Anker Power IQ 4.0 means USB PD 3.1 with PPS

Anker Power IQ 4.0 means USB PD 3.1 with PPS
I have answers.

I've been using Anker products a long time, since 2012 or 13 and I almost went with a different brand, because many of Anker's products do not state they support PPS. Anker states compatibility with over a thousand devices some of which use PPS, but they do not state that compatibility means that they charge at the fastest charging rate. Anker does a very lousy job of explaining what power IQ is and what the various levels mean. I called US Anker support today and pressed them until they told me some of the specifications of Power IQ 4.0. Power IQ 4.0 means that the device supports USB power delivery 3.1 and all Power IQ 4.0 devices include PPS. Further all GaNPrime devices use Power IQ 4.0 charging logic. I believe that information to be correct. Anker also stated that PPS is a proprietary Samsung standard and they don't want to claim compatibility with it and then have it not work with a device, therefore they do not list PPS in the specifications. My understanding is that PPS is a part of the USB specification and not a proprietary Samsung specification.

Further, USB Power Delivery 3.1 does not require PPS. If a USB charger or device has a maximum of 100 watts or less it is a Standard Power Range device, SPR. If a USB charger or device supports more than 100 watts per port, it is an Expanded Power Range, EPR device, and will require that the charger, device, and cable all support EPR. EPR cables must be visibly marked so that users can identify cable support of up to 240W in order to be certified. EPR requires, support for up to 240W of power (28V, 36V, and 48V at 5A). Further, EPR requires support of Adjustable Voltage Supply, AVS, which enables sinks to fine-tune the optimum voltage between 15V and 48V in steps of 100mV for improved performance and thermal efficiency.

With USB Power Delivery 3.1, charging ports can be either assured or shared. An assured port always has the rated wattage available to it, with a shared SPR port the wattage available to the port is the lesser of the chargers maximum rated wattage, or 100 watts, or the maximum of the remaining power budget available. In a USB Power Delivery 3.1 charger with shared ports, the maximum wattage of the device may be more than 100 watts while still being a SPR device. An example of this is the Anker 747 150 watt wall charger with three USB-C ports and one USB-A port. 100 watts is available to any USB-C port, with up to 150 watts shared across all four ports.

According to Android Central, "PowerIQ 4.0, which prioritizes power delivery for devices with the lowest charge level." What I understand this to mean is that according to the rules of USB Power Delivery 3.1, a charger has shared charging ports the device with the lowest battery state of charge gets priority to the power it wants. According to an unnecessarily snarky article from CultOfMac, which makes several factual errors and regurgitates a press release despite having the physical item to actually review (they are idiots, they plugged it in and saw that it charged something, that's literally the extent of their evaluation) "The smarty-pants GaNPrime chargers feature PowerIQ 4.0 with Dynamic Power Allocation. It prioritizes the connected device with the lowest battery level." and further, "Anker said Dynamic Power Allocation adjusts power distribution every 3 minutes, releasing any extra power output to the other devices being charged." So, from that we know that the amount of power provided to each device will not change more than once every 3 minutes. Whether this means devices see charging as interrupted, or continuous, or how they display this I do not yet know, but I would guess that devices receiving power that have USB PD 3.1 hardware would report charging continuously, that is, without making the battery disconnect reconnect sound and displaying the battery charging overlay.

That is my best understanding of how Anker power IQ 4.0, USB power delivery 3.1, and PPS work/interact. I welcome any corrections, please provide your source.


https://www.reddit.com/r/anker/comments/wk8r7k/anker_power_iq_40_means_usb_pd_31_with_pps/