Is it possible to fast charge the MacBook Pro 14-inchc Apple M1 Pro using USB-C?

[RamGuy]

Have anyone tested if they are able to get the same charging speeds on their MacBook Pro 14-inch using the 96W power adapter via USB-C to USB-C? USB-C and USB-C Power Delivery is supposed to be able to utilise up to 100W charging but the closer you get to that 100W limit the worse it get it might seem.

This should mean that the MacBook Pro 14-inch with Apple M1 Pro should be able to have the exact same fast charge behaviour using MagSafe 3 and USB-C for charging. Have anyone tested this? It wouldn't surprise me if Apple has opted for a proprietary fast charge specification instead of using USB-C Power Delivery as this is something they had to do with the MacBook Pro 16-inch and it's 140W Power Adapter as it goes beyond the USB-C Power Delivery specs.

I'm asking because my workplace was slow when ordering me my MacBook Pro 14-inch with Apple M1 Pro so it's on back order for 3-4 weeks so I won't be able to test this myself as of yet. I'm going to ensure that I have a 96W Power Adapter at hand in three different places and unless I need to utilise MagSafe 3 in order to get fast charging I will just opt for USB-C as USB-C will allow me to use the chargers for other things as well so it's much easier to have the USB-C to USB-C cable connected instead of the USB-C to MagSafe 3. But if this results in me loosing the capability of fast charging then I'll have to re-consider and they I could just opt for the cheaper 67W Power Adapter instead if it's not going to fast charge regardless when using USB-C to USB-C.

 

[Bodhitree]

I recall seeing somewhere in a review that fast charging only works with MagSafe through the Apple power adapter.

 

[TrueBlou]

Apple, from everything we’ve been told at least, have limited fast charging to the MagSafe 3 connection only. So it would seem that even if we throw more power at the TB3 ports, they will still draw less power than you would get from the MagSafe connection.

 

[RamGuy]

I recall seeing somewhere in a review that fast charging only works with MagSafe through the Apple power adapter. In fact, I believe you can’t charge the new MBP’s through their USB-C ports.

They support charging via USB-C, not doing so would be utterly counterproductive and a really stupid move. Luckily Apple actually told us during the keynote that alle three USB-C ports can be used for charging. No need to use the MagSafe 3, it's not going to be like you sit in a meeting with USB-C cables everywhere and not be able to charge.

 

[RamGuy]

Apple, from everything we’ve been told at least, have limited fast charging to the MagSafe 3 connection only. So it would seem that even if we throw more power at the TB3 ports, they will still draw less power than you would get from the MagSafe connection.

That's really disappointing. I really hope someone will shed some light on this and provide numbers on using 96W on the MacBook Pro 14-inch and compare the charging speeds using MagSafe 3 versus USB-C.

 

[Alpha Cluster]

Pretty sure the charging speeds are the same and the type of port doesn’t matter. (This is listed on the tech specs section on apples page) Only reason the 16 can’t fast charge via usb-c is power on usb currently is limited to 100 watts. Which is not enough to fill the larger battery in 30 minutes.

 

[KUKitch]

I thought they’d said that ‘fast charge‘ only works on the *16* with MagSafe because it can push over 100W, but that the 14 would do it with C b/c it doesn’t require more than 100W?

 

[UltimateSyn]

Yes. The USB-C ports will take up to 100W, and will therefore support the 96W 'Fast Charging' supported by the 96W brick.

 

[leman]

Apple is not clear whether it's Thunderbolt ports support USB PD 3.1 And since Apple is currently the only company shipping a USB PD 3.1 charger and there are no USB PD 3.1 compatible USB-C to USB-C cables, we can't really test it...

P.S. And the USB consortium f*** it up again. Why did they call the spec PD 3.1? Now if you google for a USB PD 3.1 cable you get all the USB 3.1 conformant cables with PD 2.0... Call it PD Power+ or PD3 or something like that... why the heck can't a committee full of industry professionals think about these basic things??

 

[pshufd]

Best thing to do would be to ask one of the review sites that bought 5-10 of them to test. They could even test the 140 Watt brick with a MBP 14.

 

[bill-p]

Have anyone tested if they are able to get the same charging speeds on their MacBook Pro 14-inch using the 96W power adapter via USB-C to USB-C? USB-C and USB-C Power Delivery is supposed to be able to utilise up to 100W charging but the closer you get to that 100W limit the worse it get it might seem.

This should mean that the MacBook Pro 14-inch with Apple M1 Pro should be able to have the exact same fast charge behaviour using MagSafe 3 and USB-C for charging. Have anyone tested this?

Yep. It works. Full 100W charging.

0% to 50% is indeed around 30 minutes like this.
50% to 100% takes about 1 extra hour.
Charging with 65W USB-C charger takes 3 hours total.

I'm also not using Apple's provided charger, but the smaller Aukey Omnia 100W brick.

This is actually one of the major reasons I didn't go with 16". 14" with smaller 100W charging brick and being able to fast charge on both sides of the device without MagSafe is much more convenient for me overall.

 

[Chancha]

I can also confirm fast charge on 14” works with or without MagSafe as long as your type-C PD charger outputs somewhere 90W (about 18V 5A)
On a 96W charger I got from an Intel 16”, negotiated 94W and initial draw 70+ watts
I also got a Satechi 108W, negotiated 90W and also draws about 70W
Both had my base MBP idle but not sleeping, just charging with the display mostly off.
30 minute indeed charged from 24% to 74%, then it slows down almost taking double the time to top up.
The 67W charger that came with it seems to takes almost 2 times to charge, but as for using the MBP intensely I don’t think the 67W would lose you charge just that the 90W+ will give you more headroom.

 

[bill-p]

Yeah, I can confirm... 65W can keep the device charged up even under intensive use. But this is for M1 Pro. I'd suspect M1 Max under intensive use may throttle a 65W charger.

 

[RamGuy]

Wonderful! Thank you all for testing this!