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Google Replaces Its USB-C Headphone Adapter With a More Expensive Version (theverge.com)
Google is now selling an updated headphone adapter that's supposed to be more responsive and drain less of your phone's battery. But these minor improvements come at a cost. The new dongle costs $12, whereas the old dongle sold for just $9. "That also means Google's headphone adapter now costs more than Apple's equivalent adapter for the iPhone," The Verge notes. From the report: Physically, though, the dongle is nearly identical to the USB-C to 3.5mm adapter that Google has been selling since last October: this new version is just a hair smaller in almost every dimension. Google says the new dongle will connect to your phone ever so slightly faster, and, more importantly, it's supposed to draw less power, translating to 38 percent more playback time. Android Police first spotted the update.
An single alkaline D cell has over 18W/hr of energy, That's at least a 4600mAh 3.85V cellphone battery. The Pixel 2 has a 2700mAh battery.
The "talk time" rating is about 16 hours, that's while running an active 3G session for voice. That's about 600mW average power consumption.
That's not a whole lot of power and I assume playing MP3's is much less power than a voice call. Apparently the 3G performance of the Pixel 2 is not very good.
It's also not just the dongle consuming power. It's the USB host inside the phone as well. If the new chip in the new dongle is better at USB power management, that means less power consumed by the phone while it's in use. It probably has a more efficient amplifier too.