I Have Enough USB-C Chargers. Somehow I Still Keep Buying Better Ones.

I don't need another USB-C charger.

I know this.

There are chargers beside my bed. Chargers near the sofa. Chargers on my desk. Chargers inside bags. I'm fairly certain there's at least one hiding in a drawer that I haven't opened for months.

And yet, show me a smaller 100W GaN charger with three USB-C ports and suddenly I'm interested.

This makes absolutely no sense.

Welcome to being a gadget geek.

USB-C Was Supposed to Solve This

I remember when charging gadgets was considerably more annoying.

Different phones had different connectors. Cameras had their own chargers. Laptops came with massive power bricks. Buy a new device and there was a good chance you'd add another cable and charger to the collection.

USB-C was supposed to bring order to all of this.

And to be fair, it mostly has.

My phone can use USB-C. My tablet uses it. My Nintendo Switch uses it. Cameras increasingly use it. Power banks use it. Even laptops that once required proprietary power bricks can now often charge over USB-C.

One good charger can potentially power half the gadgets I travel with.

Brilliant.

So why do I own so many chargers?

Because Chargers Became Gadgets

That's my theory.

The humble charger used to be something you didn't think about. It came in the box, you plugged it into the wall, and that was basically the end of the relationship.

Now I actually compare them.

How many watts?

How many ports?

USB-C only, or does it still have USB-A?

Does it support USB Power Delivery?

PPS?

How does it divide power when three devices are connected?

And perhaps the most dangerous phrase for people like me:

GaN charger.

Gallium nitride helped manufacturers make powerful chargers significantly smaller.

Suddenly a charger capable of powering a laptop doesn't necessarily need to look like a brick.

That's when chargers stopped being boring.

65W Was Enough. Then I Wanted 100W.

This is how it happens.

You buy a compact 30W charger for your phone.

Then you realise 65W would also charge your laptop.

Excellent.

One charger instead of two.

Then you discover a 100W charger with multiple ports.

Now you can charge the laptop, phone and power bank together.

Obviously that's better.

Then somebody releases an even smaller one.

Or one with better power distribution.

Or a tiny display showing exactly how much power your devices are drawing.

Do I need to know that my laptop is currently pulling 63 watts?

No.

Do I want to know?

Apparently yes.

The Best Charger Is the One That Makes Me Carry Less

These days, that's really how I judge them.

I'm less impressed by enormous wattage numbers than I am by whether one charger can replace three others in my bag.

For travelling, that's genuinely useful.

A good multi-port USB-C charger means I can potentially leave the phone charger, tablet charger and laptop power brick at home.

Add a couple of decent USB-C cables and suddenly the entire charging setup becomes much simpler.

That's the part of modern charging technology I genuinely appreciate.

The irony, of course, is that I've bought several chargers while searching for the perfect charger that means I won't need several chargers.

Nobody said being a gadget geek had to be financially logical.

USB-C Still Isn't Quite as Simple as It Looks

There's also a reason I hesitate when someone says, "USB-C is USB-C."

The connector might look identical.

The capabilities aren't.

Different cables can support different charging speeds. Devices negotiate different power levels. Some chargers divide their available power differently depending on which ports you're using.

Plug the wrong cable into the right charger and you might wonder why your expensive new gadget isn't charging as quickly as expected.

The universal connector solved one problem.

Behind that connector, things can still get surprisingly geeky.

And perhaps that's why I keep finding chargers interesting.

MY TAKE

I already own enough USB-C chargers to survive a minor electrical emergency.

I don't need another one.

But I also know exactly what's going to happen.

Someone will release a charger that's smaller than mine, delivers more power, handles multiple devices better and somehow weighs 30 grams less.

I'll look at the charger I already own.

I'll look at the new one.

Then I'll say the sentence every gadget enthusiast has used at some point:

"This one is actually better."

And that's probably how another USB-C charger ends up in my drawer.

A Phone With a Detachable Action Camera? Now This Is the Kind of Weird Gadget I Like

Phones have become incredibly good.

They're faster, cameras are better, screens are brighter and batteries last longer.

There's just one small problem.

They're getting a bit boring.

Most new phones now follow roughly the same formula. Big screen. Multiple cameras on the back. Faster processor. Bigger battery. Some AI features. Then spend 45 minutes during the launch explaining why this year's camera is dramatically better than last year's camera.

So when I see someone trying something genuinely strange, I pay attention.

And this one definitely got my attention.

A phone with a detachable action camera.

Now we're talking.

Wait, The Camera Comes Off?

The RugOne Xsnap 7 Pro is one of the more unusual phones appearing around IFA 2026.

Instead of treating the rear camera as something permanently attached to the phone, part of the camera system can actually be detached and used independently.

Think about that for a moment.

Your phone becomes the main device, but the camera doesn't necessarily have to stay on the phone.

Mount it somewhere.

Put it somewhere your phone can't easily go.

Use it more like an action camera.

Then attach it back to the phone.

Is this going to replace a GoPro or Insta360 for serious action-camera users?

Probably not immediately.

But that's almost beside the point.

Someone looked at the smartphone and asked:

What else could this thing do?

I miss that.

Phones Used to Be Weird

Anyone who has followed mobile phones long enough will remember when manufacturers experimented with practically everything.

Phones that flipped.

Phones that twisted.

Phones with physical keyboards.

Phones designed specifically around cameras.

Gaming phones.

Music phones.

Phones with projectors.

Some ideas were brilliant.

Some were terrible.

But at least they were interesting.

Eventually the industry figured out what worked, and almost everything slowly became variations of the same rectangular slab.

