OUR DIFFERENCES
FINsix, Menlo Park, a California-based company set out to create an alternative to the hefty, bulky charger that awkwardly accompanies a variety of laptops everyone has been lugging around. Imagine working on a laptop on the plane, and you suddenly lost power, you stand up and get the long cable and adapter from your bag and unravel this unruly attachment so that you can continue working. Laptops are supposed to be mobile and convenient enough to use anywhere, but the usual downside is the long cable and the heavy adaptor. As they say, you won’t miss anything you have never had before, but it does hurt to wish for some innovation to this dilemma. It has been an accepted fact that laptop chargers are big and ugly, and often easily break.
Here comes the Dart by FINsix. A small device that is a fraction of the size of your old charges and will connect almost any device. It is super easy to use but small enough to power any device. It can power almost anything from Apple’s Macbook, Macbook Pro, Dell’s XPS 13, Asus Zenbook3, and the Lenovo ThinkPad13. It is the perfect accessory especially for those who travel around for work, and packing electronics has never been this light.
It was initially released last September but as technology quickly evolved it was left in the dust when the USB-C charging devices arrived. Now the company has released another version, the Dart-C. It is similar to the previously released charger but here are some things you need to know about it:
USB-C
As technology evolves so does all the attachments and the peripherals that go with it. The C-Type USB connector has become the fastest when it comes to charging your device and transferring data. It is the most popular connection that a lot of the new devices are using. FINsix charger lost its versatility when smartphone and laptop manufacturers released devices that can only be charged through the USB-C port. The new DART charger came out with a C-Type connection with a 65-watt charger that is up to 4 times lighter and smaller than the usual A/C Adapter. This allows for simultaneous charging of other devices, and with a C-Type USB connection, it has now extended its reach to the more recently released devices like.
Release
It will be released January of 2017, with a choice of the whole adapter priced at $99.99 or just an adaptor for those who already had the previous model for $34.99. It will also come with stylish colors including gunmetal, blue, magenta, orange, and silver. It may be on the pricey side of electronics, but it does promise a future of having just one power adapter to power all your electronics in one convenient package.
Design
Dart C has maintained its cute and colorful design that weighs 0.02 pounds and 3.4 x 1.2 x 1-inch dimensions. If you are one of the owners of the newest and lightest notebooks, you will appreciate having a power adaptor lighter than the 0.44 pounds you always carry around. It comes with a 6-foot cable with nine different tips that is expected to be compatible with almost any device. It looks sleek with its curved edges and rectangular design and will fit a backpack pocket, your purse, or even your pants pocket. It was made to work with users of Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, Dell, Lenovo, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba in mind. Should you need to verify your device’s compatibility, there is a list of compatible devices found on the company’s website.
The latest cell phones have also adopted the USB-C because of its faster recharge time. The typical USB cell phone charger is capable of 2A power. However, the USB-C specification sets the charger to be capable of 5A. This jump in energy throughput allows for the faster recharging. Also, the USB-C is also faster than current USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 standards. Most cell phones are only capable to USB 2.0 speeds for data transfer. This has a theoretical data transfer speed of 480 megabits per second or 60 megabytes per second. USB 3.0 devices have a theoretical transfer speed of 5 gigabits per second or 640 megabytes per second. That is more than ten times increase in speed in transferring files.
On the other hand, the new USB 3.1 standard doubles the standard of the USB 3.0. USB-C devices follow the USB 3.1 specifications. The theoretical speed means the possibility of transferring an HD movie in less than a minute.
However, there are other conditions to consider when discussing transfer speed. There is, of course, the storage media’s data transfer rate. Most storage media cannot even reach the speeds for USB 3.0. This is where the dongle comes along. With this peripheral device, you can use the USB-C for other purposes, including being connected to HDMI to view a video with an HDTV 1080p monitor. Also, you can also have the same USB-C connection multi-tasking and doing other work. The large bandwidth can be put to good use when you can connect the device to several other devices each transferring data at the same time
With only a single USB-C port, you can have multiple uses and applications all using the same port, and all at the same time. The device manufacturer can save on the space on the laptop or the smartphone.
