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Why are there chargers available for the same laptop with different wattages?


I have Acer Aspire 7745G and I’m curious why I can find supported chargers with different wattages?


Here are the specs for each charger:




Answer




The chargers most likely have the same connector to the laptop and the manufacturers are offering higher wattage to make their chargers more appealing to a larger market of Acer laptop users.


Without knowing anything about these laptops — and using basic deductive reasoning — let’s just look at which laptop models each of these chargers are for:



  • Laptop Charger Factory: 7745G

  • Green Cell: 7552G 7745G 7750G V3-771G V3-772G

  • KWOKKERK Laptop Charger Store: 7750G 7739Z 7560G 7745G 5750


Without even knowing the wattage, my immediate guess is the Green Cell and KWOKKERK models are higher wattage than the one from Laptop Charger Factory. Why? Easy: Those models provide more wattage. And it’s clear to me that the one from Laptop Charger Factory just supports the 7745G so it must be the lowest wattage.


And none of this is weird… Pretty much every smart phone and related charger nowadays behaves on the same principle.


This is no different than how I can charge and iPhone — or similar device — with a 5W, 10W, 12W, 18W, 30W and higher chargers: The device itself — and perhaps the cable being used — determines how many watts it will take.


Thus if I have a 30W charger and need to charge a device that only uses 5W, I can without fear of anything blowing up or catching on fire. This is a common concept on many devices nowadays.


That said, I would recommend buying the best quality charger you can get for your laptop; lots of cheap knock-offs out there that might not work as expected or won’t last long. That KWOKKERK model that delivers 90W for $8.63 sounds like a “bargain” that you will pay for in some way later on; meaning it seems like cheap garbage.


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