As this is our most requested video to date, we decided to put Ben, one of the Technical Analysts here at Star Labs in front of a camera and show you a brief...
It looks like a typical, modern laptop. There’s hardly any ports on it, it uses a non removable lipo battery, and charges with a fragile USB C connector.
I want a big, swapable battery that uses 18650 cells, a robust charging connector, a full set of audio jacks, ethernet, and lots of USB A connectors. USB C connectors don’t belong on a laptop unless they are easily replaceable like on the framework laptops.
The USB C connectors are way easier to break than a large barrel jack and they wear out faster too. If the USB C port is soldered to the motherboard, then you are in for a very expensive repair.
I used to be in the laptop repair biz. The most common failure mode we saw was the barrel connector. Even ones that were detached from the motherboard like the IBM Thinkpads had.
Honestly, I think that that has less to do with the connector itself and more because the power cord gets yanked.
I’d assume that you could get a similar effect with any connector, USB included. Well, Apple’s MagSafe ones maybe not, as that’ll just pull the cord away.
The part that wears out is the thing that maintains tension, and that is on the (cheaper, replaceable) cable for USB.
My understanding that this issue was part of why the move away from mini-USB to micro-USB and later USB-C happened. Mini-USB had the tensioning gizmo on the device, rather than on the cable.
Accomplished by moving leaf-spring from the PCB receptacle to plug, the most-stressed part is now on the cable side of the connection. Inexpensive cable bears most wear instead of the µUSB device.
Maybe don’t treat expensive hardware like it was made by Fisher Price? Why should consumer electronic manufacters cater to the careless at the cost of conveinence?
I’ve been using my Thinkpad that only charges over usb-c for 5 years now and the port is still like it was new. Can’t see why this is an issuse, especially that I used to have issues with some barrel port chargers and needed to replace them. On a contrary I now have charger with a plugin so simple that it’s unlikely it will break anytime soon and finding replacement charger is super easy as it is FINALLY a single standard port. I actually have 2 such chargers because of SteamDeck and they both work with both devices.
Even if the connector in my laptop broke, there’s second one that I only used few times + replacing it would be easier as it’s not a big deal to find fairly standard connector to be resoldered, and with older laptop chargers there are many different variants of proprietary connectors.
I have a Thinkpad that has both the USB C and the traditional Thinkpad charging port.
I normally just use the USB C port, but I do like having both available.
Even if the connector in my laptop broke, there’s second one that I only used few times
Unless your Thinkpad and mine differ – and maybe they do, given that mine has both the traditional and USB C charging ports, so a total of two – only one of the USB C ports can charge the laptop. On mine, both USB C ports can do USB PD, but one is in/out and the other is out only.
I want a big, swapable battery that uses 18650 cells,
I mean, me too. I think that having less than a 100 Wh battery is nuts, but it’s essentially impossible to find them.
I think that a couple of things have killed this:
Cost. Cutting battery size is an easy way to cut cost, and it’s less-explicit than, say, cutting RAM, as vendors often list a non-standardized “hours of battery life”.
USB PD plus external power stations. I think the expectation is that one will get one and having the user just use external ports makes life easier for the vendor and means that they don’t need to deal with counterfeit batteries and such. Also moves heat out of the laptop. I would be more sympathetic to this if there were a standard for a laptop to start automatically drawing from an external USB powerstation when its internal battery gets low, rather than requiring manually-triggering charging.
Weight. Apparently some people are super-rabid about laptop weight.
It looks like a typical, modern laptop. There’s hardly any ports on it, it uses a non removable lipo battery, and charges with a fragile USB C connector.
I want a big, swapable battery that uses 18650 cells, a robust charging connector, a full set of audio jacks, ethernet, and lots of USB A connectors. USB C connectors don’t belong on a laptop unless they are easily replaceable like on the framework laptops.
Wtf? Usb-c charging is the best thing that’s happened to laptops this decade. You’re insane to want to go back to the bad times.
The USB C connectors are way easier to break than a large barrel jack and they wear out faster too. If the USB C port is soldered to the motherboard, then you are in for a very expensive repair.
I used to be in the laptop repair biz. The most common failure mode we saw was the barrel connector. Even ones that were detached from the motherboard like the IBM Thinkpads had.
The Apple mag-connectors are pretty awesome. I’ve never owned a macbook, but I still think those are the cat’s ass.
Yup, got lucky if it was on a daughterboard but I’ve had dudes donate their broken machines when they got the solder quote.
Honestly, I think that that has less to do with the connector itself and more because the power cord gets yanked.
I’d assume that you could get a similar effect with any connector, USB included. Well, Apple’s MagSafe ones maybe not, as that’ll just pull the cord away.
The part that wears out is the thing that maintains tension, and that is on the (cheaper, replaceable) cable for USB.
My understanding that this issue was part of why the move away from mini-USB to micro-USB and later USB-C happened. Mini-USB had the tensioning gizmo on the device, rather than on the cable.
googles
Yeah.
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18552/why-was-mini-usb-deprecated-in-favor-of-micro-usb
Maybe don’t treat expensive hardware like it was made by Fisher Price? Why should consumer electronic manufacters cater to the careless at the cost of conveinence?
I’ve been using my Thinkpad that only charges over usb-c for 5 years now and the port is still like it was new. Can’t see why this is an issuse, especially that I used to have issues with some barrel port chargers and needed to replace them. On a contrary I now have charger with a plugin so simple that it’s unlikely it will break anytime soon and finding replacement charger is super easy as it is FINALLY a single standard port. I actually have 2 such chargers because of SteamDeck and they both work with both devices. Even if the connector in my laptop broke, there’s second one that I only used few times + replacing it would be easier as it’s not a big deal to find fairly standard connector to be resoldered, and with older laptop chargers there are many different variants of proprietary connectors.
I have a Thinkpad that has both the USB C and the traditional Thinkpad charging port.
I normally just use the USB C port, but I do like having both available.
Unless your Thinkpad and mine differ – and maybe they do, given that mine has both the traditional and USB C charging ports, so a total of two – only one of the USB C ports can charge the laptop. On mine, both USB C ports can do USB PD, but one is in/out and the other is out only.
I mean, me too. I think that having less than a 100 Wh battery is nuts, but it’s essentially impossible to find them.
I think that a couple of things have killed this:
Cost. Cutting battery size is an easy way to cut cost, and it’s less-explicit than, say, cutting RAM, as vendors often list a non-standardized “hours of battery life”.
USB PD plus external power stations. I think the expectation is that one will get one and having the user just use external ports makes life easier for the vendor and means that they don’t need to deal with counterfeit batteries and such. Also moves heat out of the laptop. I would be more sympathetic to this if there were a standard for a laptop to start automatically drawing from an external USB powerstation when its internal battery gets low, rather than requiring manually-triggering charging.
Weight. Apparently some people are super-rabid about laptop weight.
100 Wh is the maximum you’re allowed to bring on to an airplane.
Right, which is why I favor the 100Wh battery.
Are you willing to pay several thousand for a mediocre CPU and no dedicated graphics?
Because even then they don’t have a chance of making their R&D back.