Bloomberg: Next-Generation MacBook Pro to Offer Improved Displays, Faster Charging Over MagSafe

[bluecoast]

How exactly would that lend itself to "faster charging" compared to USB-C?

I doubt it will be faster, it’ll just be more convenient.

We’re surely heading into a place where ‘battery charge anxiety’ on Mx Macs is less of a concern than it was with intel.

I should imagine that Apple’s vision is that you’ll be able to get a day’s use on one charge (unless you are doing really compute intensive tasks) and then slap on MagSafe to charge it over night.

 

[themikedshaffer]

Can someone explain to me my I would want "MagSafe" charging, so all it does is instead of plugging a charger in the wall and a cable into my Mac, I plug a more expensive charger in the wall, connect it with a more expensive cable magnetically to my Mac, and it charges with less power?

Don't think it's going to charge the Macbook. I think it's only going to be a place on the wrist rest to charge phone, Airpods or watch.

 

[gnasher729]

How are you connecting more cables with MagSafe vs USB C?

You connect one cable that does charging and nothing else. With USB-C, one choice is also to connect one cable that does charging and nothing else, so no difference. But I can also connect a charging hub, where I plug in one cable, and I get charging, half a dozen USB-ports, monitor connectors, Gbit ethernet and so on and so on.

 

[bniu]

My dell work laptop has a usb-c port and a dedicated barrel connector. The barrel connector charges at 130W while the USB-C port charges over my MacBook charger at 87W.

For most of my work, the 87W usb-c charger is more than adequate and it’s convenient to use because I’ve got several USB-c chargers all throughout the house for my MacBook Pro and iPad Pro.

Sometimes over a lunch break, I’ll even plug the dell into a 30W usb-c charger just because it’s nearby and I can give it some juice, albeit slowly but convenient.

I hope that if they bring back MagSafe that we can still charge over usb-c. If battery life is as good as we see on the current M1 MacBooks, the charger will mostly be to charge overnight and usb-c is more than adequate for that.

MagSafe will be nice to have for the odd times I would need a really fast charge but for the most part, usb-c will be just fine and can juice multiple devices.

 

[pshufd]

Can someone explain to me my I would want "MagSafe" charging, so all it does is instead of plugging a charger in the wall and a cable into my Mac, I plug a more expensive charger in the wall, connect it with a more expensive cable magnetically to my Mac, and it charges with less power?

Nostalgia.

 

[bluecoast]

Nah, it explicitly says in the report that it will be a similar plug design to the original Mac MagSafe.

Ok fair enough, my bad


I find it curious that Apple is going back to a dedicated charging port when they were dead set against this for the last 5 years.


Inductive charging MagSafe on the iPhone seems more ‘now’ for Apple - but maybe the voltage throughput that Macs need simply isn’t possible over inductive charging.

On the other hand, they told us that the butterfly keyboard was awesome - until it was replaced, so...

 

[themikedshaffer]

Nah, it explicitly says in the report that it will be a similar plug design to the original Mac MagSafe.

Where did you see this statement? I have not seen that at all.

 

[leman]

Not even close. A charging cable is for charging, not data.

The last two years where I was using a single cable to charge my machine, drive a 4K display, connect a mouse, a keyboard and an external HDD use have been my imagination then.

It's asinine that Apple ever got rid of MagSafe to begin with. Completely bonkers.

USB-C charging made MagSafe redundant. Apple isn't know for offering redundant features.

 

[Mr. Dee]

It’s gonna be a Rev A, will wait this one out.

 

[Stephen.R]

I doubt it will be faster, it’ll just be more convenient.

Gurman also says the shift back to dedicated MagSafe charging will allow for faster charging speeds.

 

[Fishrrman]

A return to MagSafe?

A return to actual "function keys", rather than a "touchbar"?

Begs the question:
Why did they ever get rid of these things in the first place?

 

[reubs]

I really like my 2019 Intel MacBook Pro (16"), but if I can swap it out and get one with both an M1 chip and a MagSafe charger, I'll take the hit. That said, I do kind of like having the Touch Bar as an option, even though I haven't quite figure out how to use it effectively.

 

[drice]

Looks like this could be the one I’ve been waiting for

 

[jarman92]

Given that current macbooks use USB power delivery to charge over thunderbolt at up to 96 W depending on the model, I don’t see the point in a dedicated non-usb-c charging mechanism, unless it will be for redundancy purposes. That is, if the thunderbolt port(s)gets fried or broken, charging via a backup charging port makes a lot of sense.

Does that make sense? Having a whole extra port and associated software/hardware just for the highly unlikely scenario that all the other ports are broken?

