April 28, 2026 may not make headlines the way a product launch does, but it marks a quiet turning point in how Europeans will buy and use laptops for years to come. As of yesterday, notebooks are now covered by the EU’s common charger directive — the same regulation that has already reshaped the smartphone market since late 2024.
The principle is simple: less fragmentation, fewer redundant chargers piling up in drawers, more interoperability across devices. The mandated charging interface is USB-C, but reducing the directive to a connector type alone would be missing the bigger picture.
No More Forced Bundles
The regulation also changes how laptops must be sold. When a retailer offers a device bundled with a charger, it must also offer a charger-free version. Based on what already happened with smartphones, many manufacturers are likely to phase out the bundled SKU entirely — leaving customers to reuse an existing adapter or buy one separately.
The European Commission frames this as a win for the environment, reducing e-waste and simplifying the user experience. The stated goal is to let people power multiple devices from a single charger. For laptops, however, that goal is more technically demanding than it was for phones.
Picking the Right Charger Is Not Trivial
With smartphones, choosing a charger is relatively forgiving. Power levels are lower, standards are well-established, and a modern 25W–45W adapter handles most use cases adequately. With laptops, the stakes are higher. A notebook might require 45W, 65W, 100W, or significantly more. It may only accept specific voltage profiles. A charger that is technically underpowered might still work — but it could charge slowly, drain the battery under load, or throttle performance.
Here is what to look for.
USB-C Is the Connector, Not the Standard
The EU’s mandate specifies USB-C as the physical port, and that is a good baseline. But USB-C describes only the shape of the connector — it says nothing about how much power is actually delivered.
The first thing to verify is whether a charger supports USB Power Delivery (USB PD) — the protocol that allows the charger and the device to negotiate how much energy to transfer, at what voltage, and at what current. Without this handshake, the right plug is largely meaningless.
USB PD version 3.1, the most recent revision managed by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), supports up to 240W by introducing higher voltage levels — 28V, 36V, and 48V. This makes USB-C chargers viable even for demanding laptops, monitors, and other high-draw devices.
What About PPS?
PPS — Programmable Power Supply — is an extension within the USB PD ecosystem that allows finer, continuous adjustment of voltage and current rather than jumping between fixed profiles. All PPS-capable chargers support USB PD, but not all USB PD chargers support PPS.
On smartphones, PPS is important because it enables more efficient fast charging and reduces heat. On laptops, it is a useful bonus — particularly if you want one charger to serve phones and tablets as well — but it is not the primary specification to optimize for. For a laptop, available wattage, USB PD compliance, and correct voltage profiles come first.
Can You Just Use Your Phone Charger?
This is a reasonable question, and the honest answer is: sometimes, with caveats — and sometimes not at all. The issue is not just the wattage on the label. A phone charger might output 45W but only at 5V, 9V, or 15V. Most laptops require the 20V profile, and high-performance machines may need the even higher voltages introduced in USB PD 3.1.
A phone charger that looks powerful on paper may charge your laptop very slowly, only when the lid is closed, or not at all. The reverse is generally safe: a good laptop charger will typically charge phones and tablets without issue, since the device only draws what it needs.
GaN: Smaller, Lighter, Better?
GaN — gallium nitride — has become common in modern charger marketing. It is a semiconductor material used in power electronics as an alternative to traditional silicon. It is more efficient, generates less heat at equivalent power levels, and enables significantly higher energy density.
In practical terms, a 65W or 100W GaN charger can now be genuinely compact — nothing like the brick that used to ship in the laptop box. That matters especially in a world where you are expected to carry your own adapter. A single multi-port GaN charger can realistically replace separate adapters for a laptop, a phone, and a tablet.
That said, GaN is not a quality guarantee in itself. A well-designed GaN charger can be excellent; a poorly designed one is still a product to avoid. Thermal management, internal protections, component quality, standards compliance, and transparency of technical documentation all matter just as much.
Safety and Certifications
A charger connects to mains electricity, handles significant wattage, and may stay plugged in for hours. Safety should be non-negotiable.
In Europe, the baseline is the CE marking, which indicates that the product meets EU requirements for safety, health, and environmental protection. The CE mark is the manufacturer’s declaration of conformity and their responsibility.
For USB compliance specifically, USB-IF certification is a useful signal. It does not cover electrical safety per se, but it confirms that the product follows USB specifications for power negotiation — which is critical when charger, cable, and device all have to communicate correctly.
For electrical safety itself, the key reference is IEC/EN 62368-1, the international standard for audio/video, IT, and communications equipment, covering risks of electric shock, fire, and related hazards. This information is not always visible on the packaging, which is why buying from established brands with clear technical documentation matters. An anonymous, undocumented charger at a suspiciously low price is always a risk.
How Many Watts Do You Actually Need?
45W–65W: Thin and Light Laptops
Ultrabooks, convertibles, and productivity-focused notebooks generally fall into this range. If your workload is browsing, writing, video calls, and light office tasks, a compact 45W–65W USB PD charger will typically suffice — provided it supports the correct voltage profiles for your specific device.
Up to 100W: Premium and Professional Notebooks
Mainstream professional laptops and higher-performance machines usually cap out around 100W for charging. A charger in this range covers the majority of modern laptops and can simultaneously handle smartphones or tablets on a second port without any compromise.
Gaming Laptops and Mobile Workstations: A Special Case
This is where the picture gets more complicated. Many gaming laptops and mobile workstations exceed 200W of draw at full load, and even USB PD 3.1’s 240W ceiling may not be sufficient during peak CPU and GPU usage. For this reason, the EU has granted manufacturers a temporary exemption — they may continue bundling chargers with these devices through 2027. For now, USB-C can supplement the original adapter during light use or travel, but it cannot replace it for heavy sessions.
Don’t Forget the Cable
One detail that catches many buyers off guard: the right charger is not enough if the cable is wrong. For power levels up to 60W, most USB-C cables will manage fine. Above that, the cable needs to be rated for the higher currents involved. Reaching 100W requires a suitable cable; pushing toward 140W, 180W, or 240W requires a cable explicitly compatible with USB PD 3.1 and its Extended Power Range profiles.
If your charger and cable are mismatched, the entire system defaults to what the weakest link can handle. That weak link, more often than not, is the cable — so check the specs before assuming you are getting the full wattage you paid for.
