Why do laptops have special adapters in their plugs?
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The bricks on a laptop power cord are their power supply
It lowers the voltage of the wall socket (usually 120v or 220v) to something that can charge the laptops battery and also power it. Typically around 19 volts.
Computer power supplies do a similar thing producing 12v and 5v power. But why is a computer power supply internal, but a laptops is a separate brick? Because building it into a laptop would make it heavier and bulkier.
Next gen laptops though are starting to use USB-C for charging which will help standardize a common power supply for laptops.
I assume you are referring to the power converter found on the charge cable? It converts the 110 volts of wall power down to watts that the laptop can use without blowing the battery or circuits. It’s too heavy and bulky and hot to include a converter inside a laptop.
Because the manufacturers make more money providing something that is proprietary if it had to be replaced.
While the barrel shapes and sizes often tend to follow certain standards(ignoring certain odd shaped plugs they try to use sometimes), along with similar voltage requirements, the average person will struggle to make a 3rd party or universal adapter work
Cell phones used to be similar with tons of different sized barrels and plugs to be able to charge them. USB standardized that
The newer usb-c format and standard is bringing the same ease of charging to laptops, albeitly slowly, thanks to its ability to provide the higher power requirements that high draw devices like laptops and tablets need.
A lot of this standardization has been pushed through by consumer friendly regulations issued from the e.u. (by threat of massive fines for non-compliance)
It sounds like you’re talking about the “brick”.
It convert the AC power from your socket to DC for the laptop. Electronics generally runs on DC, so it needs converted.
Desktop computers need DC too, but because they’re bigger in general it’s not uncommon for the “brick” to be inside the computer.
Exactly what voltage of DC can vary a bit between manufacturers. Same with the physical plug that goes in to the laptop: each manufacturer may have their own unique design that theyve decided suits them best.
There is work ongoing to standardise this. I believe usb c has been agreed (forced) upon manufacturers. Same with phones.
This has huge advantages for the consumer because we now have one standard plug that fits all our devices. It also reduces waste as we won’t necessarily need to be provided a new charger (and dispose of our old one) when we buy a new device.
Personally I’m a little sceptical of the standardisation process because laptop requirements can differ significantly from phones, and I’m slightly concerned that forcing usb c will be a limiting factor on future units. But I’ve not actually looked in to the technical specs so I hope the people making decisions have thought that far ahead.
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