Nomad’s bringing back the early 2000s with a transparent charging brick

As with a lot of modern electronics, there’s not actually a ton to see. Sure, it uses GaN components to achieve its small size, but that’s not really obvious just by looking at it. To the untrained eye, it mostly seems like a neat collection of capacitors, solder joints, and various other components.

Luckily for Nomad, that makes for an incredibly cool aesthetic (at least in my opinion), especially for people like me who can appreciate electrical engineering, even if we don’t understand exactly what we’re looking at.

Outside of the case, there’s not a lot that’s special about this charger; it’s just one of several compact, 30W chargers on the market with an around-$30 MSRP. That’s not to say that it seems bad, just routinely competent. The company says it’s meant to fast-charge iPhones, and is even capable of providing enough power for a MacBook Air. But still… that case though.

As this tweet notes, the nostalgia cycle has reached the late 90s and early 2000s — aka the golden age for fun, see-through gadgets. And while I certainly can’t fault the aesthetics of Nomad’s offering (nor those of, say the Nothing Phone or other recent transparent devices), I’d love to see other companies add a splash of color. Imagine a pink iPhone where you could see the battery, MagSafe magnets, and charging coil. How about an official see-through Switch or Steam Deck? And as long as I’m making a list of wishes that won’t come true, I hope Sony brings back the PSP and makes it transparent, all in a single stroke.