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I would say that 96W from standard charger/TB3/4 dock should be enough to run 16'' M1 MAX at full power since 14'' can have the same chip and comes with 96W adapter. Only if it draws more, because of the 2'' bigger screen ... Only disappointment here is that we have lost 1 USB/TB port with Magsafe 3 which we will not use in combination with TB3/4 dock but we would get enough power to run M1 Max at full ? ....
 
I would say that 96W from standard charger/TB3/4 dock should be enough to run 16'' M1 MAX at full power since 14'' can have the same chip and comes with 96W adapter. Only if it draws more, because of the 2'' bigger screen ... Only disappointment here is that we have lost 1 USB/TB port with Magsafe 3 which we will not use in combination with TB3/4 dock but we would get enough power to run M1 Max at full ? ....

You are forgetting that the battery is also larger and therefore to reach the same 50% charge within the same amount of time, it would need more power going into it. Also, likely due to the number of battery cells being larger I would think you would need an even higher charging voltage just from that. So with the increased capacity and cell count, that would impact the need for a larger charger. The chips only come into play if you are trying to use and charge at the same time, which is not covered by fast charging documentation. Likely you can't fast charge if you are pegging the system performance.
 
You are forgetting that the battery is also larger and therefore to reach the same 50% charge within the same amount of time, it would need more power going into it. Also, likely due to the number of battery cells being larger I would think you would need an even higher charging voltage just from that. So with the increased capacity and cell count, that would impact the need for a larger charger. The chips only come into play if you are trying to use and charge at the same time, which is not covered by fast charging documentation. Likely you can't fast charge if you are pegging the system performance.
Completely true, but what I want to say is that, that 140W charger is here only for faster charging and it is not needed for running system at full speed once battery is 100% full. If you look at 14'' with the same maxed out specs, there is only 96W charger with it, so with 96W input (from charger, from dock, from monitor...) into maxed out 16'' there is no difference when system would start to break when using it hard ?
 
Completely true, but what I want to say is that, that 140W charger is here only for faster charging and it is not needed for running system at full speed once battery is 100% full. If you look at 14'' with the same maxed out specs, there is only 96W charger with it, so with 96W input (from charger, from dock, from monitor...) into maxed out 16'' there is no difference when system would start to break when using it hard ?

Yeah, that would make sense and should be able to "keep up" just fine. Like you said the only real meaningful difference would be the display. Even if that did affect it, I would think that it would take a long time (half a day or more?) to drain the batter then, and you would have to be running at 100% the entire time.
 
I'm more concerned the 16" won't charge at all in some conditions over Thunderbolt connected to my LG UltraFine 4K Monitor that puts out 85W. ?it works most of the time, but only when transcoding video or some other intense task I'll actually need the MagSafe. I'm not finding any Thunderbolt docks that advertise 100W, not even OWC, its only got 90W. I would have thought OWC would have matched the 96W output of the Pro Display XDR, but no.... I bet those displays are what Apple tests with so they claim both 14" and 16" can charge over Thunderbolt.

Quite happy to use MagSafe on the go and get the fast charging. That's super nice, but at the desk I happen to like my one cable Thunderbolt connection ATM that both powers my 2019 MBP and connects to two monitors, hope to keep it that way.
 
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I'm more concerned the 16" won't charge at all in some conditions over Thunderbolt connected to my LG UltraFine 4K Monitor that puts out 85W. ?it works most of the time, but only when transcoding video or some other intense task I'll actually need the MagSafe. I'm not finding any Thunderbolt docks that advertise 100W, not even OWC, its only got 90W. I would have thought OWC would have matched the 96W output of the Pro Display XDR, but no.... I bet those displays are what Apple tests with so they claim both 14" and 16" can charge over Thunderbolt.

Quite happy to use MagSafe on the go and get the fast charging. That's super nice, but at the desk I happen to like my one cable Thunderbolt connection ATM that both powers my 2019 MBP and connects to two monitors, hope to keep it that way.

Also remember that you can charge up to 100W using a power brick and a USB C cable, so it isn't just a dock/monitor or MagSafe. However, from what you are saying, I understand you (like me) have a setup at your desk and want to utilize either the monitor or hub to charge as well as drive the items at your desk.

