Dell PSU is “PD3” but cannot do PPS. Isn’t that non-conformant? OTOH, there is no USB-PD indicator to begin with.

[daveyosborn@infosec.pub]

I am trying to get a grasp of how to identify what power standards various PSU claim to conform to. The label on this Dell PSU is ram-packed with info, but I see no direct claim that it supports USB-PD at all.

The range of voltages might imply that perhaps maybe it’s USB-PD, but I see no indication where they take credit for that; much less a particular PD revision. IIUC, that means if it’s USB-PD non-compliant and someone drags Dell into court, they can say to the judge “we never said it was USB PD-compliant”.

The review that probes this thing shows that the PSU is detected as PD3.0. Yet at the same time it does not support PPS according to the blogger. So wtf.. how can it be PD3 if it does not support PPS?

It seems Dell is banking on consumers not being keen to read the label. According to the blogger:

The odd thing is that it is advertising itself as a 96W adapter (20V/4.8A) which is different to the printed 20V/5A rating on the rear.

So it seems has Dell decided that if they do not benefit from advertising a capability, they might as well not mention it and downplay what it can do, for legal purposes.

The blogger goes on to test it with all kinds of fancy costly gear that no typical consumer would have. When I am at a street market rifling through a pile of dumped electronics, how do I know what I am looking at? Do any of the cryptic symbols on that Dell label suggest USB-PD?