Typically these are low current. I installed a few in my house. Useful for topping things off, but not so useful say, powering a MacBook Pro under heavy load.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Reportedly Planning Smaller and Lighter GaN-Based Chargers
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Typically these are low current. I installed a few in my house. Useful for topping things off, but not so useful say, powering a MacBook Pro under heavy load.
Punishment? If you don't like Apple's direction, make a real statement and simply purchase a phone from another manufacturer.
Not too good. I'm not allowed to change out the outlets in my office, or keep on in my backpack for travel. Also, my kids schools don't seem keen on swapping out outlets in their multiple classrooms they attend each day. But at the house, yes, I have installed 2 of them. One is an older 4 port USB A and one like this.
I'm loving it, but at this point Apple should just stop making chargers, drop $100 off the price, and stock options from Anker and Satechi in the retail stores.
Better chargers, better cables, and better prices.
Better chargers, better cables, and better prices.
I spent about $25 on a tiny 30W Aukey charger for my MacBook Air. The little folding prongs broke within a week of very light use. They were great about sending a new one... which then broke in precisely the same way after maybe two weeks. Then I asked for a refund. I saw several reviews on Amazon complaining of the same thing. I don't know if Aukey is a top-tier vendor, but they have plenty of marketing and seem to be a "known" brand. This wasn't one of those weird Amazon specials with a name like "Flourmy" or something.
All this is to say, if Apple put out a super small USB-C charger and I needed one, I'd consider ponying up the premium cost knowing the prongs aren't likely to just pop off.
Is this right? That doesn’t sound like a benefit, it sounds like thermal energy will accumulate in the device rather than dissipate...
As usual, Macrumors is throwing out technical terms without apparently understanding them. The issue is not heat conduction - it’s heat dissipation. While it’s true that the thermal conduction of GaN is about 10% less than Si, GaN power circuits will generate a lot less heat than Si in the first place (in the neighborhood of 40% less heat would not be surprising).
Meh, why should anyone upgrade over previous Apple usb-c chargers. I understand their added benefit and everything but, to the average person why should anyone care.
im gonna stick to the current apple usb-c chargers I have till the plug changes.
im gonna stick to the current apple usb-c chargers I have till the plug changes.
Oh man! That’ll teach ‘em!
I can’t wait for the management purge once that pink slice gets slimmed down to only include Watch, Airpods, Homepods, TV and they lose all that charger revenue:
Last edited:
Actually compared to the 90 watt charger unit for the Dell laptop i use at work, the Apple charger units are compact.
According to the company profile for Aukey, they started out in Germany. Later they moved to mainland China.
Chargers are difficult. If not for anything else, poorly designed chargers are dangerous. They may catch fire or electrocute someone. There are ways to make a dangerous power supply.
I would love to have a small, safe, efficient, and low-emission (EMI) charger. But despite having some background in commercial electronics design and certification, I have no way to evaluate these properties when buying a charger. The only thing I can do is to buy from a highly reputable supplier.
Also, there is no such thing as a cheap high-quality charger. High price does not guarantee high quality, but low price is a warning sign.
I’d love to have a high-quality GaN charger. I don’t mind the size; I am perfectly happy with my current 100 W multiple output brick. Efficiency per se is not that important, either. My MacBook’s electricity consumption is worth less than 2c a day, so a 10 % reduction (less in practice) due to using GaN switches is negligible (maybe 50c a year). However, smaller losses mean lower temperature, and that I like!
But please, Apple, make it multi-output, MacBook+iPhone+iPad+something else.
I would love to have a small, safe, efficient, and low-emission (EMI) charger. But despite having some background in commercial electronics design and certification, I have no way to evaluate these properties when buying a charger. The only thing I can do is to buy from a highly reputable supplier.
Also, there is no such thing as a cheap high-quality charger. High price does not guarantee high quality, but low price is a warning sign.
I’d love to have a high-quality GaN charger. I don’t mind the size; I am perfectly happy with my current 100 W multiple output brick. Efficiency per se is not that important, either. My MacBook’s electricity consumption is worth less than 2c a day, so a 10 % reduction (less in practice) due to using GaN switches is negligible (maybe 50c a year). However, smaller losses mean lower temperature, and that I like!
But please, Apple, make it multi-output, MacBook+iPhone+iPad+something else.
you were right until you used entirely a wrong reason for this.
anker sells a 20w GaN charger for cheaper than apple's solution and it fits the exact same size as the previous 5w charger. i picked up a 2 pack from costco for $20.
previous year's 5w charger is not suitable for new devices when the new chargers are substantially more efficient, reliable, and powerful. my 12 pro max is not charging efficiently off of a 5w mini brick.
apple is supposed to be ahead of the curve, yet everyone else besides them is releasing chargers that are well beyond apple's currently available, yet antiquated and overpriced tech.
taking out the charger was fine, turning around and charging people for gargantuan bricks that use decade old tech for the same price is insane.
You wouldn't believe the number of people (even in MR forums) vehemently arguing that using a higher wattage power adapter will draw more power and overpower their iPhone/iPad/MacBook - as if a power adapter is the same as connecting a wire from the outlet directly to the battery.
Quoting:
These chargers sell for about $30(if not counterfeit), but that must be almost all profit. Samsung sells a very similar cube charger
for about $6-$10, which I also disassembled (and will write up details later). The Apple charger is higher quality and I estimate has about a dollar's worth of additional components inside.[14] But it sells for $20 more.
Bill of materials does not include shipping of product to stores, inventory costs, return overhead, warranty costs, packaging, quality control, and etc...
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I agree, wouldn't it be good especially for travel to have one charger? I could plug my MBP, Ipad, iPhone and watch from the one charger. With the current PD system, it is mess t understand what charger can actually charge which product. I am not blaming Apple as they are just moving with the technology. But for the average person, we will have to mark the chargers to which products they can charge.
Looking forward to when these young tech people need glasses to read the ultra-fine print so we know all the outputs and if it is PD 2 or PD 3 or ....
people placing 10 GaN chargers around their house are in the minority.
Apple rarely caters high volume products to small segments of their base.
Anker's *bank* is Apple's change under the seat cushions. I guess that means Apple must divert their design team away from designing the next gen iPhone to designing chargers, right?
Of course it did
now you were saying?
Who is this copying? Using a different component is copying, just because they weren’t the first to do it?
I skimmed the article because it was nearly a decade old and about the 5W charger. I recall reading that or something similar back then, and at the time I whole-heartedly agreed about the quality difference. It's just not relevant now as the market has dramatically matured. If you had a better article related to today's chargers, you should have linked it instead.
Apple makes good chargers, but they don't have any special sauce, and in many cases lack what others have. I wouldn't give them too much credit for being an earlier adopter of PD3.0 simply because they released a product that obsoleted their previous charger.