That's probably good for consumers.

It's just not particularly exciting for gadget geeks.

This Is the Kind of Experiment I Want to See

What I like about the detachable-camera idea isn't necessarily the implementation.

I haven't spent enough time with the Xsnap 7 Pro to tell you whether you should actually buy one.

What I like is the thinking behind it.

Phone cameras are already ridiculously capable.

So instead of adding another 50 megapixels or another AI photography mode, why not change where the camera can physically go?

That potentially creates completely different ways of shooting.

Clip it somewhere while cycling.

Mount it inside a car.

Put it somewhere awkward for a group shot.

Use the phone as the viewing screen while positioning the camera somewhere else.

Suddenly the improvement isn't just another number on a specification sheet.

It's something you couldn't easily do before.

That's the sort of gadget innovation I find interesting.

Weird Gadgets Don't Always Need to Win

There's another thing I've learned after watching technology for more than 20 years.

Not every strange idea needs to become the future.

Some experiments will fail.

Some will disappear after one generation.

Others will eventually be copied by everybody.

That's how gadgets evolve.

I'd rather manufacturers occasionally build something slightly ridiculous than spend the next ten years competing over whether the camera bump should be round, square or slightly more square.

Give me strange cameras.

Give me modular accessories.

Give me unusual form factors.

Give me gadgets that make me stop scrolling and think:

"Hang on. How does THAT work?"

That's part of what made technology fun in the first place.

MY TAKE

Would I buy a phone simply because its camera comes off?

No.

Would I immediately pick one up if I saw it at a gadget store?

Absolutely.

That's the difference.

The Xsnap 7 Pro may or may not become an important smartphone. The detachable-camera concept might disappear completely.

But at least somebody is experimenting.

After years of phones becoming thinner, faster and increasingly similar, I'll happily take a little weirdness.

More weird gadgets, please.

20 Years of Buying Gadgets Taught Me One Thing: Never Buy the Hype

I've been buying, trying and getting unnecessarily excited about gadgets for more than 20 years.

And yes, I still get excited.

Put a new camera in front of me with some clever feature and I'll probably want to play with it. Show me a phone doing something I've never seen before and I'll start wondering whether I actually need one. Give me a tiny charger that somehow pushes 100W and I'll probably spend ten minutes looking at it.

That's the fun of being a gadget geek.

But after two decades of watching technology companies launch the next big thing, I've learned one important lesson.

Never buy the hype. Buy the gadget.

There's a difference.

I've Fallen for It Too

Every generation has its magic words.

Once it was megapixels.

More megapixels obviously meant a better camera, right?

Then processors became the obsession. More cores. Higher GHz. Bigger benchmark numbers.

Screens joined the competition. HD became Full HD, then 2K, 4K, 8K. Refresh rates went from 60Hz to 90Hz, 120Hz and beyond.

Charging became another numbers game.

25W. 45W. 65W. 100W. 120W.

Now we have another magic word.

AI.

AI phone. AI laptop. AI camera. AI television. AI earbuds. AI refrigerator.

Give the marketing department enough time and I'm fairly certain we'll eventually get an AI toaster.

The technology itself isn't necessarily nonsense. Some of these improvements genuinely changed how good our gadgets are.

The nonsense starts when specifications become the reason we're supposed to replace perfectly good devices.

The Best Gadget Isn't Always the Newest One

This took me longer than I'd like to admit.

When you're interested in technology, there's always something newer.

You buy a phone.

Six months later, another phone appears with a slightly better camera.

You buy a camera.

Suddenly there's a newer model with improved autofocus.

You finally buy a decent power bank.

Then somebody releases one that's smaller, charges faster and has a tiny colour screen telling you exactly how many watts are moving through the cable.

And the gadget geek inside you starts whispering:

"Actually... that is quite useful."

Sometimes it is.

Most of the time, the gadget you already own is still perfectly fine.

That's something specifications rarely tell you.

After 20 Years, I Look at Gadgets Differently

I'm much more interested now in what happens after the excitement disappears.

Is the battery still good after two years?

Does the software remain usable?

Will the manufacturer continue supporting it?

Is that amazing feature something I'll actually use after the first week?

Can I repair it?

Can I replace the battery?

Does it make something I already do noticeably easier?

Those questions aren't as exciting as benchmark charts.

But they're usually better buying advice.

It's also why I increasingly like revisiting older technology. Gadget Geek has posts going back to the mid-2000s, and reading some of them today is fascinating.

Things that once looked revolutionary disappeared completely.

Other technologies became so successful that we barely notice them anymore.

And occasionally, an old gadget turns out to have been designed better than what replaced it.

I Still Want New Gadgets

None of this means I've become boring.

Hopefully.

I'll still watch product launches. I'll still look at camera specifications. I'll still wonder whether that new phone camera really can replace another piece of gear in my bag.

And occasionally I'll buy something simply because it's cool.

Being sensible all the time would defeat the purpose of being a gadget geek.

The difference is that I'm less interested in what a manufacturer tells me will change my life.

I'd rather find out what actually earns a permanent place in my pocket, desk, camera bag or house.

Because after 20 years, I've forgotten plenty of product launches.

But I remember the gadgets that were genuinely good.

MY TAKE

Technology marketing will always tell us that what we own is suddenly outdated.

That's its job.

Our job is deciding whether the new thing is actually better for us.

So yes, get excited about new gadgets. Read about them. Try them. Geek out over the specifications.

I certainly will.

Just don't confuse excitement with a reason to upgrade.

Never buy the hype. Buy the gadget.