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Are the power plugs of XMG laptops based on any industry standard?

Introduction

The notebook power supply plugs we use are standardised. The following standards are currently used, depending on the product series.

  • 2-pin barrel plug with 5.5 mm outer diameter and 2.5 mm inner diameter (IEC 60130-10).
  • 4-pin rectangular plug with 11.5 mm width and 3.6 mm height (ACES 56911)

This FAQ article explains these two connector types in detail.

Barrel plug (IEC 60130-10)

Most currently available XMG laptops use a barrel plug with 5.5 mm outer diameter and 2.5 mm inner diameter. This plug complies with the IEC 60130-10 industry standard, but the length of the plug differs depending on the model:

  • XMG CORE 14, FOCUS, APEX and PRO (each up to and including 2022) use the connector with 10 mm length
  • XMG CORE 15, CORE 17, FUSION and NEO use the 12.5 mm plug-.

The following diagram shows the difference between the two connector lengths.

dcplug coaxial 5.5 2.5 en

A power adapter with a 12.5mm plug can be used on a laptop with a 10mm port without any problems. The reverse is not the case: a short 10mm plug can connect with a deep 12.5mm port, but it slips out again very quickly on its own. Therefore, caution is advised when buying replacement power adapters.

Rectangular connector (ACES 56911)

This connector was first introduced in 2020 in the XMG ULTRA series and was extended to the XMG FOCUS and XMG PRO series in 2023. The same applies to SCHENKER MEDIA, SCHENKER KEY and SCHENKER KEY 17 Pro series from 2023.

The 4-pin rectangular plug was introduced because the traditional barrel plug with an outer diameter of 5.5 mm and an inner diameter of 2.5 mm is officially specified only up to a maximum of 230 watts. In practice, there are two methods to deal with this limit.

  • The XMG CORE and XMG NEO series use the barrel plug with 280- and 330-watt power adapters by gold-plating both the adapter's plug and the socket on the laptop. Gold plating lowers the electrical resistance between the plug and socket, allowing more power to be transferred over the same contact area.
  • The alternative to gold-plating is to simply use a larger plug with a larger contact area and additional pins if necessary. This method is being used in the XMG FOCUS, PRO and ULTRA.

The power supply connector in the XMG FOCUS, PRO and ULTRA uses the ACES 56911 standard. The specification of this connector was first published in 2008.

dcplug aces 56911 views en

This plug is currently only found in power supplies with 280 or 330 watts power output. As far as we know, there are no power adapters with this plug with less than 280 watts output power. The plug is reversible and can therefore be plugged in in both orientations (normal orientation or rotated by 180 degrees).

Apart from the use in the above-mentioned XMG series, it is also used in some laptop models from MSI, among others.

The proportions of this power supply plug are similar to those of a USB-A plug. However, a USB plug is slightly taller and therefore does not fit mechanically into the ACES-56911 power supply socket. The rectangular plug also does not fit into a USB-A port because it would collide with the front edge of the "bar" that makes up the upper half of the USB port. The four energy-transmitting pins of the ACES 56911 are located deep inside the plug and thus cannot make contact even if they collide with a USB socket. Incorrect operation is therefore mechanically impossible.

Due to the similarity of the ACES 56911 plug to a USB-A plug, power adapters are sometimes labelled "USB tipu201d in the online shops of spare parts dealers (see example). However, there is no relationship to the USB standard or USB-C Power Delivery. In our own online shop we use the designation "Rectangular 4-pin plug (ACES 56911)". - see link.

Overview

A complete overview of the power adapter formats (incl. links to replacement power adapters on bestware) can be found here:

The table contains two tabs with the two different lengths of the barrel plug, a third tab for the ACES 56911 plug and a fourth tab with industry-standard AC cables that connect the power adapters to the wall socket.