Mains power in USA

[jaybee82]

OK...so this is probably a bit of a dumb question, but am off to NYC on Thursday and want to take my laptop with me. Do I need anything else beyond a plug converter? I know they use a different voltage...don't want to blow the thing!

Cheers!

JB.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I have never taken anything more than a plug adaptor and never had a problem

But mind those sockets - sparks ahoy!

[jaybee82]

Sounds fun! Confirms what I thought, cheers Sean!

[Jeremy]

Yeah, a lot of power supplies work with both voltages fine. It will say on the power supply itself. Some older power supplies have a voltage switch on them.

[candj]

Power is actually lower in the US at 120v than here so you won't blow your computer up, it might just take longer to charge.

[mattham]

if you're on a mac I could give you a little widget that means you won't even need an adaptor. Have a few spare. Quite useless for a PC though.

[SeanMacGabhann]

widget > adaptor?

How so?

[Asset]

mac superiority alert

[Applespider]

Because Apple powerbricks (laptop, iPod, iPhone) have detachable plugs so you can just whip off the clunky 3-prong plug and slip on the little US plug widget. It is handy since sometimes by the time you have an adaptor and then the clunky plug, the combined weight can be too heavy for some overseas sockets.

[mattham]

What Applespider said.

But honest, I'm not one of those holier than thou mac users. I've just bought a cheapo netbook PC which is great (apart from the crappy Windows operating environment). Oops. There I go again...