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Silicon's so old school. The latest generation of power chargers are based on Gallium Nitride (GaN) and they're smaller, more powerful and much more flexible. Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ explains what's new and takes a close look at both the Spigen PowerArc 20W USB-C charger (perfect for smartphones and tablets) and the AUKEY Omnia USB-C 100W PD Charger (great for laptops). They're both a major jump from the OEM chargers that came with your devices, thanks to gallium nitride, as Dave explains...
Find the Spigen PowerArc 20W at https://amzn.to/3lgYhUy
and the AUKEY Omnia 100W at https://amzn.to/2KGiMxj
Don't forget to check out the GaN Alliance too at https://www.GaNFast.com/
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Small charger, big power
0:02
Let's check these out. Dave Taylor here, and I want to talk about power chargers
0:13
Now, these are these ubiquitous things like this that you need to charge all your devices
0:19
whether they're smartphones, tablets, computers, who knows what the heck you have
0:23
But you always need to have some interface that plugs into the wall and outputs the correct wattage
0:29
amperage and voltage so that you can charge your devices. Now, generally speaking, the chargers that come with your devices aren't very good
0:38
They're inexpensive so they can actually ship lots of them and save some money
0:42
but that doesn't mean that they're great. Enter a new generation. These are gallium nitride chargers, and these are really cool
0:51
So gallium nitride is a replacement for silicon on circuit boards. It is a crystalline transparent crystalline material
0:59
And it gives the ability to work with higher voltage, with less energy loss, and it allows for smaller units
1:06
This unit replaces this unit. And not only does it replace it, but it's actually more flexible and generates more power
1:14
How cool is that? So let me start with the other one, nonetheless. This little guy is absolutely one of my favorites
1:20
This is the Spiggin PowerArk 20-watt USB-C charger. It is perfect for smart devices like phones and tablets
1:30
In fact, it's designed to work for the iPhone 12 series. It generates 20 watts
1:36
Now, when Apple shipped the iPhone 12, I have a 12 Pro, and it comes in this box, and people that have had iPhones before say, that box is mighty thin
1:47
The reason it's mighty thin is it doesn't come with a charger, so you're on your own, right
1:51
So you can buy Apple's classic mainstay. This is the Apple 5 watt charger
1:57
Is it 5 watts? Well, good luck figuring that out. As you can see in this inset, there's all sorts of tiny type on here, but it is mighty hard to figure
2:05
out what's going on. Turns out 5 volts at 1 amp equals 5 watts
2:10
So luckily, the math's pretty easy in this regard. So this is a 5 watt charger
2:14
And then this device that's only a little bit bigger is a 20 watt charger, which means that the 20
2:22
watt charger does a better job and it charges faster, right? How much faster? Well, I charge my iPhone 12
2:30
pro 40% in an hour, which means that it's somewhere around two hours or so to do a full charge
2:37
but charging on modern devices is a little funky because going from zero to 40% is a different
2:44
amount of time than going from 60 to 100 Why Because as your devices get closer to 100 they slow down the charge to maximize and extend battery life Now that really great because you don want to have to
2:59
replace your batteries every 18 months, but it does mean that it's a little tricky to convey
3:05
actual power delivery speeds. So 40% was what I got on my phone going from like 30 to, I don't
3:13
know, 70%, whatever that number is. And this works with PD power delivery
3:19
It can handle anything from 100 to 240 volts, 50 or 60 hertz
3:24
and it outputs, like I said, a solid 20 watts, and it will step that down for different devices
3:30
The idea of this whole PD power delivery is there's a negotiation
3:34
between the charger and the device to figure out what's the maximum wattage I can handle safely
3:40
So that all happens magically, have good cable, that makes that easier
3:45
But it might be generating 15 watts. It might be generating 8 watts depending on your device
3:50
But it can handle all the way up to 20 watts, which is great
3:54
Because this guy is 5 watts and that's it. If you don't need 5 watts, you're out of luck
3:59
If you want more, it can't do that. So that one went away
4:03
So it goes. So let me give you a couple of close-up shots
4:07
So on the end, you can see that there's on the bottom, there's a little tiny LED that lights up blue
4:12
lights up blue. This shows you when it's active and delivering power. And then on the other side
4:17
as is with all of these modern devices, the prongs flip in and out. Very handy. I will tell you what
4:24
the price is when we get to the end of this review. So stick with me there. Now, let's talk about
4:30
the bigger task, which is charging a computer. So this is a MacBook Pro. I've also tested it on
4:36
like a Microsoft Service and a Dell two and one and all that. And this unit turns out
4:42
to be really fantastic. This is the AU-K-O-K-O-Nia USBC 100-Watt PD charger. It's a mouthful
4:51
But basically, it is nice and simple. It has one USBC on that end. It has the flip-down prongs for a wall
5:00
plug on the other end. And that's everything. So this compares with this from Apple. Now, I can tell you that
5:07
these Apple churchers are mighty spendy. And Apple has not yet moved together
5:12
lithium nitride, they will, and then their chargers will become much nicer
