Switch Science, the Japanese electronics retailer, opened sales of three ALIENTEK soldering irons on September 10, 2025: the T90A, the T90B, and the T90C. A press release carried by ZDNET Japan was timestamped 12:00 that day and said sales started immediately. Each iron gets its own write-up on TMWB, and this piece covers the series as a whole: what the three have in common, how they differ, what they cost, and what the announcement leaves unanswered. TMWB hasn't used any of them, so the specifications here come from the press release, ALIENTEK's English page, and Switch Science's product listings.
Who makes the T90, and what is it?
The company named on the press release is Guangzhou YuanziDianzi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., while the footer of ALIENTEK's English product site uses Guangzhou Xingyi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. The brand on both is ALIENTEK. The release describes the group as USB Type-C portable soldering irons, which means the iron draws its power from a USB-C charger instead of a mains-powered station. A built-in display shows the tip temperature and the operating voltage, three temperature presets are stored in the handle, and the iron can measure the current it's drawing.
Power arrives through USB Power Delivery 3.1 (PD 3.1), the newest revision of the negotiation a charger and a device run to agree on a voltage and a wattage. The release says the iron recognizes the maximum output of the PD adapter it's plugged into and adjusts its own maximum heating power to match. The practical meaning is that a small charger doesn't crash the iron. It simply caps the heat the tip can reach.
How do the three models differ?
The difference is the tip family. A cartridge-style tip combines the heating element and the tip in one replaceable piece, so the heat is generated right at the point where it's needed. Each cartridge family is its own standard, and ALIENTEK sells the three irons by the family they use:
| T90A | T90B | T90C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tip family | T210 (finest) | T245 | T65 (largest) |
| Heating power | about 18 to 65 W | about 18 to 140 W | about 18 to 130 W |
| Solder-melt time (seller's figure) | about 2.5 s at 65 W | about 3.5 s at 140 W | about 5 s at 130 W |
| Tip resistance | 2.1 ohms | 2.1 ohms | 2.1 ohms |
| Switch Science SKU | 10677 | 10678 | 10679 |
Switch Science says the older T80 tip designation changed to T210 with this launch, and describes the T90A as compatible with T80 tips. The T90B is described as compatible with T80P tips, which carry through to the T245 name. The T90C uses the T65. Three tip families on one handle design is the series' main idea: a fine tip for small surface-mount work, a mid-size tip for general work and boards with ground planes, and a large tip for heavy joints.
What do the shared specifications look like?
According to Switch Science's listings, all three irons accept DC 9 to 28 V and cover 80 to 450°C. The handle is 178 mm long, 16 mm in diameter, and weighs 55 g. All three list PID temperature control with plus or minus 2 percent stability. PID stands for proportional-integral-derivative, a control method that holds a setpoint steady by reacting to how far and how fast the temperature is drifting. Default presets are 200°C, 350°C, and 450°C. Idle detection with an automatic shutoff and protection against an abnormal tip are listed, though the idle time and the fault thresholds aren't printed. Each iron comes with a 1.2 m USB-C cable rated to 140 W, a manual, and a simple stand called the TH50, plus the tip that matches the model.
What does it cost, and where can it be bought?
The September 10 press release priced the irons at about $41 each, tax included. Switch Science's product pages currently list all three at about $42 tax included, which is a difference I can't explain from the sources, so I'm reporting both figures. Both prices are converted from Japanese yen, at roughly 147 yen to the dollar in September 2025 for the release price and roughly 158 yen to the dollar in early October 2026 for the current listing. When I checked the listings, the T90A and T90C showed 15 and 14 units in stock, and the T90B was out of stock. Switch Science sells in Japan. For the rest of the world, the official English page points to ALIENTEK's AliExpress store and an Amazon listing and offers a contact email, with no official global ship date and no US price printed.
Display and wording discrepancies
The press release calls the display an OLED, an organic light-emitting diode panel. Switch Science's product pages call it a 0.99-inch IPS LCD color display. IPS stands for in-plane switching, a kind of liquid-crystal display. Those are different constructions, so one of the two descriptions is loose, and I'm not picking one. The same pages also list QC 3.0 (Quick Charge 3.0), a separate way for a charger and device to negotiate power, alongside PD 3.1.
Where does the T90 sit in the market?
By September 2025, USB-C irons were an established category. Miniware's TS100-class pens, Pine64's Pinecil, and SEQURE irons had all taught makers to solder from a charger: a handle, a cartridge, and a power source. The T90 adds three tip families under one handle design on a single day, each with its own heating ceiling, which is the angle ALIENTEK is pressing. Watt figures for the earlier pens aren't in these sources, so I'm not ranking them watt for watt.
What's left out?
The announcement doesn't give idle-shutoff timing, the tip-fault conditions, the OLED-versus-LCD question, or an official worldwide price. The melt times are the seller's figures, and no test piece is described. The ALIENTEK English page also offers a downloadable "T90ABC Smart Soldering Iron" file, a 3.9 MB archive, which is the likeliest source of the missing detail.
Which article covers which iron?
Each model has its own TMWB article with the details specific to its tip family and heating range. The T90A article covers the fine T210 tip and the 65 W ceiling, the T90B article covers the T245 tip and the 140 W top end, and the T90C article covers the large T65 tip and its 130 W ceiling. Everything in the table above is repeated there with the model-specific context, along with the same price and stock notes from Switch Science, so a reader comparing the three can jump straight to the one that matches the work they have in mind.
Sources and image credits
- Switch Science press release via ZDNET Japan, September 10, 2025
- ALIENTEK English T90 page
- Switch Science listings: T90A, SKU 10677, T90B, SKU 10678, T90C, SKU 10679
- Product images: ALIENTEK
