USB GADGETS FOR MAC HOW TO
USB GADGETS FOR MAC FULL
USB GADGETS FOR MAC PRO

Here’s an example-a 15-inch MacBook Pro will charge fastest with an 87-watt charger (which it’s typically sold with), although it will charge well enough with a 61-watt one. There’s also the financial aspect to consider: a lower-powered charger will replenish a device that supports a higher-powered one, only slower whereas a higher-powered charger won’t charge devices with lower power requirements any faster.

For example, a OnePlus phone will charge from any USB-C charger, but will charge significantly faster if you use a OnePlus charger that supports the company’s own standard, WarpCharge 30. And don’t worry-using a higher-voltage charger will not fry your phone’s battery, since the phone controls the amount of power it draws, not the charger.įurther complicating things, while USB PD is the official USB fast-charging standard, manufacturers including Qualcomm, OnePlus, and Huawei have each developed their own. Apple ships their latest iPhone with a 5-watt charger, but it will charge quickest with one that puts out at least 18 watts, as long as you have a USB-C-to-Lightning cable. Obviously, the charger that comes with a product will work, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best option. Knowing what voltages a charger supports is easy, but finding the right one for a specific device can be a little more complicated. Finding the best charger What? You haven’t read what’s on your charger before? Harry Guinness That’s why it’s possible to charge your smartphone off your computer’s charger, but it takes forever to fuel up your computer with your smartphone’s charger. Plug a smartphone in, however, and it will use one of the lower-power options.

USB GADGETS FOR MAC FULL

So if you plug your MacBook into its charger, it’ll use the full 87 watts. Devices have built-in limits and will reduce the current so they’ll only draw as much power as they’re capable of handling. Now, even though a USB-C charger may support it, you can’t just shoot 100 watts straight into your phone and expect it to work. But USB Power Delivery (USB PD), a feature many USB-C devices support, complicates things by enabling “fast charging.” This means chargers with USB PD can generate between 0.5 and 100 watts by operating at 5, 9, 15, or 20 volts, and between 100 milliamperes and 5 amperes. For USB 1.0, it was 5 volts at 500 milliamperes for a maximum power of 2.5 watts. So, in an effort to get everyone on the same page, the USB standard limits charging to certain ranges. Even if you could generate 1 million watts-and you’d need your own power plant to do so-it would only set your phone on fire, and you with it. So why don’t we just plug 1 million-watt chargers into our phones and have them charge instantly? Unfortunately, there’s safety to consider: the more power involved, the more heat and stress it puts on device components. So to fully charge a laptop in the same amount of time as a phone, you’d need a charger that’s throwing around a lot more power.

USB GADGETS FOR MAC HOW TO

If you’re wondering how to find this information on power supplies you own or are looking to buy, output options are written somewhere on most chargers.īig devices like laptops have much larger batteries than smartphones and other small gadgets (a 15-inch MacBook Pro has a battery eight times as big and powerful as an iPhone X). The higher that number is, the faster a charger will replenish your devices. In other words, simply multiply current and voltage together to get a charger’s total power output. An 87-watt MacBook Pro charger, for example, can provide 20.2 volts at 4.3 amperes (87 watts), 9 volts at 3 amperes (27 watts), or 5.2 volts at 2.4 amperes (12.5 watts). How charging worksĬharging is a factor of three things you probably remember from high school: power (watts), current (amperes or milliamperes), and voltage (volts). If you want to charge all your devices efficiently, you need to understand what’s going on. Have you ever tried to charge your computer from a phone charger? Or an iPad from your computer’s USB port? It happens at a crawl. While this is largely a good thing, it’s not without pitfalls. Now, it’s possible to plug the same charger into your smartphone, tablet, laptop, and soon, I’m sure, your toothbrush. Almost 20 years later, most of the industry is moving toward USB-C, and even Apple, known for doing its own thing, uses USB-C for its latest MacBooks and iPad Pros. Some gadgets were a little more practical and used one of a variety of USB connections, but it almost felt like there were as many standards as manufacturers. Steve Johnson via Unsplashīack in the good old days of the early 2000s, every device had one charger. You can just use the charger that came with your device.

Usb gadgets for mac