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Energear 65W PD Charger Works Well with the Apple 13-Inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Late 2016)

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Let's see how well the Energear 65W PD Charger works to charge the Thunderbolt 3 enabled Apple 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Late 2016) using USB Power Delivery technology.

The Energear 65W PD Charger comes USB certified and supports up to 65W power output over its single USB Type-C connector. When plugged in to a  Thunderbolt 3 based USB Type-C port on the Apple 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Late 2016), we look at how it communicates USB Power Delivery with the Mac using the Granite River Labs GRL-USB-PD-A1 power analyzer.

Once Vendor Defined Messages have initially exchanged power ID's, the Energear 65W PD Charger starts to advertise the following power profiles- 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps), 27 watts (9 volts @ 3 amps), 36 watts (12 volts @ 3 amps), 45 watts (15 volts @ 3 amps), and 65 watts (20 volts @ 3.25 amps) to the Mac with its battery at 20% full.

The Energear charger then accepts the Mac's request to draw 60 watts (20 volts @ 3 amps) to get the fastest charging.

While the Apple 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Late 2016) is left with 20% battery charge when plugged in at power on, during first power request, we can see a quick spike of current which then plunges down but goes back up again to reach about 2.9 amps while at around 20.1 volts. As the current levels out, the Mac charges at a more steady state at around 48.2 watts (20.1 volts @ 2.4 amps).      

USB Power Delivery does work fine between the Apple 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Late 2016) and a non Apple based charging device like the  Energear 65W PD Charger, but could be much faster using the Apple 61W USB-C Power Adapter that originally came with the Mac. If the Apple charger just happens to be out of reach, the Mac can still make use of the Energear charger to keep itself charged.

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