So for the last year I've owned a Bay Trail ASUS T100 that I got for ~$150. This is not a desktop replacement (I have a nice desktop at home that I TeamViewer into most of the time), but it certainly get's the job done with MS Office, web browsing, emails, etc.
But now to my main point: one of my favorite features is that it will charge with *any* micro USB cable. I say *any* because it does charge slowly, and if it's not connected to a 2A+ charger, then it will discharge during heavy use. Despite this, being able to charge my phone and laptop with the same charger has been the best productivity thing that I've ever encountered. The amount of times I've shamed friends who are walking around our library desperate for a "MacBook charger, the old one" or an "HP charger" is absurd. What's more, I have a Kimachi 10KmAh that has two ports. Even in a worst case scenario (phone dead, laptop dead) I could plug BOTH into the power brick and within 10m I have a working phone, and the laptop can just sit in my backpack plugged in until it's fully charged.
Recently, with the advent of Skylake and Alpine Ridge, USB-C and USB-PD have the chance to become "mainstream". So far, the only laptops that I know that support USB-PD are Apple's Macbook, the DELL XPS 13 and Google's Chromebook, with the two former having some sort of not fully in spec implementation.
Long story short, let's get some discussion on how current and future (and maybe other mobile devices) will implement these features. I envision 1-2 years from now when we only use 1 cable for all our mobile devices, when we can fully charge any mobile device with any charge from 0-50% in only an hour, and where your phone can charge your laptop, etc. I personally am waiting for a sub $500 laptop with USB-PD, and a sub $400 phone with good battery life (i.e. 14nm and >4000mAh hopefully) and USB-C/USB-PD.
But now to my main point: one of my favorite features is that it will charge with *any* micro USB cable. I say *any* because it does charge slowly, and if it's not connected to a 2A+ charger, then it will discharge during heavy use. Despite this, being able to charge my phone and laptop with the same charger has been the best productivity thing that I've ever encountered. The amount of times I've shamed friends who are walking around our library desperate for a "MacBook charger, the old one" or an "HP charger" is absurd. What's more, I have a Kimachi 10KmAh that has two ports. Even in a worst case scenario (phone dead, laptop dead) I could plug BOTH into the power brick and within 10m I have a working phone, and the laptop can just sit in my backpack plugged in until it's fully charged.
Recently, with the advent of Skylake and Alpine Ridge, USB-C and USB-PD have the chance to become "mainstream". So far, the only laptops that I know that support USB-PD are Apple's Macbook, the DELL XPS 13 and Google's Chromebook, with the two former having some sort of not fully in spec implementation.
Long story short, let's get some discussion on how current and future (and maybe other mobile devices) will implement these features. I envision 1-2 years from now when we only use 1 cable for all our mobile devices, when we can fully charge any mobile device with any charge from 0-50% in only an hour, and where your phone can charge your laptop, etc. I personally am waiting for a sub $500 laptop with USB-PD, and a sub $400 phone with good battery life (i.e. 14nm and >4000mAh hopefully) and USB-C/USB-PD.
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