As I wrote before, Thunderbolt now is essentially a certification program for certain USB4 devices and for PCs, there’s no difference currently in practice.
With USB4 version 2.0, the program will be called Thunderbolt 5 but the way I read it, Intel is planning to restrict the certification further on lighter workstations. Read this page
Laptop charging: Thunderbolt™ 4 technology for thin and light notebooks that require up to 100W to charge. Thunderbolt™ 5 technology for laptops that require up to 140W to charge. 140W‒240W is available on some devices.
Seems like a small change, doesn’t it? Wrong. This is a very big change which tests the clout of Intel against the will of Lenovo/Dell/HP. Let me explain. For near two decades now, all business laptops charge over 20V. From 2014 to 2019, the USB C specification only allowed up to 100W by using 20V 5A. This didn’t faze much the big three and they have their proprietary 20V 6.5A (or so) docks. Lenovo even created such a charger last year when PD 3.1 was already out for some time with the appearance of the ThinkPad Z16 and the Z16 Gen 2 this fall still shipped with that (meanwhile the consumer Legion line switched over with the C135 being proprietary last year and the C140 being PD 3.1 this year). At higher wattages they are using proprietary power plugs and combo cables which allows their customers to dock with plugging a single cable and charge at basically any wattage up to like 230W. This means the incentive for PD 3.1 is not really that big.
Now, in 2019 the USB IF raised the wattage but since the connector didn’t change, the amperage needed to stay put and so they raised the voltage. This is the big change. If I am reading correctly and Intel will deny certification unless the manufacturer uses PD 3.1 then the big three needs to augment their laptops and docks to support 28V. But also depending on how strict Intel goes, TB5 certification might require downright abandoning their proprietary means because the USB C specification doesn’t allow proprietary charging protocols over the C connector (yes, all your phone chargers which support Qualcomm QC over C are not specs compliant).
Will they care? Macbooks with plain (not Pro/Max) CPUs also shipped as USB4 because they do not conform to TB4 requirements of dual displays and it doesn’t seem like this made a dent in sales because we are now three generations in and Apple didn’t change the capabilities of their lowest tier CPU. On the PC side, AMD models only ship with USB4 too and who cares?
Does Intel have the clout in 2024 to force laptop manufacturers to the new standard or will they shrug and say they don’t need a Thunderbolt 5 sticker on those laptops then? Stay tuned, this will be interesting.
I repair laptop motherboards under microscopes for a living.
Utilizing USB-C form factor ports for charging is literally the worst thing that’s happened to laptops - PC laptops in particular - in as long as I’ve been in the game.
USB-C form factor ports “break” constantly.
I put break in quotes because they do so not by the jack itself breaking, but by tearing themselves out of and off of the board itself.
Almost every PC laptop that has a USB-C port is built with metal bracket around the port to try to prevent the port from wiggling around and then tearing off of the board.
These do not solve the problem.
The REAL problem is that when the port rips off the board, it will almost always take the pads and traces the port is soldered onto with it. If even one of the 24 pin pads or through holes is damaged, that can and more than not often IS it for the motherboard - it’s dead forever and irreparable. This is because the boards have multiple layers of traces to them and because of how close together the pins are with USB-C the pads often disappear directly into vias on the board, which cut down to these different layers. The end result is that you often do not have the option to replace a broken pad or trace with an enameled jumper wire, and so there’s no way to restore full electrical connectivity to all 24 pins in a USB-C jack.
What’s even more frustrating is that EVEN WHEN the break is lucky enough that the port’s pads and traces are left intact (usually indicating a poor factory soldering job where the solder didn’t phase change from a liquid to a solid homogenously), a lot of the time after repairing the jack the port still won’t work. This is because each USB-C / TB3+ port has to be handled by a power delivery (and in the case of TB also a separate data) controller chip - what handshakes with the charger and tells it to switch from 5V to 20V - and in many cases THAT gets fried out when the port breaks lose, wiggles across the now-exposed pads, and dumps power where it doesn’t belong.
In SOME EXCEPTIONALLY rare cases where board schematics, boardviews, and chip specs are available and the chips themselves are made available to purchase those chips can, in theory, be replaced. Problem is that it’s not a guarantee and ultimately it ends up not being cost-effective to the repair shop or the consumer.
And even when it IS possible and it IS achieved, the port will almost certainly break again.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that conforming everything to the same charger will be less environmentally damaging by reducing waste - the environmental expense of replacing a charger is NOTHING compared to the cost of replacing a motherboard.
And when the damage is this bad? It’s almost always more cost effective (environment be damned, says the market) to replace the entire motherboard - CPU and all, as they’re never socketed anymore - OR EVEN THE ENTIRE COMPUTER than it is to repair the OTHERWISE FULLY FUNCTIONAL board.
Barrel tip charger ports CAN break, but it’s VASTLY less frequent, it’s almost always due to an actual accident instead of just normal use, and most importantly they can ALMOST ALWAYS be repaired quickly, easily, and inexpensively.
The USB-C form factor had lofty stated goals, but ultimately from a repair and sustainability perspective, it truly appears to be yet another form of shitty anti-repair, anti-consumer planned obsolescence.
Boo hiss.
My friend got a Framework as soon as it launched, because he was constantly breaking ports on previous laptops. And it’s worked out pretty well for him, since all the ports except for the headphone jack are provided using user-replaceable expansion cards that basically act as port savers. The actual wear on the soldered-in motherboard USB-C ports are much lower.
The damage doesn’t need to be that hardcore as you can just get pins getting sheared off from dropping a laptop while it’s plugged in. Still needs a port replacement that is a pain in the ass in my experience so not suited as a first hot air project.