 

[falkon-engine]

It's superior in terms of "it just pulls away if the cable gets caught". But it doesn't carry data, so it's inferior in terms of "I want fewer cables to connect".

It's a very subjective topic.

Precisely. If the objective is simplicity, which is apple’s ethos, thunderbolt is superior to a mere dedicated charging port that doesn’t carry data, DisplayPort video, usb, and pcie lanes. Of course the problem tho is the incompatibility of the usb-c connector and other peripherals that use usb-a.

It is also very possible that Apple will keep using thunderbolt, but add a MagSafe mechanism to the laptop’s body to hold the cable in place...rather than have a dedicated magsafe charging port. Some recent thunderbolt docks by OWC have been released that have a locking mechanism to hold the thunderbolt cables in place (albeit the mechanism isn’t magnetic). Could be that Apple is planning something similar.

 

[Reason077]

Where did you see this statement? I have not seen that at all.

From the Bloomberg article:

"But the company is now bringing back MagSafe, the magnetic power adapter that means any accidental yanking of the power cable would simply detach it from the laptop rather than pull down the entire computer ...

... The connector will be similar to the elongated pill-shape design of the older MagSafe port."

 

[cmaier]

So I hope it’s not “MagSafe 3,” otherwise I’ll need to buy 4 or 5 new chargers at a $100 a pop. Or, in the alternative, I hope it still supports (lower speed) charging via USB-C.

 

[falkon-engine]

Does that make sense? Having a whole extra port and associated software/hardware just for the highly unlikely scenario that all the other ports are broken?

First off, I’m not the one with the rumor that Apple is going to actually use a dedicated charging port. I think the claim is dubious. But, although I don’t think it will happen, I still like to consider possibilities of doing things I wouldn’t do.

It’s the scientific mind. That being said, there are advantages to having a dedicated charging port. Louis Rossmann on YouTube as well as others have demonstrated that sometimes the power delivery mechanism in the usb-c port of the MacBooks sometimes gets damaged or fried, rendering the macbook unable to hold the requisite voltage and charge the battery or even power on. So one way around this problem is to have a dedicated charging port of the MagSafe variety. I’m not saying Apple will do it, but there could be a benefit in it doing so.

 

[Reason077]

So I hope it’s not “MagSafe 3,” otherwise I’ll need to buy 4 or 5 new chargers at a $100 a pop. Or, in the alternative, I hope it still supports (lower speed) charging via USB-C.

Of course it will be MagSafe 3. But, hopefully this time it'll just require a special MagSafe cable and not an entire special MagSafe charger like MagSafe 1/2. Having to replace the entire charger because your cable wore out was one of the worst features of MagSafe.

 

[cmaier]

Of course it will be MagSafe 3. But, hopefully this time it'll just require a special MagSafe cable and not an entire special MagSafe charger like MagSafe 1/2. Having to replace the entire charger because your cable wore out was one of the worst features of MagSafe.

Yeah, it would acceptable if I could use existing usb-c chargers but with a new cable. Somehow I doubt it.

 

[ignatius345]

It's Apple. I have so many of these bricks that I wouldn't care if it were replaceable or not.

What I mean is that when the cables inevitably fray or break, they would (ideally) be replacable separately and more cheaply than the whole thing. The last generation of MagSafe chargers for Macs cost like $80 and up to buy from Apple, if I recall -- and there were no third-party options to fall back on.

 

[Juraj22]

No touch bar. Yes!

 

[nexxco]

I hope the new M chip will support more external displays natively...

 

[Unregistered 4U]

It's superior in terms of "it just pulls away if the cable gets caught". But it doesn't carry data, so it's inferior in terms of "I want fewer cables to connect".

It's a very subjective topic.

It’s also not superior when you consider purchasing aftermarket solutions. Apple historically didn’t allow third-parties MFI access to the technology. So, if you wanted an airplane adapter or a car adapter, you had to go with whatever you found and hope it didn’t go critical and overheat. Even now, MagSafe laptops are left out of having a formal safe way to connect to all the high voltage USB-C battery packs capable of delivering 100W.

As long as they leave USB-C charging in, I’m good. OOOOOOOOR if they make MagSafe for the Mac like the MagSafe for the iPhone such that other companies can license it.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Because it works with USB-C, we now have people plugging in 5W, 10W, 20W, 25W charger and asking what does it not charge the MacBook? It is USB-C!.

It’ll charge, just reallllly reallllllly slowly. So slow that, when you’re using it, you won’t see it charging, you’ll see it discharging. But when you’re not? Yeah. It’ll charge. By next Thursday.


WHICH next Thursday? Pick one, it’s probably that one. If not, it’ll be the next one.