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cantSpellSober

> MagSafe 3 charging

The biggest differences between v2 and v3 of MagSafe are:

• v3 is 1 mm longer (doesn't fit v2 models)

• v3 supports PD 3.1

...is that all?

> Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports

...these do NOT support PD 3.1, correct?

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On the M1 Pro, the supplied power brick is a USB-C charger. You can plug it either into the Magsafe port or the C ports on the laptop, and it works the same either way.

On my 2021 MBP, I have to use the USB-C/MagSafe cable to get 140W charging.

Using a USB-C to USB-C cable (with the same charger) gets 100W charging instead because of a limitation on the laptop side (USB PD 3.1 on the MagSafe port vs USB PD 3.0 on the USB-C ports).

Hopefully they're fixed that for this iteration of MBP, but I haven't seen that explicitly claimed anywhere.

Magsafe v3 supports PD 3.1, and the USB-C ports do not; this is not true

Perhaps, but it's charging at the same rate regardless.

Likely not, assuming they keep the same design for M1 Pros.

On the 16" M1 Pros, you could do magsafe charging at 140W (using higher wattage negotiated USB PD), however the USB-C ports were limited to 100W (96W?) and did not offer the full 140W charging using USB-C.

No, the PD spec is much more than a wattage, "it's charging at the same rate" is not necessarily true

Probably just aligning with the new Qi spec?

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/qi2-the-new-standard-for-wi...

edit: should've rtfa'd, its the laptop magsafe

That's (confusingly) a different MagSafe.

Apple has MagSafe connectors for charging on laptops, which was the original MagSafe. The name comes from the connector being magnetic, and being "safe" since tripping over the cable would make it disconnect without pulling your laptop off the table. They discontinued this in favour of charging through USB-C cables/ports a while back.

They then introduced magnetic charging for iPhones, similar to (but IIRC not exactly) their Qi charging support. This reused the MagSafe name since they didn't have any products with it. The evolution of this is speculated to be incorporated and standardised as Qi2.

Then they introduced the MagSafe charging connector back to their laptops (but updated), and so confusingly there's two basically unrelated features both called MagSafe. Maybe that'll get cleared up a bit once Qi2 comes out.

I wouldn't call them unrelated. They're both charging connectors with magnets. (I know the iPhone one is wireless, but still.)

Also, the laptop side is on it's third iteration, so at this point "MagSafe" is more of a category than a specific connector.

Well MagSafe (the macbook charger one) is closer to USB-C in almost every way than it is to Wireless charging. I think it's just basically a different usb-c connector with a magnet attached.

This may be a stupid question, but does anyone know if you could charge through one of the Thunderbolt ports instead of having to use the magsafe connector? My work uses Macs for all employees, and they've been generous enough to supply me with 2 docking stations (one for office, one for home) that both charge through a Thunderbolt port. I'm due for a MBP upgrade and they were specifically waiting on the M2 Pro/Max versions before doing mine, and I'm trying to figure out if I can stick with my old docks or if I'll need to request new ones.

Yes, you can charge from any of the USB-C ports.

Some discussion here is saying the MagSafe will charge at 140W, while the USB-C ports will only charge at 100W, so it will be a bit slower.

Thanks. I know that was the case with the M1 MBPs, but wasn't sure if that would carry over to the M2 versions, and I didn't see anything about charging via the USB-C ports in the press relese.

Always check the Tech Specs pages for the details that aren’t always in the press releases. https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-14-and-16/specs/

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