adapters. Why would being away from home make you need it available?

The only time I ran a cropper

What is "a cropper"?

It's unsurprising that some brands and models would have an arbitrary requirement to use THEIR charger rather than any PD charger regardless of capability, giving vague reasons like "safety", to require you to pay more for theirs, or only use a brand that has paid a fee to have a compatible chip installed.

But it all still boils down to convenience of having a single charger that works with multiple devices, which I understand, but a small charger and cable for a isn't a lot of extra stuff to carry if I've got a regular power brick in my bag for the laptop, and I wouldn't want to unplug the laptop to charge the anyway. (And with just a cable I could charge the from the laptop.) For me personally, it's not a big thing, but I understand for other people it might be. For my use, it feels like a dedicated charger that leaves the USB-C port free would be better.

Well, what if you need to use a USB-C device? Assuming you don't have other free ports and adapters. Why would being away from home make you need it available?

At least for me, if I'm at home my laptop is plugged into a Thunderbolt / USB-C dock that does all that and more. Whereas when I'm travelling, if I need an adapter for say an HDMI port, etc, I'm more likely to need that port free. But most (i.e. all the ones I'd consider buying) of the adapters that add decent functionality have a passthrough for power anyways, so it's not an issue. You plug the adapter into the USB-C port, the power in to the Adapter and you're good to go.

but a small charger and cable for a isn't a lot of extra stuff to carry if I've got a regular power brick in my bag for the laptop, and I wouldn't want to unplug the laptop to charge the anyway.

Here's an example:

I, in my briefcase, pack 2 USB-C cables and one of these:



The reason I've included this particular picture, is that the max charger is generally on the smaller side when it comes to laptop power bricks. My Lenovo power brick, on the other hand, is bigger than the Mac charger pictured, has both a power cable and a USB-C side cable, and is generally an unwieldy mess of cable and power. Whereas the charger pictured can charge my laptop, and my , at the same time, in a space that is less than a quarter of just the brick, not counting all the extra cable and associated miscellanea that's required.

To each their own, but this has made a significant positive impact in my carryon travel.

Edit for grammar.

At least for me, if I'm at home my laptop is plugged into a Thunderbolt / USB-C dock that does all that and more. Whereas when I'm travelling, if I need an adapter for say an HDMI port, etc, I'm more likely to need that port free. But most (i.e. all the ones I'd consider buy) of the adapters that add decent functionality have a passthrough for power anyways, so it's not an issue. You plug the adapter into the USB-C port, the power in to the Adapter and you're good to go.



Here's an example:

I, in my briefcase, pack 2 USB-C cables and one of these:

View attachment

The reason I've included this particular charger, is that the max charger is generally on the smaller side when it comes to laptop power bricks. My Lenovo power brick, on the other hand, is bigger than the Mac charger pictured, has both a power cable and a USB-C side cable, and is generally an unwieldy mess of cable and power. Whereas the charger pictured can charge my laptop, and my , at the same time, in a space that is less than a quarter of just the brick, not counting all the extra cable and associated miscellanea that's required.

To each their own, but this has made a significant positive impact in my carryon travel.

Yup, the couple of laptops I've had that needed a dedicated power brick, the brick was 2-3x the size of my little USB-C charger that can do both. I don't travel for work as much anymore, but it was a glorious day when I ditched the brick and just carried a charger the size of 2 boxes of matches You have options. You could use the barrel connector if you wanted, but that's proprietary and Lenovo's going to charge whatever they feel like for a replacement. Laptops that move around either benefit from small chargers being packed in your bag (as noted, GAN chargers are very small and light) and/or from having a charger everyplace you'd like to plug in your laptop. Home + work is a common scenario. If you were stuck with proprietary Lenovo barrel connector power only, you'd be on the hook to buy one extra proprietary power brick that couldn't be used with any other laptop for the 2nd location. With USB-PD, you can just use whatever charger you have and there are plenty that have multiple plugs so charging your or whatever else at the same time is a non-issue where barrel connector power does not give that advantage.

If you have a docking unit, the majority have passthrough PD and the majority of laptops support power extension so you don't block the port. On a laptop with nothing but say 2 USB-C connectors, you're gonna probably need a port expander/docking station anyway and they're cheap-- and sometimes packed in with more expensive laptops.