I have the CalDigit hub which is 86W and I am hoping based on what Apple has said about only "super intensive" tasks causing full power draw. Even then, I wonder if the full 140W adapter will be required, it might just be needed to fast charging and not actually required to simply keep up with the system. Either way, I did also find this:


I don't have any experience with Pluggable, and don't really like the port options or layout, but it would at least bump it up to the max 96W and get a little bit closer to the 140W Apple adapter.

Also, remember that once USB C adopts the new standard then we should see a new wave of docks get released that will support the full wattage.
 
Do we have an official source on this, or is it just speculation? The specs page for the 16” says “fast-charge capable with included 140W USB-C Power Adapter”, and it shows three TB4 ports with support for “Charging.” No footnote callouts, etc about MagSafe being required for fast charging.

The info may well be correct, I’m not saying it isn’t - but do we have a source?
 
Do we have an official source on this, or is it just speculation? The specs page for the 16” says “fast-charge capable with included 140W USB-C Power Adapter”, and it shows three TB4 ports with support for “Charging.” No footnote callouts, etc about MagSafe being required for fast charging.

The info may well be correct, I’m not saying it isn’t - but do we have a source?


They don't link to an Apple webpage but this tracks with what technology has been released so far. 100W (96 usable) maximum for USB C. This will get you "fast charging" on the smaller battery 14" MBP while you need 140W on the 16" MBP due to the larger battery. Since 140W is not YET a USB C standard (coming soon), the MagSafe option is what you will need to use.
 

So, is it safe to occasionally charge my 16' mbp(2021), with a 20000mah powerbank through usb-c/thunderbolt?
Will everything be alright or is there any fear of harming the mbp?
The most important thing is to make sure you’re using a good quality cable. Tests in the past have shown that poorly manufactured cables can easily fry your device. Apple’s are good, but there are others just as good not made by Apple.

Once you’ve got a good cable, I’d say it’s safe to occasionally or regularly charge it via a power bank through usb-c/thunderbolt. It will charge slower than via the 140 watt charger but, due to the tech included in USB-C PD (Power Delivery), it will charge safely either way. (I haven’t used my 140 watt charger once since getting my 16”)
 
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The most important thing is to make sure you’re using a good quality cable. Tests in the past have shown that poorly manufactured cables can easily fry your device. Apple’s are good, but there are others just as good not made by Apple.

Once you’ve got a good cable, I’d say it’s safe to occasionally or regularly charge it via a power bank through usb-c/thunderbolt. It will charge slower than via the 140 watt charger but, due to the tech included in USB-C PD (Power Delivery), it will charge safely either way. (I haven’t used my 140 watt charger once since getting my 16”)

It is nice to know that there is this ability to charge even from a powerbank.
But as it is said...safety (of the mbp in this case) first!

You charge your 16' mbp using usb-c?

Oh yes, the quality of the cable.
I ordered this one, it seems to have very good feedback
 
It is nice to know that there is this ability to charge even from a powerbank.
But as it is said...safety (of the mbp in this case) first!

You charge your 16' mbp using usb-c?

Oh yes, the quality of the cable.
I ordered this one, it seems to have very good feedback
Yes, I’ve only ever charged it via USB-C. From a battery pack, from a battery pack with pass through from a 100W charger and directly from that USB 100W charger. I’ve even charged from a 36W USB-C car charger (Belkin). Sure, it was slower, but it was charged enough when I got to where I was going :D
 
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Today I tried to charge my 16 mbp through usb-c.

My powerbank is a 'romoss' 20000mah (18w).

Also my cable is the one I posted above, baseus, with good feedback.

Though the display get brighter as when you plug magsafe, finally it did not charge the mbp.
Battery continued to go down.
Why this failure of being able to charge?
 
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Today I tried to charge my 16 mbp through usb-c.
My powerbank is a 'romoss' 20000mah (18w). Also my cable is the one I posted above, baseus, with good feedback.
Though the display get brighter as when you plug magsafe, finally it did not charge the mbp.
Battery continued to go down.
Why this failure of being able to charge?

Hard to say. Could be teh MBP was using more than 18 W so ll the charge bank did was slow the rate of discharge. Does it charge the MBP when the MBP is powered down?
 
Hard to say. Could be teh MBP was using more than 18 W so ll the charge bank did was slow the rate of discharge. Does it charge the MBP when the MBP is powered down?

