I recently got a 30W Anker USB-C charger that is as small as the really old iPhone chargers, less than an inch cube, and it charges my M1 MacBook at full speed. It's far less than a third of the size of this 90W charger.
I'd love to see a teardown of that, too.
MacBook Pro models are able to fast charge at 140W (M1 onwards). Even the original M1 MacBook Air can charge at 45W[0]. I don't think it's accurate to say that the 30W Anker charger can charge your "M1 MacBook" at "full speed".
0: https://www.reddit.com/r/macbook/comments/kdpxmm/psa_m1_macb...
Apple supplies a 30W charger in the box, so I think it's fair to say that a third-party 30W charger is "full speed" (in the sense of "as good as the stock one", if not full speed in all potential scenarios GP might or might not care about).
When iPhones shipped with chargers they were only 5w despite being able to charge from faster chargers.
https://www.promate.net/blogs/blog/what-is-gan-technology
Half of my company has done the same and mostly Anker too. I got the charger/battery combo, as it is amazing for travel.
I think that's what the Y capacitor does (also pictured in the article): https://www.vicorpower.com/resource-library/articles/back-to...
Before that change I did end up throwing away a PSU that was causing tingling on my laptop. I don't know if that's a manufacturing flaw or damaged wiring.
The educated guess as to the mechanism is 'floating ground' (the white wire has a potential versus earth ground). It causes weird behavior in house wiring, particularly ones that have had iteration in their wiring (remodels, additions). Then there's the one where LED lights turn on even if the switch is off, but I think that's a separate phenomenon from floating ground.
It happens even in a properly wired building without faults, since a class 2 PSU needs a path for EMI on the secondary side to be dissipated, and due to the lack of a dedicated ground, the only choice is to connect both phase and return to the secondary circuit via a Y capacitor.
A common downside of that is a stray voltage of up to half your mains voltage on any conducting surface of your device, but it’s harmless since it’s not capable of sustaining any meaningful current.
Apple's power supplies for MacBooks do have a grounding pin, but the default duckhead adapter they ship with usually doesn't leverage it, so you end up with a class 2 power supply and the buzzing sensation.
> that you can hear the buzzing sound too if you put your ear very close.
I've found Apple power adapters to be pretty good in that regard, unlike some third-party power supplies that I can hear across the room. If I can only hear the noise when I put my ear next to the supply, I can just not do that :)
Do the Anker one's come with international plugs? I didn't see any indication on their product pages that they come with the adapters. Nor could I find them for sell.
Oh well, I'll probably follow your advice or checkout a different brand. Thanks!
https://www.anker.com/products/a2046?variant=42448630612118&...
Wattage aside, I'm sure there's more to it than meets the eye. Afterall, Apple are not stupid, smaller charger means less plastic casing and less packaging means simpler manufacturing ... no doubt the Apple ones are the size they are for a reason.
That reason might well be "because it's slightly cheaper to build a larger charger and most people wouldn't be willing to pay more for a device that comes with a compact one in the box".
You can't just order 15M components, built to a custom spec, and get them reliably overnight. Hence Apple have been working to scale supply lines, work with suppliers (and their suppliers) and ensure both quality and other factors (like environmental concerns).
Anker can go out of stock and then produce again when things stabilize. Apple can't stop selling Macs for 3 months without a major global crisis.
Source: have a HP laptop with a brick-size power brick.
After getting the M1 I'm typing this on I asked if a MagSafe 1-MagSafe 3 adapter existed. <https://np.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/10duooq/i_want_a_...> I felt foolish when I realized that being able to charge from USB-C meant that I could use any old charger and a USB-C cable for the times when I'm away from the stock Apple charger that came with the computer. Bonus: No more dealing with the Apple cable to the MagSafe 1 plug that inevitably lost its sheathing and exposed wires within a year.
Mind that a lot of chargers do weird power allocation things when multiple devices are connected. You probably aren't going to get all 150W to the laptop with four devices connected; depending on the charger and what port you're connected to, you may get much less.
Don't think I've travelled with more than one charger since phones switched away from micro-USB.
Of course, outside of fairly niche situations, this isn't going to make a practical difference to your life. :D
https://www.chargerlab.com/teardown-of-anker-30w-usb-c-gan-5...