India to mandate USB-C connectors on smartphones and laptops by 2026

schizoidman@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.ml – 127 points –
India to mandate USB-C connectors on smartphones and laptops by 2026
gsmarena.com
15

What has the EU ever done for us?

Yeah, again it's EU setting a standard and the world is to follow. It's amazing what we the people actually CAN do, if we just stand up to big corporations.

They need to mandate that the laptop USB C connectors be located on a user replaceable daughterboard. They are easy to break and hard to replace. Sending a motherboard to the landfill because of a broken charge connector should be unacceptable.

Well it's a good thing at the moment, I am loath for governments to dictate technical specifications. I'd much rather they say electronics devices must adhere to a modern open standard. And if you are introducing your new standard, it has to be patented royalty free for other people to use

I'm sure you're not nearly as loathe as you think.

I'm sure you like being able to plug any device into any power outlet and have it work correctly and safely every time without even having to think about it.

I'm sure you like being able to use your cell phone and wifi without it being an unusable mess of different technologies all trying to use the same frequencies.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

When an aspect of technology becomes far reaching enough that it effects essentially everyone and every device, and there are far reaching consequences to it not being interoperable, then that's exactly the type of situation where it's good for government to work with experts in the field and decide on an official enforced standard

No, I'm pretty f****** loathe.

Governments dictating technical standards, is fine if it's a regulatory body that's dynamic, but bad if the technical standard is encodified in the law itself.

In the United States the American national standards association, as well as other bodies, set standards, and the government can dictate that you need to use a standard for mainstream device. That's fine

But a lot saying you must use USB-C, that's crazy. USB-C has a limited lifespan. Plus they'll be innovation in the future.

The only problem I have with this is that USB-C PD can only go to 240w, which is fine for most laptops but my current gaming laptop has a 240w power brick and it only has a 3060 in it. The 3080 and 3090 variants had 300w+ bricks IIRC.

I don't live in India, but I hope gaming laptops get some sort of exception if their power draw can exceed the specification limits.

To be honest: a laptop that requires 240W of power is really not a portable laptop anymore, is it?

The battery wouldn’t last even half an hour, and that would be with the maximum 100Wh you can take on an airplane.

Still considered a laptop, they have low power modes for unplugged use.

I can imagine you can do dual inputs? So technically 480w?

I don't think that you would team them, but add a barrel jack for the big charger.

I suspect they can still include the barrel PD jack if they so choose. For example, my MacBook Pro still has MagSafe, but I can also charge via the USB-C ports.

Amazing. Great job, India, and all other regions who also have passed this.