Being beholden to using only barrel-connector/proprietary power is also an e-waste problem. You're probably only going to ever be able to use that brick with that model of laptop. Big corps can work around that to some degree, but eventually some of them will be thrown away while still able to function. USB-C chargers mostly only get thrown away if they fail since they can always charge something else.

There are still plenty of use cases in very high power consumption laptops where they can't use USB-C or trying to use USB-C forces the computer into low-performance mode if you try to run them with USB-C power only. I have a bunch of 330w power adapters that probably weigh about 800-900g each that are super not-portable and ~$100 each if you want one extra so you don't have to lug them around, but they're for laptops that need that much power. When the day arrives that I can stop buying proprietary power connectors forever and just use USB-C, that's going to be a good day.

Being beholden to using only barrel-connector/proprietary power is also an e-waste problem. You're probably only going to ever be able to use that brick with that model of laptop. Big corps can work around that to some degree, but eventually some of them will be thrown away while still able to function. USB-C chargers mostly only get thrown away if they fail since they can always charge something else.

To jump on this, the opposite problem:

If you have an old discontinued laptop and the power brick breaks or the cord/connector wears out on the proprietary barrel connector: good luck finding a replacement.

If your laptop uses USB-C, just get a new USB-C charger from anywhere. Corner drug stores and airport shops even sell them. Convivence. So example. Most Dell laptop power supplies have been 19.5V 3.34A for the last two decades. Being DC barrel plugs with Data pin. The have two sizes and even have kept the same data interface so you can use converters to different barrel plugs. Which brings that with the USB-PD spec being 20V/3A or 20V/5A The 20V/3A normally gets used because it was so close to the old standard power profile they designed all their systems on. So slowly they are moving on.

Now why Lenovo decided to give you only one USB port is all on Lenovo. But Dell on the other hand will make sure to have more than one if it is using USB C, along with proper USB dongle spacing.

Or when your kid loses the power brick to their school laptop, and tries to get out of doing their homework... just plug that bad boy into a USB connector and they have no excuse.

In this case, the laptop takes both, so I could easily get a USB-C charger from something else (assuming there are other devices in the house using chargers with that much output, which there aren't). The USB-C still comes down to just a convenience, while the dedicated port avoids having to share a port and lose access to it unless I carry around a big dock.

I understand there are advantages like convenience of sharing a power source, using a standard connector for all, but that's about it. I don't see any other benefits. And the disadvantage is that most laptops still only have one USB-C port, which gets taken up by a charger that you will often have connected (whether you're at home or not), and some laptops can't even run at full speed unless they use specific chargers or docks which reduces that "standardization" advantage.

I was just looking for OTHER benefits to using a USB-C charger that would make it preferable over my personal priority for having that USB-C port accessible without needing to connect a docking station. I'm still glad that I'd have the OPTION of using either one in case the proprietary charger failed. At least until all laptops have two or more USB-C ports which might still be a while on the lower end.

Lenovo hasn't even updated their compatibility information for their chargers to include this model of laptop, even though both the USB-C and barrel connector models are listed in the "accessories" on their site for this laptop. It's $60 from them, but can be obtained from Amazon for $20. (Though it's not clear if they're actually Lenovo-brand or not. They have the logo on the label, but...) I was thinking it would be nice if I could just adapt the USB-C to the barrel connector, but I know that's not just a matter of converting the shape and would require electronics and power management in the adapter, making it somewhat expensive. But, if a new charger is $20 or even $60, then $20 or $30 for a small adapter that would allow the use of basically any power source would not be that bad. But it would be nice not to have to buy a kit of 30 tips and daisy chain connectors (making it stick out even further from the laptop). It's too niche of a need for them to produce a separate adapter for every possible model, though.

In this case, the laptop takes both, so I could easily get a USB-C charger from something else (assuming there are other devices in the house using chargers with that much output, which there aren't). The USB-C still comes down to just a convenience, while the dedicated port avoids having to share a port and lose access to it unless I carry around a big dock.

Ultimately, Lenovo or whomever should just add an additional USB-C port. They're choosing to use that real estate for the proprietary connector. They could have chosen to not do that, and instead used that real estate for something else and made sure they had sufficient USB-C connectors.
Even Apple puts 2 USB-C connectors on their laptops, except for that stupid 12" MBP from like , they've generally gotten that part right even when removing all sorts of useful ports.

