It did held up at least to some extent laptops that have bigger desktop setup high power and smaller lower power travel adapters needed additional data to identify the type of charger, some would default to lower power settings for adapters that aren’t original OEM parts, some won’t work.
With USB type-c chargers it became more or less redundant although the USB type-c power spec implementation is all over the place with many cables and chargers on the market capable of ruining your devices completely.
This isn’t as much of a DRM as a reliability measure if you are going to use cheap power adapters you are quite likely to be able to ruin your laptop.
There are plenty of 3rd party adapters that can send the correct signal to a Dell laptop, those who can’t usually will power the system but not charge the battery simultaneously.
With USB type-C many adapters would charge the laptop at 60W instead of the 100-130W that original Dell adapters can, some of the certified USB type-c docking stations/adapters would be able to charge it at full rate if they are actually capable of delivering the current required.
Not everything is done because vendors want to lock you in, laptops now are smaller and power hungrier than ever and people want to charge their laptops at full rate with cables that could barely charge a phone.
With USB-C things will mostly work but will work slower I can charge my MBP 15” with my Nintendo Switch power adapter it will just take longer and likely will cause the Switch adapter to die the few times I had to do it I’ve noticed the adapter cosplaying as a heating plate while charging the Mac.
With USB type-c chargers it became more or less redundant although the USB type-c power spec implementation is all over the place with many cables and chargers on the market capable of ruining your devices completely.
This isn’t as much of a DRM as a reliability measure if you are going to use cheap power adapters you are quite likely to be able to ruin your laptop.
There are plenty of 3rd party adapters that can send the correct signal to a Dell laptop, those who can’t usually will power the system but not charge the battery simultaneously.
With USB type-C many adapters would charge the laptop at 60W instead of the 100-130W that original Dell adapters can, some of the certified USB type-c docking stations/adapters would be able to charge it at full rate if they are actually capable of delivering the current required.
Not everything is done because vendors want to lock you in, laptops now are smaller and power hungrier than ever and people want to charge their laptops at full rate with cables that could barely charge a phone.
With USB-C things will mostly work but will work slower I can charge my MBP 15” with my Nintendo Switch power adapter it will just take longer and likely will cause the Switch adapter to die the few times I had to do it I’ve noticed the adapter cosplaying as a heating plate while charging the Mac.