5:16
Meanwhile, get a third-party one. So there's your size reference, but there's also some other interesting numbers here
5:24
On MacOS, there's a system report you can get to that you can look at power
5:30
and you can see what is the operating seeing as the input charge value
5:36
So I plugged in this 20 watt Is it going to do anything Well here what system reports says and you can get to System Report by going to Apple menu about this Mac and then clicking on the System Report button then look for power
5:50
Excuse me. So this shows 20 watts and it's unable to charge, but I'll tell you a little secret
5:55
If you're really in a pinch and you're really desperate, little tiny chargers like this
6:00
can give you a little bit of a charge if you turn the computer off
6:05
You sleep it, whatever it is. if it's using zero power, 20 watts will very slowly give it some charge if you really have to do that
6:13
Not recommended. Obviously, it's lower than the computer wants, but it says no charge, and that's not entirely true
6:20
So then I plugged in the Apple, and this is the 87 watt charger, and this is super interesting
6:26
because you can see in the system report that it shows 87 watts as the charger
6:32
but it's only using 60 watts from it to charge the computer
6:36
So why not buy the 61 watt charger? That is an excellent point
6:41
Buy the 61 watt charger. And then there's this. And this is, as I said, the AU-key Omnia
6:48
And this one also reports and system report 60 watts of charge
6:54
So these deliver the same power, even though this one is less expensive and more flexible and has much more capacity
7:02
because other devices that can take more than 60 watts. watts. This can deliver up to 100 watts of power. Now, it also works with 100 to 240 volts
7:13
50 to 60 Hertz. It has PD3, which is power delivery. So again, it has the ability to negotiate
7:20
maximum wattage with the device you're charging. Super important. You really want that. And then
7:25
its output, this can charge a phone. This can charge a tablet. This can charge anything. In fact
7:31
it can do five volts, nine volts, 12 volts, or 15 volts at 3m
7:36
and it can do 20 volts at 5 amps. And you basically multiply those numbers
7:40
So 20 volts at 5 amps gives you 100 watts, right? So this can handle and output a lot of different power levels, which is great
7:49
because then you have one flexible device. And let's be honest, you don't really want to carry this in your pocket
7:55
This is big and heavy. This is actually lighter in addition to being smaller
8:00
So how small is it? Well, it is 2.5 inches by 2.4 inches by 1.1
8:06
1.3 inches and it's 6.6 ounces. How much charge did I get on my computer? I got a 56% charge in an hour
8:14
Now generally when I test charge I turn off the computer or sleep the computer to do that
8:20
Because if you're using the computer, particularly if you're using like CPU intensive software while you're charging
8:26
then obviously some of that power is going to be routed to running the computer rather than giving you full charging capability So that a good thing to know If you really need to charge your computer turn it off plug it in and go have a walk
8:41
And you'll get more charged in if you took that same amount of time while you were working
8:45
So how much do these cost? Well, before we get to the cost, let me ask if you can subscribe to my channel
8:52
Really appreciate when you do that. It's the little red box on the lower right side, a click or a tap, and boom, you're subscribed
8:59
Right. Okay. Now, start with a little guy. This, one of my favorites, is the Spiggin Power Arc 20-watt USB-C charger, perfect for any little device, tablets or phones. And look how small that is
9:13
Honestly, you could put this on your keychain. It would work great. In fact, there's an idea for you, Spig, and put a little keychain loop on it. Why not, right? So, this is 1999 minus 30% right now. I don't know if you'll be able to see that when you go to Amazon, but it's 1999
9:29
at amazon.com that is a no-brainer buy another one put it in a drawer in your office have it in your
9:35
purse or your backpack or something as it you know needed for emergencies this is a great little
9:42
charger then we get to the bigger one this is the AU key omnia USBc 100 watt pd charger and this is
9:52
4599 minus 30% right now at amazon dot com so both of these are how
9:59
some screaming deals right now and even at full price they are solid options and I
10:04
can tell you last time I priced out on Apple Charger it was closer to a hundred
10:08
dollars when this is closer to forty five dollars you know even without the
10:13
discount this is obviously you buy two of these for the cost of one of these now I
10:17
will again reiterate have a really good USB Pic to USBC cord I see people
10:24
complain that these sort of third-party devices don't charge your Macbook they will
10:29
you just need a good cable. So if you plug in something like this and your computer says not charging
10:34
try a different cable. You'll be surprised. There is actually a difference and some of them work better than others
10:40
So that's all I got. I'm going to go back and charge all my devices with these glorious little tiny things
10:47
And I hope you're intrigued by gallium nitride and we'll start looking for it because it is the future
10:52
This, that's the past. I would toss it off camera, but it's big and heavy and dangerous. So we won't do that
10:58
In any case, I'm going to charge everything, which means I hope to see you in my next video
#Computer Hardware
#Consumer Electronics
#Electronics & Electrical