this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Technology

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When you’re on the hunt for a new USB power adaptor, you may come across a few options with gallium nitride (GaN) technology. These charging bricks tend to be a bit expensive. But due to their reduced size and increased charging ability, a GaN charger may be your ideal purchase. It could even help you save money in the long run.

Most USB chargers use silicon semiconductors. Gallium nitride (GaN) is simply a power-efficient alternative to silicon. It allows a charger to achieve small size without a reduction in charging speed or thermal performance. A GaN charger is ideal for travelling or powering several high-wattage devices, such as laptops.

With more and more laptops charging through USB-C, and more phones making use of ultra-fast charging, you'll start to notice that the silicon based chargers can get really hot during charging these devices.

Instead of buying a large silicon-based charger that only has two ports (with a shared throughput), you can buy a GaN charger with four, five, or even six high-speed charging ports.

#technology #chargers #GaN

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[–] joelthelion@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (7 children)

This technology is cool. My only problem with it is that it's going to incentivize even more power-hungry devices.

I came across this post by the framework company a few days ago. They were boasting about their new 240W adapter. My question was: do we really want 240W laptops? Shouldn't we make them smaller and more efficient instead?

[–] daan@lemmy.vanoverloop.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

There's a difference between consuming power to do stuff, and consuming power to charge. More power to charge = faster charging.

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