You do realize how small USB-C docks are, right? They're not bulky, most being about 3" long with a short pigtail USB-C cord. Models with Ethernet sometimes are a little bigger and more expensive, but you don't need to get that option.

Ultimately, Lenovo or whomever should just add an additional USB-C port. They're choosing to use that real estate for the proprietary connector. They could have chosen to not do that, and instead used that real estate for something else and made sure they had sufficient USB-C connectors.
Even Apple puts 2 USB-C connectors on their laptops, except for that stupid 12" MBP from like , they've generally gotten that part right even when removing all sorts of useful ports.

You do realize how small USB-C docks are, right? They're not bulky, most being about 3" long with a short pigtail USB-C cord. Models with Ethernet sometimes are a little bigger and more expensive, but you don't need to get that option.

An additional USB-C port would undoubtedly add cost to the laptop compared to a dedicated power connector. Manufacturers are always looking to save every penny on the low end of devices, because they're not able to charge a premium with higher margin. There are inexpensive models with two USB-C ports, but those are low end and they ONLY have those two ports so you only end up with one for data/devices (Chromebooks that aren't expected to DO much anyway). There are PC laptops with more ports including more than one USB-C port, but they're upper mid-range and then you're looking at $500 for even a refurb unit, or making concessions in other areas.

Apple puts ONLY USB-C ports on their laptops and has for years, and on some models it's only 2 of them and one of them gets used up for power. Apple is an entirely different market from Windows PCs - they can just make wholesale changes because there is no alternate source, no competition if you want MacOS. You either take what they give you or you don't get a Mac.

A 3" dock is still larger than just having an extra USB-C port, or something even more basic that just provides that one extra port. And there are multiple people in this thread that think carrying a little charger in their bag is a crippling amount of extra mass.

An electronic device or system must decide whether to use an internal or external power supply. Based on specific needs and applications, each type offers distinct advantages and disadvantages. You can ensure optimal performance, reliability, and efficiency for your devices by understanding the differences, benefits, and limitations of internal and external power supplies. When choosing a power supply, you must consider several key factors. Here are a few to consider.

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What is Internal Power Supply?

A component that powers an electronic device internally is called an internal power supply. The internal power supply converts external AC power into DC power that is required by the devices' internal components. It can be found inside desktop computers, home entertainment systems, and industrial equipment. Integrated components reduce cable clutter and the need for extra external components, because they offer a more streamlined and compact design.

As they are shielded within the device's casing, internal power supplies are also advantageous for heat dissipation as well as EMI reduction. However, because the power supply must be accommodated inside the device, they can also make servicing or replacing it more difficult.

What is External Power Supply?

A standalone external power supply supplies power outside the main enclosure of an electronic device. It converts AC power from a wall outlet into the DC voltage that the electronic device requires. It is also known as power converters or wall warts. Mobile electronics like laptops, smartphones, and other portable devices use them to manage heat and save space.

It is easier to replace and repair external power supplies since they are separate from the main device. By separating the power conversion process, heat generated by the process can be managed better, meaning that overheating risks can be reduced. For high-portability devices, these cables might add to cable clutter and make transporting them more difficult.

Internal vs External Power Supplies

Internal Power Supplies

Design and Integration: Devices that use internal power supplies have power supplies built into their enclosures. In order to operate the device's internal components, AC power is converted to DC power by converting it from a wall outlet. Typical examples of this design include desktop computers, servers, home entertainment systems, and some industrial equipment. Internal integration reduces external cable clutter and trip hazards by simplifying and compacting the design.

Heat Management: A device's cooling system can be used to cool internal power supplies. This can result in more efficient heat dissipation, ensuring a safe operating temperature for the power supply. As a result, thermal management can become more complex if the power supply's heat is managed alongside that of the device's other components.

Performance and Noise: The power supply of an electronic device can be customized to meet its power requirements and performance criteria. As the power supply is shielded within the device's casing, it can deliver power more efficiently and generate less electrical noise. Furthermore, power loss can be minimized due to the proximity of the power supply to the internal components.

Serviceability and Replacement: The difficulty of servicing or replacing internal power supplies is one of their drawbacks. It is possible to repair or replace the power supply by disassembling the entire device if the power supply fails. In critical systems, this can result in increased maintenance costs and downtime.

