Does using a USB hub with a power adapter help with increasing a laptop's battery life?

[froggyboy604]

I feel a powered USB hub with a power adapter can help increase a laptop's battery life since a USB hub with a power adapter is powering things like a portable USB hard drive, flash drive, mouse and external keyboard instead of the USB devices like a mouse getting its power from the laptop's internal battery when you plug in USB devices directly into the USB port on a laptop's USB port.

 

[Grungie]

I don’t think that’s how it works. The powered USB hub is there because a the hub splits the electricity signal into how many ports the hub has, thus making the wattage output weaker. The powered USB hub supplies the correct amount of power to all of the ports on the hub.

Some of the more common USB devices only use a fraction of the wattage from a USB port, so you won’t notice if you have a mouse and a keyboard in a non-powered hub. If you try and plug a phone, USB powered speakers, and a Switch, then you’ll notice the lack of power coming from the hub.

 

[VirusZero]

Maybe if you're running a laptop in battery mode and you use a plugged in USB hub it might make a tiny difference... (like maybe 5 minutes more battery power at most.) But it'd be absolutely small because the amount of power drawn by a USB hub is so small in the first place. (The USB ports can only draw 7.5 watts at absolute most since that's all the power that's possibly supplied to them through the motherboard itself.) Laptops though still usually only draw about 90 watts (for a 17" laptop). And the USB ports aren't going to have enough of an effect on the drain/charge cycle of a battery to make a difference there either.

Plus, if you're running the laptop in battery mode then why run a hub plugged in to negate the usb draw? It'd make far more sense to just plug into the laptop directly and plug the laptop in.

 

[Grungie]

Plus, if you're running the laptop in battery mode then why run a hub plugged in to negate the usb draw? It'd make far more sense to just plug into the laptop directly and plug the laptop in.

I completely overlooked this, but I definitely agree that if you're going to be tethered to an outlet because of concern of battery life, it'd make a lot more sense to just plug in your laptop.

 

[Claraviolet]

It's very difficult to determine to be honest.

I never used it like that so, I am not so sure about it.

 

[froggyboy604]

Thanks for the replies.

I think it can be possible for a USB-C hub with a power adapter to also charge a laptop which uses a USB-C port to charge a laptop, so using a USB-C hub with a powered adapter can also charge a laptop with 60 watts of power, so you won't lose battery life.

There is a LG monitor with a built-in USB-C hub on the monitor which can charge 3 devices plug into empty USB-C ports, and also charge an Apple Macbook which is plug into the USB-C port of the laptop. The Macbook uses USB-C for both power, data transfer, and external video output.

LG made a USB-C monitor called the LG UltraFine 4K Display for the Apple Macbook which can charge a laptop via USB-C while it is connected to the laptop for displaying video, and it has 3 USB-C ports for charging and plugging in USB-C accessories like USB flash drives according to LG UltraFine 4K Display

But, using a USB-C monitor to charge a laptop, and to charge or power other USB-C devices plug into the hub is expensive, and may only be worth it if you need a USB-C monitor for an Apple Macbook, and a USB-C hub.