Laptop chargers, safe to say, aren’t exactly “portable” in the sense of the word. They tend to be bulky and in some cases, have pretty huge power bricks which means that you will need to bring a bag with you if you want to carry around your laptop and your charger at the same time. However wouldn’t it be cool if your laptop charger was small enough to slip into a handbag or maybe even your pocket? Well that’s pretty much the concept the folks at Finsix were trying to achieve with their portable laptop charger that they unveiled at CES 2014. Granted chargers aren’t exactly the most exciting of technology, but Finsix’s creation let’s us take a look at a problem we didn’t really think needed solving to begin with.
Through the use of technology they developed at MIT, the company managed to shrink the innards of a regular laptop charger into the gadget you can see pictured above, which upon first glance looks like a smartphone charger. What’s impressive is that the end result is a highly portable, 65-watt power adapter that also comes with a USB port that you can use to charge your smartphone, tablet, or any other USB-powered device at the same time, and given that it is a two-prong setup, it saves you the trouble of searching for a three-prong outlet, which sometimes might not be as convenient. Now the good news is that for the most part, the Finsix charger will be compatible with most laptops, save for Apple’s MacBooks.
This is because Apple does not license out its magnetic power connector for use with third party adapters, either for safety or proprietary reasons. However Finsix is hoping Apple will have a change of heart down the line. Priced at an affordable $90, the Finsix charger will be available middle of the year with pre-orders taking place in March.