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Satechi Launches Trio of New GaN USB-C Wall Chargers

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Satechi, known for its line of accessories designed for Apple devices, today announced the launch of a trio of USB-C chargers that are designed for use with iPads, Macs, iPhones, and more.


The 66W 3-Port USB-C GaN Wall Charger is priced at $54.99, has a foldable plug, and offers three USB-C ports with output combinations of 65W, 30W/30W, 45W/20W, 30W/18W/18W, adding up to 66W total. This model is designed to charge a MacBook Air while also fast charging an iPhone and charging up an iPad at full speed.

satechi-66w-gan-charger.jpg

Satechi's 100W USB-C PD Wall Charger, priced at $69.99, has a single USB-C port that's able to charge at up to 100W, as the name suggests.

satechi-100w-gan-charger.jpg

The 108W 3-Port USB-C GaN Wall Charger also features three ports to work with, but it supports higher watt devices. It can charge with a single port at 100W, or in the following combinations: 60W/45W, 88W/20W, 45W/30W/30W, 58W/30W/20W, or 65W/20W/20W. It's available for $74.99. The 108W charger can charge a 13-inch MacBook Pro, an iPhone, and an iPad at the same time, and it's high-powered enough to work with the 15-inch MacBook Pro models.

satechi-108w-gan-charger.jpg

All three of the new chargers feature Gallium Nitride or GaN technology, which is designed to keep them small and compact. Satechi says they're all also CE certified and will charge devices safely and efficiently.

The three new chargers can be purchased from the Satechi website or from Amazon.com. Customers can get a 15 percent discount from July 22 to July 31 with promo code GANFAST15.

Article Link: Satechi Launches Trio of New GaN USB-C Wall Chargers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/22/satechi-usb-c-wall-chargers/
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GaN technology seems like it usually can shrink down the size of the plug pretty significantly. But these plugs don’t look much smaller in comparison to the charging bricks that come with the MBA now. (The multiple port option is nice though).
 
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One thing I just can’t understand: why do these companies target North American markets only? Hyper is the only exception with its small plug-in adapters for different national systems. Which it basically copied from Apple. Shouldn’t be too hard for others to do the same.
 
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MacRumors said:
It can charge with a single port at 100W, or in the following combinations: 60W/45W, 88W/20W, 45W/30W/30W, 58W/30W/20W, or 65W/20W/20W.
Click to expand...

Are these wattages defining the maximum in a given configuration? Presumably it will handle devices that need less than 20W, right?
 
businessnumbersmoneypeopl said:
One thing I just can’t understand: why do these companies target North American markets only? Hyper is the only exception with its small plug-in adapters for different national systems. Which it basically copied from Apple. Shouldn’t be too hard for others to do the same.
Click to expand...
Others just have multiple versions, e.g. Aukey's Omnia series.
 
I love the idea of these small do-it-all chargers but here's the unfortunate reality I've discovered:

The fact that these don't support a range of voltages across all ports is annoying. The cognitive load of figuring out which port to use for what, and what devices I can plug in and still get fast charging on is just a drag. At least on the baseus model I have, I will plug in my Apple Watch and iPhone and the power negotiation logic boots the watch or phone out of charging. Nothing worse than coming back to your phone and finding out you just spent an hour with it plugged in NOT charging.

With higher draw devices you'll get slow charging or no charging on a device and you won't necessarily know how quickly things are charging. Granted the capacity if of course limited when you split it across many devices but it's hard to manage that while traveling when you need, say, to top up your phone and iPad while working on your laptop.

For this reason I still just prefer to carry the proper apple chargers for all of my devices and supplement with a GAN charger.

I hope in the future they can improve circuitry and logic to get more wattage distributed to ANY combination of ports, and work out the switching and negotiation bugs (baseus)
 
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LeadingHeat said:
GaN technology seems like it usually can shrink down the size of the plug pretty significantly. But these plugs don’t look much smaller in comparison to the charging bricks that come with the MBA now. (The multiple port option is nice though).
Click to expand...

