Yes, a laptop can be charged with a phone charger but it depends on the type of USB.
Have you wondered if we can charge laptop using mobile charger or power bank or mobile phone?
Yes, it is possible to charge your laptop using mobile charger or mobile phone battery but it also depends on the type of USB present in the laptop. There are mainly three types of USB port:
- USB Type A
- USB Type B
- USB Type C
USB Type-A is the most common USB port found on most of the laptops. These USB port of laptop can be used to supply power (5V, 500mA) to small devices such as Arduino, and small led. The second type of port that is Type-B USB, commonly known as micro USB is used in mobile phones. Then comes the latest USB Port Type-C which can be found in the latest laptops and smartphones. They have the ability to provide high power and high speed (20 Gbit/s).
USB Type-B ports are not found in laptops and USB Type-B won’t be able to charge because they are not designed for charging. So USB Type-C is our hero who has the ability to provide fast charging in smartphones and laptops.
Let understand what USB Type-C technology is.
USB Type-C is a 24 pins rotationally symmetrical USB connector, slightly larger than micro USB. Alternate modes of USB-C allow us to replace the output HDMI, VGA, DisplayPort, 3.5mm headphone jack, or other types of connections. You might have noticed that nowadays the latest smartphones don’t have 3.5mm headphone jack. You can use the charging port of the smartphone as headphone jack using Type C to 3.5mm adapter.
Here are some of the benefits of USB type-C:
- Faster charging with more power delivery
- Long life of charging ports
- The alternate mode that can replace other connectors such as headphone jack
- Reduction in thickness of laptops
- It is reversible, therefore you don’t have to worry about how you are plugging it
If we have a Type-C mobile charger, we can use that charger to supply power to our laptop as well. But there are some laptops that cannot be charged using type C. They can be charged only using their official proprietary charger.
Now the question which comes to mind is that can we charge our laptops if we use USB A to Type C connector.
The answer is no, we cannot charge our laptop even if we use USB–A to USB–C connector. Because the port present in the laptop does not have charging abilities.
Can we charge the laptop using mobile type-C charger with the same speed of official proprietary charger of the laptop?
The mobile charger of the smartphone will slowly charge the laptop battery because of the ratings of the larger. The mobile charger has a low wattage rating as compared to a laptop charger. Most of the smartphone chargers have a voltage of 5V and 10-30 watts of power while laptops having a voltage between 16 to 22 volts and a power range of 32 to 88 watts. Therefore, a smartphone charger will not able to match the speed of the laptop’s charger.
There are some laptops such as HP’s Spectre x2 that cannot be charged with other chargers. But their laptops such as Apple Macbook Pro that allows you to charge with the other chargers.
Do you know you can even charge your laptop with mobile battery.
Unless mentioned, it always risky to use other chargers instead of official ones. In some cases, it might damage the device. Therefore, always take precautions before charging your laptop or smartphone with other chargers.
Here are some of the latest gadgets using Type-C port.
