UGreen Nexode 140W GaN Charger Assessment (CD289) – MBReviews | Saga Tech

The newest semiconductor revolution introduced us GaN expertise, which began out timidly, providing 10-20W in a barely extra compact casing than conventional chargers, however shortly gained momentum and the producer grew to become a lot bolder.

That is how we ended up with moveable chargers able to outputting 140W (and extra) from a single USB port, whereas protecting warmth loss to a minimal, so it isn’t troublesome to drive a number of laptops on the identical time. I have to put extra emphasis on the moveable facet as a result of a few of these chargers could be carried in a pocket (an even bigger one, however the level nonetheless stands).

I attempted the UGreen 100W just a few months in the past and it appears that evidently the producer determined to launch a 140W GaN charger as properly, which might put it in direct competitors with Apple’s 140W charger, in addition to the opposite producers, akin to Kovol (with their Dash charger). of 140W).

Apple tried to shut the hole on third-party producers when it mainly left the charger out of the field for its iPhones, however its 140W GaN charger solely has one accessible USB port, whereas the 140W UGreen Nexode charger has three accessible. . , together with a USB-A port.

And there’s one other accent that UGreen has added within the package deal that has pleasantly shocked me and that could be a USB-C cable! Lastly somebody added a wire and it is twisted; it additionally measures roughly 5 ft (1.5 meters), which is lengthy sufficient for many purposes.

The UGreen Nexode 140W charger is extra compact than the Kovol Dash 140W (which was surprisingly small by itself), measuring 3.0 x 3.0 x 1.4 inches (7.6 x 7.6 x 3.5 cm). . It isn’t the smallest charger on the market, however for 140W output, it’s extremely compact, plus the retractable plug ensures it will simply slip right into a bag (and even pocket).

Non-US variations do not have this luxurious, as a result of the plug can be fastened and stating (clearly). The case is manufactured from plastic with three fused components that create a pleasant visible impact, however the charger feels a bit unusual within the hand. Similar to plastic it could actually bend, even when it would not. Just like the 100W charger, the UGreen Nexode 140W doesn’t have an influence LED to let the gadget is related to an influence supply.

But it surely has three USB ports. The highest one is a USB-A port that may go as much as 22.5W, so it is appropriate for non-demanding gadgets, however what’s attention-grabbing is the primary USB-C port as a result of it could actually go as much as 140W by itself. How is that attainable?

Evidently UGreen has paid loads of consideration to the Energy Supply 3.1 expertise that grew to become accessible not too way back. What PD 3.1 does is elevate the fastened voltage to 28V, permitting energy ranges of 140W. You possibly can go additional because the voltage will also be 36V and 48V, permitting 180W and 240W energy output respectively.

In our case, the UGreen Nexode 140W is what could be referred to as an entry-level mannequin, so it nonetheless stored the scale compact. The secondary USB-C port can go as much as 100W when it is the one port in use. For those who add one other gadget to USB-C, the output of each drops to 65W every.

Additionally, utilizing both of the 2 USB-C ports along side the USB-A port will restrict the output to 100W (so no change for the secondary USB-C port). For those who use all three ports on the identical time, solely the 2 USB-C ports are affected, the primary taking place to 65W, whereas the second USB-C is proscribed to 45W.

As for the marketed output for the primary USB-C port, it’s 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/3A, 15V/3A, 20V/5A, and 28V/5A. For the secondary USB-C, it’s 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/3A, 15V/3A, and 20V/5A, whereas for the USB-A port, it’s 5V/3A, 4.5V/5A, 5V /3A, 9V/2A and 12V/1.5A.

As with each different charger I’ve tried, I plugged the 140W UGreen Nexode right into a 13-inch MacBook Professional and whereas it could not attain the marketed 140W when plugged into the primary USB-C port, I noticed 56W, which it is vitally near the efficiency of Kovol 140W.

The voltage was 19.97V and the amperage ranged from 2.7 to 2.8A. There was no distinction in output between USB-C 1 and a pair of as I did not have a tool highly effective sufficient to exceed 100 W. However nonetheless I did some attention-grabbing assessments.

I related an iPhone 12 to the secondary USB-C whereas charging the MacBook Professional and it was ready to attract a mean of 21W, with voltage secure at 9.09V (amperage ranged from 2.13 to 2.17A). However I do want to say that plugging and unplugging a secondary cable into both USB-C port will trigger the opposite to energy off for a short second and recalculate the ability output.

It is a downside while you join gadgets that require a continuing stream of energy. USB-A will not be affected and has no affect on USB-C ports, so it has a unique driver. That is confirmed by the thermal photograph which reveals that the UGreen Nexode will get a bit hotter nearer to the USB-A port and cooler subsequent to the extra highly effective USB-C ports.

There may be another factor I ought to point out and it is probably not the secondary gadget that causes charging to pause on the USB-C ports, it is the straightforward act of connecting a cable. For instance, I related all three USB ports to some gadgets, which restricted the ability output of the secondary USB-C port to 45W.

In my check, it confirmed 43W, which is shut sufficient (some overload), however after unplugging the gadget from the first USB-C, whereas protecting the cable related, there was no change within the output of the second USB-C. Because of this you shouldn’t go away cables related to the charger as they’ll affect the output (though it sounds a bit ridiculous).

One other factor I wished to verify was whether or not the UGreen Nexode 140W charger attracts a considerable quantity of energy whereas in idle mode. I noticed that it wants round 0.05W, so nothing substantial. Lastly, I checked the ability output of the USB-A port and it averaged 9W when related to an AGM Glory Professional. The voltage was 5.21V and the amperage ranged from 1.77 to 1.8A.