I will make a try with mbp powered down.

When they say about charging with usb-c, and apple officially I think it talks about this,
what are the minimum requirements to do it?
It could not be like 'try and see'.
 
Today I tried to charge my 16 mbp through usb-c.

My powerbank is a 'romoss' 20000mah (18w).

Also my cable is the one I posted above, baseus, with good feedback.

Though the display get brighter as when you plug magsafe, finally it did not charge the mbp.
Battery continued to go down.
Why this failure of being able to charge?
The MBP was using more power than your battery pack was able to supply. Your MBP WAS pulling from it, it was just using it AND still pulling power from the internal battery.

If your laptop was off, the battery would charge but it would be VERY slow. There are battery packs that output up to 100W (I’ve bought a few over the years… crowdfunded as they can get over $200 otherwise) Those would show the battery being charged while it’s being used in MOST cases (unless you’re really stressing the processor).
 
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I will make a try with mbp powered down.

When they say about charging with usb-c, and apple officially I think it talks about this,
what are the minimum requirements to do it?
It could not be like 'try and see'.
It’s more “your mileage may vary”, but same general idea. If your laptop comes with a 30W charger, then a battery pack capable of outputting 30W would match your experience when it’s plugged in. A battery pack capable of outputting MORE, will, of course, charge it FASTER than the wall charger it came with. A battery pack capable of outputting less would still “work” according to USB-C Power Delivery requirements, but the experience would not be what you’re used to when charging from the wall.

The 16” comes with a 140W charger. To my knowledge, the highest USB-C battery packs go to right now is 100W. So, no current battery pack will match that experience. BUT, 100W is close enough and useful for charging it while using it, again, in most cases.
 
Unregistered 4U, you were right.

Well, after the suggestion of jlc1978, I tried charging with mbp powered off.

The good news: the 'experiment' succeed! :)

But, the other news, were that it was really slow.
I did not expected the speed of magsafe, but it is ok.

You know, I wanted this to succeed, just to have it as an option,
only in -let's say- emergency state.

I am not good in all these electrical terms,
but it is rather strange to to me,
that I left mbp before closing down with a battery of 99%,
and the powerbank after 1,5 hour has gone from it's 100% power to 94%,
and it was still charging,
but I interrupted the procedure then,
as I wanted to use the mbp.

I think mbp has about 8000mah batteries in a whole,
while powerbank has 20000mah batteries.

So besided the slowness,
I cannot undestand, how it is going,
taking about 6-10%(approximatelly, as I interrupted when the powerbank was down to 94% of its charge) from the powerbank's power,
to just give 1% in mbp power/battery,
when the one has 20000mah battery and the other 8000mah battery.

I guess that the whole 100% of the 20000mah powerbank, could just transfer about 10% of power in mbp,
before it completely runs out of power.

In any case,
now I now that usb-c charge, at least it works.
 
I think mbp has about 8000mah batteries in a whole,
while powerbank has 20000mah batteries.
The 16” MBP battery is 100 Wh capacity. While the product page doesn’t list Wh capacity for your battery, a 25000mAh battery I own is 92.5Wh. So, even my battery that has faster charging and higher capacity than yours wouldn’t charge a 16” MBP from zero. Combine that with the slowness and you’d have to wait a VERY long time for that battery pack to charge your laptop even to 50%.

Seeing as how your battery pack only outputs 18W, I’d guess it’s designed to fill phones multiple times before needing a charge. I’d look into another higher capacity, higher wattage battery that could pull double duty charging your phones and the MBP, even at the same time! :)
 
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I guess that the whole 100% of the 20000mah powerbank, could just transfer about 10% of power in mbp,
before it completely runs out of power.

Digging deep into my memory of EE, there are several things at play:

The power bank has a smaller capacity than the MBP, so it is only going to charge it to the power bank capacity. Capicity is the water tank, if you will.

The other is how much current can it deliver. An 18W, at the same voltage as a 64W PS, can only deliver about 1/3 or so the current. That is enough to charge when not in use, but slowly, since the computers power use is less than the charging current. Curent amps is the amount of water flowing.

A smaller tank and smaller hose will take longer to fill a pool to a certain level than say a firehose...
 
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