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Good design: Old Lenovo / IBM power jack
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    It is separate part (that is also designed not to break easy, all yellow stuff is quite soft rubber, not plastic):

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    And it is not soldered, replaceable with any amateur

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    Cost is below $7 (original part).

    Even in cheap SL models it had been same approach (while IBM engineers defended their position).

    Instead of expensive desoldering and replacement of USB-C port (this is in present latest models).

    Btw, they also had intermediary one used for lot of years in thin laptops and made by Chinese "smart" idiots, who did not understand why power plugs are being made round (and IBM had best design of such adapter!)

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  • 3 Replies sorted by
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Note how you can fit it even in thin ultrabook

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    Lenovo designers and managers choose to use rectangular connector that ditched almost all advantages. No rubber part around connector, as connector is not round you will constantly have cable strain.

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  • DrDaveDrDave

    The power jack failed or was intermittent and it was always the ones soldered on--a real pain to repair.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @DrDave

    Do not buy stuff with soldered power ports :-)

    Btw USB-C made things much worse in this regard. As USB-C is absolutely unsuitable for such usage. Yes, electrical engineers who lack any practice knowledge and usability understanding can think that all is ok and nice, while in reality it is pain and suffering.

    Take small example, you got some debris (or just some moisture) in USB-C port, so signal flat wire bent and touched on of many main power contact points. Adapter will start at 5V that can be ok, but as soon as Power Delivery protocol will push voltage to 20V you can say goodbye to your cpu+hub and lot of other things including NVME SSD sometimes. With Thunderbolt and HDMI enabled ports it can be both better and worse. But it is very expensive MB replacement or repair.

    Even famous Apple magnet port sometimes liked to fry stuff on motherboard.

    So, such design require expensive and really working protection for each of signal lines that will be all located on separate board, cost will be around 20x-200x (hence no one cares!) compared to proper Lenovo rubber jack.

    People must understand that it is real full blown war with assholes and idiots, who do not care about their job and making functional product, but care only about nice eating, rest and their salary.

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