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They are required to do this and discounted the price in said region… What do people want them to do? I mean Lenovo, Asus and the other plastic junk will have to do the same. What are you wanting??
 
This is an EU law requiring companies to sell laptops without a charger. A company can also sell laptops with chargers, but have to have a version without. https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/eu-portable-electronic-devices-change-requirements
They are also going to decide in 2027 if they should make the unbundling mandatory and/or if they should include charging cables in the unbundling requirements.

By 28 December 2026, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report on the impact of the possibility to acquire radio equipment without any charging device and without cables, particularly with regard to consumer convenience, the reduction of environmental waste, behavioural changes and the development of market practices. That report shall be accompanied, if appropriate, by a legislative proposal to amend this Directive to introduce mandatory unbundling of the sale of charging devices and cables from the sale of radio equipment.’
 
Go back and read what I said. Specifically this part:

"Is it dangerous to use a lower powered adapter? Unlikely given the power draw of a typical laptop. However, it could damage or, more likely, shorten the life of the adapter."
& again - no it won't

however - believe what you want. ignore anything else.
 
Go back and read what I said. Specifically this part:

"Is it dangerous to use a lower powered adapter? Unlikely given the power draw of a typical laptop. However, it could damage or, more likely, shorten the life of the adapter."
USB-C PD negotiates the maximum supported wattage based a handshake between the chip in the charger and the device. Thats the point of the PD spec and the handshake.

Obviously a slower charger will charge slower and might charge too slow if you are actively using the device, but every USB-C PD charger or device is designed to function properly in those conditions. Charging batteries slower is actually better for the battery because it generates less heat, so you do gain that benefit as well.

I have personally gone for more than a week on a photo/camping trip charging my M1 Max MBP on nothing but a 35 watt car charger while driving. When I travel more conventionally with hotel rooms, I just bring a tiny 65 watt power brick that is more than enough for offloading photos and some edits.
 
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This is another good move from Apple, the world is literally drowning in redundant chargers and leads. I find it hard to believe that any reader of this site does not have a drawer full of redundant crap. IMHO NO product of any sort should come with a charger or a cable, they should always be offered as an option or a delete option. For myself, any MacBook will charge when plugged into my Apple Studio Display so the supplied Pro charger is redundant. I have two Anker desktop chargers with 100w/150w which do the job at different locations, at least a couple standalone Apple ones from older MacBooks plus far too many 30/40w micro Ankers and Ugreens, plus lots of junk chargers from various suppliers of tech products. Even worse, literally hundreds of little USB-A to USB-C leads which come with every single tech toy one buys these days. I regularly donate leads for recycling and I'm just about to do a mass donation of USB-A chargers. This is a typical MacRumors - I hate Tim Cook, I hate Apple storm in a teacup.
 
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USB-C PD negotiates the maximum supported wattage based a handshake between the chip in the charger and the device. Thats the point of the PD spec and the handshake.

Obviously a slower charger will charge slower and might charge too slow if you are actively using the device, but every USB-C PD charger or device is designed to function properly in those conditions. Charging batteries slower is actually better for the battery because it generates less heat, so you do gain that benefit as well.

I have personally gone for more than a week on a photo/camping trip charging my M1 Max MBP on nothing but a 35 watt car charger while driving. When I travel more conventionally with hotel rooms, I just bring a tiny 65 watt power brick that is more than enough for offloading photos and some edits.
I use a 30W Anker micro charger when travelling, and it's more than good enough to keep my MacBook Pro alive, trickle charge it overnight, and run it any time I actually need to plug in during the day.
 
Not sure if someone mentioned it already but the EU version of the MacBook therefore also costs 100€ less. With this in mind it‘s actually not a very bad decision. Still kinda annoying to having to buy a 3rd party charger though (or the 1st party one).
Also personally I don’t have any spare laptop charger at home. When I sell a laptop I naturally sell them with the bundled charger.
 
The pre-order is quite silly now, for base model you cannot choose charger at all. You have to upgrade display, ram or storage to be able to choose charger.

But if you add the base model to shopping cart you can add charger to your order.

And yes the Mac is indeed 100 euros cheaper now so all good (but a bit confusing) I guess?
 
Exactly my point.. By standardizing on a common connector end users will think that any adapter that utilizes that connector is the same as every other one, which is not the case.

I can envision people buying one of these and using their iPhone adapter and, setting aside any damage / fire hazard risks, experience a situation where the laptop cannot perform up to its design specification.

I think we are saying the same thing. All the directive did was set a standard connector (and not every cable that uses that connector will necessarily charge since it even allows for specialized cables) so it may plug into a charger but that does not ensure it will function as expected.

The directive in TFA forced Apple to offer Macs sans charger, and Apple chose not to also sell one with a boxed charger and lowered prices; although it may not have been in response to a number of factors including exchange rates. The Euro is up by about 6%, so the old prices would have effectively yielded $120 more per unit; so a 100 euro drop roughly cancels out the impact of a stronger Euro. I'm guessing Apple has some smart bankers to minimize currency risk so who knows what actually drove the price drop.
 
In Germany, the base configuration of the M5 MacBook Pro is 100€ less without the charger included compared to its processor model with the M4. If you buy the 70W charger, it is still 35€ less than the M4 (due to the dollar exchange rate?).
In the UK the base model is £100 more with NO charger!
 
Here in the US a typical power outlet provides 1,800 watts (120 volts x 15 amps) of power. Exceed that and you're going to blow a fuse / trip a breaker. Those devices exist to keep the wires from overheating and melting / catching fire.

That is the real issue - a substandard cable with USB-C connectors will plug in fine but unless it is designed to handle the current could get hot enough to be a hazard.

That’s not the point! It costs extra! Also strangely unavailable in the UK with the 512Gb option. I would also point out that the UK is no longer in the EU so it’s obviously excluded for other reasons than legalisation.

However, its market is likely small enough not to warrant separate packaging vs. just following the EU. Despite Brexit, the Eu regulatory environment will continue to dictate how products are made and sold in the UK.

Well… you clearly don’t know the difference between Europe and the EU, do you?

While that is true, but there are common market setups beyond just the EU. Some non-EU states are in the EEA or have treaty arrangements that result in common standards even though they are not in the EU. As a result, products sold there meet EU regulations; or the market in a non-EU state simply is not big enough to warrant a separate configuration.
 
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