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by pimterry 996 days ago
Why on earth have they shipped with a USB-C that you can charge from _and_ a barrel charging connector? Article says exactly the same power delivery on both.

Anybody know what's going on there? Why not drop the barrel and put something else there (like another USB)? Seems bizarre.
2 comments
canadianwriter 996 days ago
If you use the barrel jack you now have an extra USB port you can use for stuff!

If you forget your barrel jack connector you can borrow a USB charger and it'll work!

Win-win!

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pimterry 996 days ago
Couldn't you replace it with another USB-C though? Then you'd always have an extra USB you can use for stuff!
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Cu3PO42 996 days ago
I'm sure you could, but another USB-C port is certainly more expensive than a barrel plug. How significantly this affects the BOM I can't say, but due to the complexity of USB-C I assume it's not totally negligible.

If you want the port to handle PD, various (display) alt modes, high speed data transfer, maybe even TB, you may need a few additional controllers. OTOH having multiple USB-C ports with varying capabilities can be quite confusing.

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fulafel 996 days ago
Don't know their reasons but seems wise to me: USB-C tends to get clogged with lint easily. Also charging port breakage due to handling accidents is pretty common eg by accidentally pulling/twisting the connector sideways, good to have redundancy there.
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