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What Is a GaN (gallium nitride) Charger, and Why Should You Buy One? (www.reviewgeek.com)

submitted 1 year ago by GadgeteerZA to c/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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[–] shortwavesurfer@monero.town 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My thought is faster charging is a better reason for high wattage adapters. If your adapter can put out 240w and your laptop requires 70w to run then your battery would charge at 170w.

[–] deo 1 points 1 year ago

I'd be interested to see how charging wattage and overall battery efficiency correlate. I'd expect there to be deminishing returns at some point, either in battery life or simply utilizing the input power less ideally. I can definitely get behind your point about faster charging being a solid use case, but I wonder what the upper limit for that is.