Teardown of 140W MacBook Pro Power Adapter Shows What's Inside

[alee]

Can I charge, albeit slowly, from a standard USB charger if I have a USB-C cable for it.
(I'm defining "standard" as non-"Power Delivery 3.1")

USB-PD is required, but USB-PD 3.1 is not. I use a Satechi USB-C PD 108W charger and it works fine.

 

[weave]

Can I charge, albeit slowly, from a standard USB charger if I have a USB-C cable for it.
(I'm defining "standard" as non-"Power Delivery 3.1")

I'm wondering something similar. If I have a dock that provides 60 watts of power back to the laptop, will that work or at least will the battery drain slowly under heavy loads but then recharge later when workloads is done -- albeit slower?

 

[MrSkoTA]

iFixit Repairability Score: -15

 

[ChrisFromNEPA]

I'm wondering something similar. If I have a dock that provides 60 watts of power back to the laptop, will that work or at least will the battery drain slowly under heavy loads but then recharge later when workloads is done -- albeit slower?

This is an 16 inch M1 Pro under load and at max brightness (SDR 500 nits, HDR would be more), so an M1 Max would use even more power. The 60W will not be enough to both run and charge the device. So it will discharge if you are pushing it to it's max but you would have to keep it under load for a long time to completely discharge it.

 

[grrrz]

The Moral of this entry, Is:

Beware Of Chinese Knockoffs, OR Suffer, at your own doing

USB-C PD is a standard; you can use any charger you like granted it is powerful enough (in this case you won't find many 140W chargers but maybe not for long). I'd like a comparison with a few known brands (like anker or ugreen for example; who also make Gan chargers); to see if it's actually better quality. there will be quite a bit of technology in any usb c charger anyway; maybe just don't go with the cheapest of the cheapest.

 

[garylapointe]

If I have a dock that provides 60 watts of power back to the laptop, will that work or at least will the battery drain slowly under heavy loads but then recharge later when workloads is done -- albeit slower?

That's how I would assume it would work. Not ideal for long battery life in a desktop situation though, it'd be constantly depleting the battery (assuming you have often have workloads that need more than 60 watts).

But to keep a cheap spare charger in the car or travel bag, versus forgetting it and having no way to charge when out of town, it'll be worth it. At worst, it'd likely get a full charge when not in use overnight.