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Alternative AC Adapter for new MacBook Pro

BlueRevere

BlueRevere

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 25, 2016
31
13
Hi,

I usually have three AC adapters for my notebooks, one for the office, one for home and one for my travel bag. The original Apple adapter is big and expensive, 78 USD incl. cable.

The new adapter for the office can be bulky and should, ideally, be cheaper than the original Apple AC adapter.

The new adapter for my travel bag should be slim and ideally have an additional USB-A outlet.

Does anyone have experiences with alternative AC adapters? I have been looking at these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F8LZ6SQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl
https://www.amazon.com/Innergie-PowerGear-USB-C-45-Adapter/dp/B0188PAD00/
https://www.amazon.com/JoyNano-Adapter-Compatible-Macbook-MateBook/dp/B01I7S50HY/
https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Desktop-Notebook-Technology-ChromeBook/dp/B01F8LZ3SO
https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Dell-HDCY5-Adapter-Latitude/dp/B01M0C10FQ

I know that these power adapters do not have the 61Watt of the original power adapter, but a) I could not find any stronger adapters and b) for regular use 45 Watt might be sufficient?

What do you think / know from experience?
 
Last edited:
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BlueRevere said:
b) for regular use 45 Watt might be sufficient
Click to expand...

Yes... it will just charge a little slower is all. Unless you are doing something that really sucks up a lot of power all the time, 45 watts should be plenty to keep any MacBook charged up.
 
Today I tested with the 29Watt USB-C adapter from the MacBook. It did not throw any error messages (like NON-MFI lighting cables). I ordered a slim 35 Watt now, will let you know in a few days if it works...
 
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The Anker adapter (above) is not available in Germany.

I got this one today for my 13''
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01I9N83K8/

With only 36Watts it keeps my MacBook at 100% charged, gets just warm, not hot. It is very small compared to the original adapter.
 
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BlueRevere said:
The Anker adapter (above) is not available in Germany.

I got this one today for my 13''
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01I9N83K8/

With only 36Watts it keeps my MacBook at 100% charged, gets just warm, not hot. It is very small compared to the original adapter.
Click to expand...

I bought that one, too, and luckily read this having only used it for about 30 minutes, after which I immediately returned it. Don't want to seem alarmist, but…

https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/posts/Ef67MYt4wtd
 
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SBruv said:
I bought that one, too, and luckily read this having only used it for about 30 minutes, after which I immediately returned it. Don't want to seem alarmist, but…

https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/posts/Ef67MYt4wtd
Click to expand...

Nathan's work is impressive.

However, in Nathan's analysis even the original Apple adapters flunk his tests and get only a +1 and a -1 on his +3 to -3 scale.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...x9dMDWqENiY2kgBJUu29f_TX8/edit#gid=1288176877
 
I have ordered the Innergie and will report back. Anybody else already using a 3rd Party Charger with this new MBP?
 
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The Anker seems really interesting since it could replace a few charges in my living room and bedroom. Which cable did you get for this? Need a longer one (2m) but i'd rather not spend 30€ for the apple original.

Can you report on how much longer the Anker needs to charge the MBP?
 
fanta said:
The Anker seems really interesting since it could replace a few charges in my living room and bedroom. Which cable did you get for this? Need a longer one (2m) but i'd rather not spend 30€ for the apple original.

Can you report on how much longer the Anker needs to charge the MBP?
Click to expand...
I didn't buy a new cable yet, I just use the original one for now, however from everything I've read, I wouldn't (at this stage) get a longer USB-C cable from anywhere other than apple, as I haven't come across any that are well rated/safe or in general use. I would unfortunately shell out for the Apple one at this stage.

In terms of charge time, I haven't done a side by side comparison, it's going to be slower, but I've never needed to measure it so I dont know how much. Certainly haven't noticed it in my use
 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IB1EXX4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got this one when I owned my 12" macbook and thought it would work fine for this macbook pro. Boy I was wrong. It ended up glitching my battery to show that there was only 35% capacity and wasn't registering my full battery on the OS. A couple reboots, SMC and PRAM resets and a FULL charge on an Apple OEM charger and it corrected itself. Spooked me, so I will not be using anything but the OEM chargers for now on.
 
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Please download coconut battery and report how much wattage the anker adapter is charging at. Also system profiler will also tell how much wattage the MacBook is seeing available from the charger. On my 2016 rmbp 15 the 29 watt rMB charger reports the 29 watts correctly.
 
The original adapter is reporting as 60w in system profiler and coconut battery is reporting that it is charging currently at around 20w.

The Anker is reported in profiler as 45w and is also currently charging at 20w in coconut. Not sure what causes the Mac to request more power
 
technoholic said:
The original adapter is reporting as 60w in system profiler and coconut battery is reporting that it is charging currently at around 20w.

The Anker is reported in profiler as 45w and is also currently charging at 20w in coconut. Not sure what causes the Mac to request more power
Click to expand...
20 watts is about right, so the Anker gives you a buffer of around 25 watts of usage before cutting down on charging while the Apple charger has a 40 watt buffer before it needs to slow down charging with heavy use. Not bad tradeoff for 1/2 the price of the Apple adapter.
 
magbarn said:
20 watts is about right, so the Anker gives you a buffer of around 25 watts of usage before cutting down on charging while the Apple charger has a 40 watt buffer before it needs to slow down charging with heavy use. Not bad tradeoff for 1/2 the price of the Apple adapter.
Click to expand...
How does USB PD work then? Will it only charge with as many watts as it needs based on what is running on the laptop? If so then yeah, it's not bad. Also you get the other 4 USB A ports at 2.4A each
[doublepost=1481561624][/doublepost]The other thing I'm considering in order to cut down what I need to carry with me is the oneadaptr twist+ which attaches to the Apple charger in place of the plug.
 
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