What They Say
We reported on the latest update to the USB Power Delivery specification yesterday. This boosts the peak power available under the specification to 240W (48V @ 5 amps). (USB Promoter Group Boosts PD to 240W)
What We Think
I was thinking about this after I wrote yesterday’s article and it occurred to me that the new PD standard will allow a new kind of USB Type-C monitor. As discussed yesterday, you could make gaming monitors with much more power to support gaming notebooks (e.g. the Asus TUF Dash is rated at 200W). However, this is likely to add substantial cost to a monitor that might not be needed by all users. So supposing you did something else?
Up to now, there have been two classes of monitors described as USB Type-C – one with power available to charge and power notebooks – typically 65W or 90W (we hear that more are moving to 90W). We could call those USB Type C source devices. The other type have been very light monitors that are designed to be powered by USB, lets call those sink devices.
Sink devices have, as far as I am aware (and if any reader can update me on this, I’d be pleased to hear) been mainly 15-17″ devices aimed at being extra displays for notebooks. However, if companies (such as Anker or Corsair for example) start to produce desktop power supplies or Thunderbolt hubs in the ‘hundreds of watts’ class, you could make big desktop monitors that are themselves powered by Type C. That would mean no power supply with the monitor as standard. It would be easy to offer an optional power supply.
Of course, a lot of buyers like the cleanliness of a single power cord to an integrated PSU, but at high power you have to deal with some serious cost and thermal issues. (BR)
