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Saudi Arabia mandates all electronic devices to use USB-C charging ports from 2025 (www.gsmarena.com)

submitted 1 year ago by schizoidman@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can you currently buy anything that would power a 3080 laptop from Walgreens? Not sure what point you're trying to make. They're standardizing the port not the chargers or the cables.

How can you complain about the government forcing a single standard on us while also complaining that there's too much variation in the market?

You also can't use a $20 USB-C charger to power a refrigerator, but are you upset that they both use the same wall socket?

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can you currently buy anything that would power a 3080 laptop from Walgreens? Not sure what point you’re trying to make. They’re standardizing the port not the chargers or the cables.

This is my point. They haven't standardized anything but the shape of the plug. It's a stupid law. USB is NOT a standard. It is many standards. USB-C and do 5V, 9V, 12V, 20V. And USB cables are not all capable of the different voltages and current either.

So what problem has been solved? There will still be myriad chargers and combinations of things that do and don't work. The shape of the adapter will just be the same. Groovy.

You also can’t use a $20 USB-C charger to power a refrigerator, but are you upset that they both use the same wall socket?

That wall socket puts out a reasonably standard voltage (depending on country) and a reasonably standard amperage.

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So how is it an improvement to have the same myriad of different charging standards but also multiple different port configurations? Cables are capable of all these voltages but the charging circuitry is not and your USB-PD laptop charger will charge phones and anything else that share the same port. Adding a different port just ensures that you must buy different chargers/cables for each device. It also means that all accessories are useless once a manufacturer changes their proprietary port design.

I won't argue that they could do a better job unifying additional standards like power delivery and data transfer speeds, but eliminating useless variations is an improvement regardless of how you want to spin it.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

So how is it an improvement to have the same myriad of different charging standards but also multiple different port configurations?

If you think that's my argument then you, and a dozen or so others, have sorely misunderstood anything I'm saying.

The purpose for these laws is ostensibly to "reduce e-waste" which is complete BS. And I know it's BS because practically everyone arguing with me is NOT making that argument. It's all about personal conveniences which is an abuse of state power and often has unintended consequences.