Please stop charging your phone with your laptop

USB ports come in many variants, but it's easy to assume that essentially, USB is USB. If it plugs in, it'll work equally well across every device. Unfortunately, that couldn't be further from the truth, and using your laptop as a way to quickly recharge your devices is a mistake in more ways than one. Here's why.

Your laptop is a terrible charger

It means well, but it's not a proper power source.

It can be tempting to plug your devices into your laptop and let them charge, but it's not as good an idea as it might seem. We've all done it, but when and if you do it next time, remember that your laptop is not a power bank, nor is it a valid replacement for a charger.

The main reason is simple: charging anything through your laptop is going to be painfully slow. The same applies to charging your devices through a desktop. The problem is that this doesn't come down to how much power your PC consumes, but rather how much power the USB ports can deliver, and the answer to that usually is "not much."

There's also the fact that charging behavior can change when your laptop is asleep or turned off. If the laptop isn't plugged in, charging another device can drain your battery faster and reduce how long you can work on the go.

In other words, you're charging your devices inefficiently while hindering your laptop's performance and draining its battery. It all loops back around to USB power delivery limits.

Charging via USB port is awfully inefficient

It's a waste of time and battery.

On USB-A, the default power levels are often in the 2.5W (5V/500mA) to 4.5W (5V/900mA) range. That will charge a phone, but it'll take some time. USB-C can do more, but without USB Power Delivery it typically tops out at 15W, and many laptops still don't behave like a wall charger that can provide multiple voltages for faster charging.

As I write this, I am once again reminded just how confusing USB ports really are .

Charging via a laptop will usually be slower than via a regular charger plugged into a wall socket. It'll certainly be a lot slower than using fast charging—and even if you use the right cable, your laptop most likely won't be able to meet the requirements. For fast charging to happen, the power source, the device, and the cable all need to support it. For example, Apple says that to fast charge an iPhone, you need a USB-C power adapter that supports USB-PD.

What about peripherals?

This is an important distinction.

Be it headsets or mice, most peripherals are designed to live within standard USB power limits—but there's an important distinction to keep in mind. It all comes down to whether your peripherals are wired or wireless, as that determines whether the device will sip power instead of guzzling it.

Wireless peripherals can still charge from a laptop, but it may be a slow process. Often, the laptop port is the limiting factor, as plugging those same peripherals into a power adapter will make them recharge quickly.

I've tried lots of different peripherals over the last few years, and the only thing all the wireless ones had in common was that charging them took forever, no matter the device or the cable, as long as they were plugged into a laptop or a desktop. My Razer BlackShark V3 Pro headset takes hours to charge when plugged into the PC (even more so when it's actively being used); meanwhile, it can go from 20% to 100% in an hour when plugged into a proper charger.

What you should use instead

There's more than one option.

The fix is simple: use tools meant for charging. Plug your peripherals and other devices into the wall instead of your laptop, and both will thank you for it. But this is far from the only option, and there are a couple of important caveats.

A small USB-C PD wall charger will cover most phones, but a fast charger is a better option if it's compatible with your devices. It'll still charge at the maximum allowed power limit, so devices that don't support fast charging won't be harmed by the extra power available; they simply won't take advantage of it.

For travel and charging on the go, look into a USB PD power bank. USB PD can provide up to 240W of power over a USB-C connection, and while power banks often cap out at less than that, they're still a massive improvement over your laptop. You can even get one that'll recharge your laptop, but if the wattage doesn't match, it may not work (or it'll be insufficient to provide a lot of battery life).

Next, docking stations. If you want to maximize the number of ports and get more power delivery than your laptop can provide, a docking station is your friend. For instance, we liked this Anker Prime TB5 docking station , but it's definitely on the pricey side.

What to do if you need to charge in a pinch

Pick the best option available.

I can be forgetful, so I've tapped into my laptop's resources on more than one occasion. But these days, I try to prevent that by finding better ways to charge up my devices.

If you have no other choice than your laptop, try to plug it into AC power first to reduce laptop battery drain and potentially offer faster charging (depending on port spec). When it comes to choosing USB-C vs. USB-A, the former will usually offer slightly more power delivery in a laptop, so your device might charge more quickly.

Avoid charging more than one device at a time if you don't want that charging to happen at a snail's pace. And if you're charging your phone, avoid using it to make the most of what little your laptop can provide.

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Lastly, remember that some laptops may disable charging while asleep or turned off. If you want your laptop to always be available for USB charging, dig into the BIOS and look for settings labeled something similar to "USB always on." Not all laptops support this, though, and these ports may be color-coded to stand out.