The issue is, that’s not even enough! For example, the Dell 120 W laptop charger only supports 5V/1A or 20V/6A output, so phones will mostly charge at 5W because they dont support 20V input.
Then there’s all the different charging protocols… Oh boy.
The problem is that the average consumer will have no idea what those numbers mean. If it was as simple as “this charger can output up to X watt”, labeling would probably be fine, but as soon as it gets more complicated than that, you’re beyond what most of the population is able and/or willing to deal with
Yep! In this case, you may go “Oh, 120W is more than my phone’s 20W charging speed, so it’ll be fine,” only to find out that because it’s only available at a voltage higher than the phone supports it’ll be a very slow charger.
I don’t think most consumers want or care to look at what charging profiles their phones and chargers support.
Well, I’m all for universally easy things and a consumer not being stressed, but if we really got to the “I don’t get basic numbers” territory, then go learn some school physics, and maybe that Volts is the pressure in the pipe, Amps is how fast the water flows through it, and Watts is just pressure times flow rate - it’s that simple. Go and fucking learn what is what, there’s enough information in my comment alone.
Maybe that’s a hot take, but I am of the opinion that you shouldn’t need to understand physics for the most basic usage of the device that manages your entire life
I think the complaint is more about the ports on computers, and the answer is for manufacturers to label the ports and for users to read them.
That last part is admittedly hard for a lot of people (myself includes at times).
The issue is, that’s not even enough! For example, the Dell 120 W laptop charger only supports 5V/1A or 20V/6A output, so phones will mostly charge at 5W because they dont support 20V input. Then there’s all the different charging protocols… Oh boy.
I’m not sure how your example is “not even enough”? If the charger is labeled as only having a 5v/1A and a 20V/6A profile, then where is the problem?
The problem is that the average consumer will have no idea what those numbers mean. If it was as simple as “this charger can output up to X watt”, labeling would probably be fine, but as soon as it gets more complicated than that, you’re beyond what most of the population is able and/or willing to deal with
Yep! In this case, you may go “Oh, 120W is more than my phone’s 20W charging speed, so it’ll be fine,” only to find out that because it’s only available at a voltage higher than the phone supports it’ll be a very slow charger. I don’t think most consumers want or care to look at what charging profiles their phones and chargers support.
Well, I’m all for universally easy things and a consumer not being stressed, but if we really got to the “I don’t get basic numbers” territory, then go learn some school physics, and maybe that Volts is the pressure in the pipe, Amps is how fast the water flows through it, and Watts is just pressure times flow rate - it’s that simple. Go and fucking learn what is what, there’s enough information in my comment alone.
Maybe that’s a hot take, but I am of the opinion that you shouldn’t need to understand physics for the most basic usage of the device that manages your entire life