Hi guys,
My first post on Lemmy. I recently purchased from Aliexpress a 65W GaN Charger with HDMI+Ethernet+USB included in one single package, here’s what I think of it.
First, I bought it because I think it’s really handy to only have to pack one single charger instead of charger+dock. I did not have much expectations of it, but it kind of delivered.
HDMI works great, it detects my LG C1 as 1080p@120 inmediatly, if I want 4K i can force 2160p@30 on the Steam Deck Display Configuration.
Ethernet works (?), my Steam Deck is the only device I own that uses this chargers full speed, I speedtested within my own network and with an external network and it managed to achieve 900/900 Mbps which is really decent and way more than what I expected.
Sadly, I also tried this Charger with my Samsung S22 Ultra and Lenovo T490 laptop, and none of these could achieve half of what Steam Deck did. I’m not techy enough to know if there is some kind of difference between USB-C ports in any of those devices. This means I will not be using this GaN Charger as a daily driver for all my devices.
The USB included in the charger was a hit or miss depending on the device you connect. I tested connecting the Ethernet+HDMI+USB Steam Controller Dongle and it passed the test, the same happened with my Logitech Wireless Keyboard Dongle, on the other hand, when I replaced it with the dongle of a Chinese mini Keyboard (Rii i4 Mini) then the charger could not handle both USB and Ethernet at the same time.
The last thing I have to say about this charger is that I really hate the LED light included, it’s unnecesary, it’s way too bright and it will interfere with your sleep if you keep it plugged at night.
TL;DR: It’s a great little $50USD device, it performed better than I expected, but it won’t play nice with all my devices.
Cover the led with a scrap of electrical tape :)
Will do.
Thank you for sharing. I had no idea there were chargers like this. Might be worth investing for travelling.
I’m glad it helped. I bought it for the same reason.
Just curious, any reason in particular you chose to get a Steam Controller? I picked one up for mine for FPS games, trackpad is helpful for fine movements and quick flicks. Wondering what other people’s use cases are.
I got mine at least 8 or 9 years ago. I bought it because it had full compatibility with steam, you could remap all the buttons, it had the back buttons and it seemed revolutionary at the time.
I’ve had way too many shitty controllers and the SC had lots of good reviews about how well it was built, it’s been 9 years and it’s still my favorite. I wish I got 4 instead of 1.
I’ve seen these items around and never considered them and proceeded to buy a USB C dock instead. Your comment about a ‘single’ item to pack hits home well and considering one for my TV setup.
What length of USB C cable do you use from your charger to your Deck? I’m thinking I may need to be around 3 meters away.
The charger comes with a (maybe) 1 meter USB-C to USB-C cable, I use a 3 meter female to male extender cable, don’t go this route since the extender cable screws the TV resolution. I just ordered a USB4 2 meter cable to play straight from the TV.
