Mike Peterson
Apple may be planning on producing smaller, lighter, and more efficient power adapters for the iPhone and other devices, a supply chain report on Monday suggests.
Navitas Semiconductor is reportedly expected to obtain orders from Apple for charging solutions based on gallium nitride (GaN) in 2021, DigiTimes reported. Compared to silicon-based power adapters, GaN chargers are smaller, lighter, more power efficient, and less heat conductive.
According to DigiTimes, Navitas is expected to source GaN-based chips for charging solutions. It'll then deliver power adapters or other charging accessories to Apple and other vendors in 2021.
The report doesn't offer any information on Apple's plans for the GaN solutions, but it suggests that Apple is working on a proprietary GaN variant of its current USB-C chargers. As with current products on the market from the likes of Anker and Belkin, the GaN chargers will likely be smaller than current Apple power adapters.
Recently, oft-accurate TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Apple would release "two to three" new chargers built on GaN technology in 2021. It isn't clear when Apple's own GaN chargers will be ready for commercial release, however.
DigiTimes has a good track record of supply chain information, but is much less reliable when it comes to Apple product plans and rumors.
Ireland-based Navitas is the creator of GaNFast, a charging solution that it says is used in charging solutions by popular manufacturers like Aukey, Dell, Lenovo, and Xiaomi. Those solutions include wall chargers ranging from 24W to 300W.
In 2020, Apple stopped shipping the once-ubiquitous 5W power adapters with its iPhone devices. In their place, the company began offering a 20W USB-C power adapter for $19.
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33 Comments
Right now, most chargers are small and light enough that any move to smaller, lighter offerings would seem modest to most users.
However, power efficiency should be of real interest to every user so moving to GaN would be nice.
Industry is already using GaN extensively (in 5G base stations for example).
Most gallium is sourced from China and there have been constant rumblings that the trade war could end up affecting supply but nothing has happened yet.
I was about to say that I was highly skeptical that an M1 16" MBP would have a 100 watt charger, as I imagined that M1 Macs are less thirsty. Not true, the 13" M1 uses the same charger as the 13" Intel. Huh.
Regardless, this would be a welcome change, and it's a little weird that it hasn't happened already.
I recently bought a few of these chargers to test out:
...they’re all performing pretty well, and smaller than the Apple ones. The 65W ZMI is actually the same size as the Apple 20W, plus comes with a USB-C cable for $20 total:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D64QLQ1/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_c268FbQY9JF0E
...However there seems to be some diminishing returns, the 65W is not much faster than the 20W to fully charge an iPad — about 15 minutes. Compiling charge time data now.
People already using 3rd party USB type-c PD chargers to charge iPhone for sometime. So, it was expected that Apple will offer similar anytime.