What do you get when you cross a laptop docking station and a power supply unit? A precursor of what future notebook chargers may look like…
A new device – essentially a docking station with a built-in power supply – may provide some indication as to what the chargers will be for best laptops could be of the future.
The Sparkle TC-9321L docking station is equipped with two USB-C ports (one 3.2 and one 2.0), two USB-A 3.2 Gen2 ports, HDMI and Ethernet ports, in addition to SD card and microSD card slots. But the most remarkable aspect of this device is the built-in power supply that can supply up to 60W of power to devices via the USB-C port.
The device is compatible with Windows and MacOS devices, in addition to Chromebooks, Android smartphones and tablets, as well as iPhones and iPads equipped with USB-C 3.2 Gen2 ports, according to PC watch. As such, it can be used with macOS 11.3 or later, Windows 10 or later, Chrome OS, Android, iPadOS, and iOS 17.0.2 or later.
The laptop power supply of the future
Its dimensions of 78 x 152 x 36mm also mean it’s fairly compact, and at 324 grams it’s also ideal for hybrid workers and those who want to work on the go – and even means they don’t have to take their power sources with them .
The Sparkle is already an impressively large and functional docking station, but the addition of a power supply of up to 60 W can make conventional notebook chargers with heavy power bricks a thing of the past.
It could even come to the best portable laptop battery chargers and power banks.
People who have to work on the road, especially if they have some of the best business laptopstend to look for machines that are thin and lightweight, but this often means compromising on functionality.
By including a large number of ports in what is essentially the charger, those looking for the smallest and thinnest laptops no longer has to compromise on functionality.
Such a device could also make the laptops of the future even thinner and lighter – not only by removing all unnecessary ports, but also by incorporating additional components, such as the GPU, or even extra storage space for backups, for example.