And people will be dismembered if they fail to comply.
USB-D will be the new standard just in time for this.
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Well that’s handy, because thanks to the EU that’s what everything will be using anyway.
What else are they going to mandate? That sand remains course and irritating? Or more likely demand that the rest of the world stops laughing at their Jetsons city idea.
This goes way further than EU rules.
EU regulation only mandates this for phones. This also covers non-phone electronics, such as mice, keyboards, flashlights, handheld fans, ebooks etc. As of 2026, it also applies to laptops.
There is a second stage, starting from April 1, 2026, which will apply to laptops and portable computers.
I’m with them on small devices using USB C, but all laptops is a pretty tall task. Can gaming laptops that need a high voltage even use USB-C? They already struggle with massive charging bricks and thick cables.
your gaming laptop is struggling because gaming laptops are scams. you’ll never get the performance you want and you’ll pay the premium anyways.
Will this global push end up limiting miniaturization of electronics? Even if it does, may still be a worthwhile tradeoff.
It aims to eliminate waste by reducing the number of cords and plugs required for various devices. It will surely have to be upgraded and miniaturized as tech progresses, but for now it’s one everyone is agreeing on.
One aspect to consider for miniature devices is wireless charging. My watch and my headphones don’t even have a port
The problem with these types of mandates is it locks us into standards and makes change hard. Imagine if they had done this when the terrible USB port was dominant.
Or, it gives all the power to the USB group. They have a terrible track record (USB-C is a mess).
The other problem is all the cheap devices that have a USB-C port, but will not charge from a real USB-C to USB-C cable. They are the same old USB ports electrically with a new shape.
These are bad laws with good intents.
I’m not sure about the SA one, but the EU variant of that law already has this thought through.
It has allowances already for new emerging standards. If USB-D came out, there would be zero law changes required.
always amazed by people who think “well, if we accept USB-C, we will never be able to have any future tech!” as if the regulation hasnt thought of that.
God that last one drives me up a fucking wall. My partner’s laptop refuses to charge with anything except the officially supported power adapter, even though it’s just a USB-C connector. Everything I’ve plugged it into has been rated for the 100W that the laptop needs to charge, but the damned device locks out anything except official chargers under the guise of safety.
Nintendo Switch did/does the same
That’s because the Switch’s USB port isn’t actually a USB-C. Their port falls outside of the standard size/dimension specs, because they wanted the Switch to slide smoothly into the dock instead of having a positive click like a standard USB-C should.
This is why using a standard USB-C on your Switch can actually brick the device. Since the port is non-standard, the pins are much easier to accidentally short when plugging a standard USB-C into it. There was a big string of people complaining about bricked devices shortly after the Switch launched, and eventually players just learned to only use the official Switch chargers. But that’s only necessary because Nintendo told the USB-C standard to go fuck itself, and made a port that is almost the same (and will technically accept a standard USB-C port) but does everything slightly differently.
The Switch charger also has a power switching option, since the Switch draws more power when it’s docked than when you plug it in directly. So the power supply is set up to detect whether or not the dock is connected, so it can supply more power.
There is a second stage, starting from April 1, 2026, which will apply to laptops and portable computers.
I hate this type of legislation. Almost zero USB chargers can power a laptop. But politicians don’t know that. So this won’t reduce the number of chargers. Unless they’re requiring all charges support the full PD spec?
Leave standards to experts.
Edited: Yes i fucking know many laptops use USB-C power now. You’re not smart in telling me this. I mean that most USB chargers are cheap crap that can’t put out enough power to run a laptop. Not all USB is the same.
It does not say that it has to ONLY have UBC-C charging, my laptop will charge from USB-C and the dedicated charging port. I wonder if that would be complaint.
What do you mean? My M1 MacBook charges just fine on USB-C. Do you mean that 1A USB chargers can’t do the job? Cause they can’t
yes - this is exactly what I mean. They’ve legislated the interface but not the standard.
???
Most laptops charge over USB C nowadays
Leave standards to experts.
That’s what everybody did at first. It gave us a different connector for each device. After a few decades, there are still competing standards. Either the experts are incompetent, or the business environment they’re in doesn’t incentivize single standards.
Or, and go with me here, it’s a non-issue? Like it’s fine to have multiple standards for different uses?
All they did was standardize the shape of the connector. Not the voltage, power output, etc. So you’ll still have multiple competing standards and it will be a bit more confusing as “not all USB chargers will be able to power your laptop.”
I run an M1 Macbook off USB-C daily.
Not sure I get your complaint, most people will just use the charger their laptop comes with. With this legislation that charger would be a usb-c and therefore able to power most other devices so you’d only need to bring your laptop charger when you travel, I do this now with my Mac charger which works with my phone, switch, headphones, vape etc. , reducing the amount of chargers you need. Sure someone might lose their charger and buy a cheap one or just bring their phone charger and realize it doesn’t work, but that’s there problem for not researching and they’ll learn that they need a special charger for their laptop. We shouldn’t let a few idiots ruin things for everyone.
They’re adopting the standards created by the experts from the USB consortium, which is comprised of all the large electronics manufacturing companies. If they’re not expert enough then who is?
The experts know that ‘not all USB-C is the same’. You pick up a $20 USB-C charger from Walgreens you think that’s going to run your nvidia 3080 laptop??
