New Delhi, June 15 -- BEIJING - The charger ASUS launched in China this week costs about $25 and fits four ports into a body roughly the size of a deck of playing cards. In London or New York, the closest equivalent from Anker or Ugreen runs $35 to $55. That gap - ten to thirty dollars, depending on where you happen to live - is the quiet story behind what looks like a routine product announcement.

ASUS released the a-bean 100W GaN charger in China on Sunday, priced at 179 yuan, or roughly $25. The company offered no announcement for Western markets. No launch event. No timeline. The product page on the Chinese storefront went live and the rest of the world was left to calculate exchange rates.

The hardware itself is not difficult to ex...