Space Constraints: As the power supply must fit within the enclosure, internal power supplies can constrain the design of the device. A device's form factor and size can be affected by this, limiting its design flexibility.

External Power Supplies

Design and Flexibility: They connect to the device via a cable and are often referred to as power adapters or wall warts. DC voltage is generated outside the device by converting AC power from a wall outlet. Various portable electronics, such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets, use this design when interior space is limited and heat management is key.

Heat Management: An external power supply has the advantage of better heat management. Heat generated during the power conversion process does not affect the internal components of the device because the power supply is located outside the device. By doing this, the device operates within a safer temperature range and reduces the risk of overheating.

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Ease of Replacement and Portability: Because the power supply is separate from the device, it is easier to replace and service. In the event that the power supply fails, it can be replaced without opening the device, which reduces maintenance time and cost. External power supplies can, however, be inconvenient to carry and can clog up portable devices.

Standardization and Versatility: It is often possible to standardize external power supplies for multiple devices, providing a greater degree of flexibility. Users and manufacturers can simplify logistics and reduce costs by using interchangeable power adapters for laptops and other portable devices.

Design Considerations: There are several advantages to external power supplies, but they also have some disadvantages. Additionally, they are bulky and complex to transport, and they do not appear as integrated or as attractive as internal solutions. External power supplies can also fail due to faulty cables.

Uses of Internal Power Supplies

Desktop Computers and Servers: The motherboard, CPU, GPU, hard drives, and optical drives are all powered by internal power supplies in desktop computers and servers. The power supplies are integrated into the case, reducing external clutter. These power supplies are integrated so they can be cooled efficiently within the system's airflow, ensuring reliable and stable performance. A data center's operational continuity is dependent on redundant power supplies, such as those found in ATX power supplies and servers.

Home Entertainment Systems: A Blu-ray player, a home theater receiver, and a gaming console are among the many devices with internal power supplies. For consumer electronics that are used in living rooms, this design choice keeps a sleek and integrated look. In addition to offering a more aesthetic appearance, these systems ensure efficient power delivery. A power supply integrated into an AV receiver or game console like PlayStation or Xbox, for example, matches the high power demands of these devices.

Industrial Machinery: Many industrial control systems, robotics, and machines require internal power supplies. The durability and efficiency of industrial environments depend on reliable and stable power within a protected enclosure. Power supplies ensure that complex machines operate continuously and reliably by optimizing space usage. Modern manufacturing processes rely on power supplies and PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) to operate.

Uses of External Power Supplies

Laptops and Portable Computers: The charger or power adapter that powers and charges laptops is an external power supply. These adapters provide users with the convenience of replacing a device and keeping the bulky power supply separate. A laptop's portability and convenience are enhanced by this separation. The widespread use of external power supplies in portable computing is illustrated by the standard power adapters for MacBooks and Dell laptops.

Mobile Devices: Power is typically provided by external chargers for smartphones, tablets, and e-readers. Often standardized (e.g., USB-C), these chargers are easily replaceable and allow compatibility across a variety of devices. Users and manufacturers alike benefit from this standardization. External power supplies for iPhones and Android devices facilitate the use of mobile technology on a daily basis.

Consumer Electronics: A wide variety of consumer electronics use external power supplies, such as digital cameras, portable speakers, and smart home appliances. Their lightweight and compact design make the devices more portable and convenient to use. Portable projectors and smart speakers, for instance, can operate efficiently with power adapters instead of incorporating bulky power supplies.

Telecommunications Equipment: A variety of networking devices use external power supplies, including modems, routers, and other networking equipment. A power supply failure ensures continuous operation by simplifying the main device design and allowing simple replacement. External power supplies can be used to supply power to Wi-Fi routers and modems at home and in small offices.

Wrapping Up

You should take your specific application requirements into consideration when choosing internal or external power supplies. They are ideal for stationary equipment such as desktop computers, home entertainment systems, and industrial machinery, due to their compact, integrated design and reduced external clutter. A portable device, such as a laptop, smartphone, or other consumer electronics, can benefit from external power supplies because of their portability, easy replacement, and heat management. In the end, you'll decide what's important to you in terms of design, maintenance, portability, and thermal management. In this way, convenience and performance are ensured.

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