[SlowRobotAhead]

WOW... This is a horribly misleading article and discussion. The silicon of the switching circuit PALES in comparison to the real magic here.

The wattage capability and size of these chargers is only possible because of US “power delivery”. These chargers are NOT hitting 30+ watts at 5V traditional USB voltage. Yes, there is another power and ground wire pair in the cable, but iirc they got smaller in diameter.

These devices are small and cool there because your device can charge at up to 20V now.

GAN didn’t outright make that happen on the source or sink side. It didn’t hurt, it’s cool, but the difference is smaller than they are implying by comparing a 5V device to a 20V device.

An article that goes on about fast charging and never says “20V” once is not telling you the full story.

[Terretta]

You can falsify your own argument by checking out the range of PD2 chargers from Anker or RavPower, observing the models with similar wattage and same multi voltages including up to 20V, and then noting the size differences.

They’re not making the new models bigger just for fun.

[goosehonk]

I believe the point was that GaN semiconductors make these chargers more compact, cooler, and lighter than their silicon competitors.

[SlowRobotAhead]

But that isn’t really the case. These chargers wouldn’t be pushing 30+W to device at this size if they weren’t also at 20V. One way before the other!

Lock it down to 5V and the size goes way up. The comparison to Apple’s 5V and 5W from like 2008 is at best misleading.

Are these smaller because of better silicon, yes, are they marginally smaller and the real difference is USB pd, also yes.

[Terretta]

No, the real difference isn’t PD2. They have models with identical specs where size difference is not the PD but material.