Does anyone happen to know or recommend a USB Magnetic charger for the 16 that would work like the ones that are on the surface products?
I have one that I use for my steam deck / rog ally, but that is only rated to 65 watt not the 180 watt the charger for the framework provides.
Don’t want to fry anything.
I do understand the risk of metal particles but I always check the ones I use and not really been a problem. Not even with the surface ones I have been using for the last 8 or so years daily.
To be honest, if you really don’t want to risk your ports, don’t use 3rd party magnetic adapters.
Companies that have built-in magnetic charging have added protection circuity that usb-c lacks. And none of the 3rd party magnetic adapters ever try to add any, it would add costs. Also, you can’t easily protect high speed data lines.
Yeah, probably not a good idea. Higher voltages increase arcing on contact / disconnect. 180W bumps the voltage to 36v. Metal particles aren’t the only problems with magnetic connectors. There is arcing and stray ESD at the more exposed contacts.
I also don’t think any magnetic solution would be able to provide the fuull 180 watts that the framework charger can supply without frying the cable, adapter with the magnet or port.
1 Like
Hi @Bill_Dolan,
Like @MJ1 said, all the 3rd party magnetic adapters are all for show. They do not have safety and reliability in mind. Hence their cost.
A magnetic charging solution takes a lot of design, engineering, testing, and ultimately does not necessarily deliver much other than the quick “snap on” convenience of plugging the device in.
Microsoft Surface devices have worked ok, though I can say their proprietary design and poor quality power adapters have driven up the cost for just a basic power source.
In reality, the goal of a magnetic connecter is somewhat quick disconnecting either by hand or some someone tripping/yanking, the cord out from the connector.
Being as the Framework design has modular expansion bays. The convenience of using a USBC cable vs. proprietary and the fact for $10 you can replace the expansion card if it gets ruined from a cord being yanked out forcefully is an amazing solution to the issue.
3 Likes
Same here, I don’t care about the 10$ expansion card.
But I care about the Laptop getting crashed on the floor if somebody stumbles over the power cable.
Seriously, one of the underrated advantages. Usb-c is durable, but there are also numerous ways to break it.
Once it became symmetrical/reversible (eg usb-c) the advantages of magnetic mostly disappeared. Once it became only a few $ to replace - the remaining durabilty advantage became nearly moot.
I mean magnetic is nice yes, but it comes at the (large IMHO) cost of requiring dedicated cables.
Personally, i heald off buying a ms surface years ago UNTIL it had usb-c charging, so i could leave the proprietary charger home. That was ~5 years ago, and surprisingly that surface is still with me getting regular use note-taking. And has been charged exclusively via usb-c the whole time!
Now whats bs is M$ fw only allows battery charging to 100% or 50%, so my battery isnt what it used to be. Framework does it right allowing arbitrary SOC maximums (i set 95%)