These chargers look like the larger version recently announced by Anker GaN2.

businessnumbersmoneypeopl said:
One thing I just can’t understand: why do these companies target North American markets only? Hyper is the only exception with its small plug-in adapters for different national systems. Which it basically copied from Apple. Shouldn’t be too hard for others to do the same.
Click to expand...

Licensing etc needs to be approved, most likely not yet ready for other markets. (?)
 
businessnumbersmoneypeopl said:
One thing I just can’t understand: why do these companies target North American markets only? Hyper is the only exception with its small plug-in adapters for different national systems. Which it basically copied from Apple. Shouldn’t be too hard for others to do the same.
Click to expand...
That plug is also the same for Asian markets like China and Japan. But yes, they should have the other standards as well, even if they’re just adapters.
 
assquatch said:
I hope in the future they can improve circuitry and logic to get more wattage distributed to ANY combination of ports, and work out the switching and negotiation bugs (baseus)
Click to expand...
They’ve got to have some sort of limit. I think USB-C complicates things in that it’s capable of 100W, but no vendor wants to produce a device that would be capable of a 400W (100 simultaneously on all ports). I’d also guess that the internals to deliver 100W to one port would have to be replicated across all ports even they did have the distribution problem worked out (because they don’t know where you plan to plug your 100W device ahead of time). Sounds like a good topic for me to google :)
 
That chart is seriously out-of-date! I can just about remember round pin plugs (BS546) - I think the change started after 1945. I doubt you can buy a piece of mains-powered electrical equipment in the UK that has a round pin plug.
 
LeadingHeat said:
GaN technology seems like it usually can shrink down the size of the plug pretty significantly. But these plugs don’t look much smaller in comparison to the charging bricks that come with the MBA now. (The multiple port option is nice though).
Click to expand...
These plugs can do 100+ watts while the MBA is what 30-45 watts?
These are smaller than the MBpro 61 watts and way smaller than the 100 watt apple chargers

GaN tech is also more efficient and has less losses when converting to the DC side.

you are comparing the smallest of their chargers when in reality plenty of devices need 60-100 depending on how power packed they are.

if apple did a GaN charger they would be incredibly small just like the 20 watt GaNs that are smaller than apples 20 watt PD chargers lol.
 
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businessnumbersmoneypeopl said:
One thing I just can’t understand: why do these companies target North American markets only? Hyper is the only exception with its small plug-in adapters for different national systems. Which it basically copied from Apple. Shouldn’t be too hard for others to do the same.
Click to expand...
I have an older Satechi 3 x USB-A + 1 x USB-C adapter for my MBP plus smaller electronics. It has a detachable power cable ("figure 8", IEC C7) and is extremely handy when travelling. I just need to carry a couple of power cables (usually UK/US/EUR is usually ok, but those cables can be locally sourced almost anywhere), and there are no worries about flimsy replaceable AC plugs. Wall warts are often difficult to connect, cables are much easier.

GaN is good, but wall warts are no-no.
 
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I just want to point out that no one in Europe calls this an "F" plug. It's called Schuko.

In fact, this is the first time I hear this term. It's particularly troublesome since there's an "F connector" but it's a completely unrelated coaxial thing.
 
quatermass said:
That chart is seriously out-of-date! I can just about remember round pin plugs (BS546) - I think the change started after 1945. I doubt you can buy a piece of mains-powered electrical equipment in the UK that has a round pin plug.
Click to expand...
Actually yes you can. It’s the standard connector for stage equipment & lights in UK theatres. 3 round pins, 15amp, no fuse.

Apparently the lack of fuse is to ease fault finding - when you’ve got 150 lamps in operation finding a blown fuse can be a nightmare.

https://stage-electrics.co.uk/media/3186/visual-glossary.pdf (2nd page)

I’m sure I’ve also seen them used in the UK for other industrial equipment that members of the public aren’t supposed to touch, but I can’t remember where or what exactly it was.
 
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