GTrusted
Sometimes when you are on the road and don't have any USB AC adapters available to charge your Nintendo Switch Console, you can use a computer like the Apple 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2016) as a USB Power Delivery based charging source.
To find out if you can charge your Nintendo Switch Console using the Apple 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2016) as a power bank, we'll connect the Switch Console to the Mac over USB Type-C. The Mac is 28% charged when it starts charging the Switch Console on a fully depleted battery at power off over USB Power Delivery. Note you'll need to sacrifice your notebook's battery charge when supplying power to the Switch Console unless you have another power adapter or dock charging the Mac.
When directly connected to the Nintendo Switch Console with left and right Joy-Con controllers attached, the Apple 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2016) starts USB Power Delivery negotiations with the Switch Console by offering an initial 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps) power profile.
The Switch Console initially requests to pull only 2.5 watts (5 volts @ 0.5 amps) which the Mac accepts.
We later observe that the Mac declares another 7.5 watts (5 volts @ 1.5 amps) power profile.
The Nintendo Switch Console however insists on the same 2.5 watts (5 volts @ 0.5 amps) that was requested earlier which the Apple 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2016) also complies.
We then see that the Switch Console agrees to the Mac's request to display its power sink capabilities of a fixed 2.5 watts (5 volts @ 0.5 amps) and 7.5 watts (15 volts @ 0.5 amps) as well as variable power of 5-15 volts @ 0.5 amps.
Interestingly the Mac also requests source capabilities from the Switch Console which it also complies by displaying 2.5 watts (5 volts @ 0.5 amps).
After the data role swap, the Nintendo Switch Console finally requests to pull 7.5 watts (5 volts @ 1.5 amps) and gets accepted by the Apple 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2016).
During the initial plug in from zero charge with both Joy-Con controllers attached, the Nintendo Switch Console starts off pulling around 7.5 watts (5 volts @ 1.5 amps) and rapidly changing current from 0.9 to 1.5 amps @ 5 volts. When the Console is turned on, the power pulled finally stabilizes at 7.5 watts (5 volts @ 1.5 amps) as the Console consumes more power used to support the Joy Con controllers without any active gameplay.
The Nintendo Switch Console is still able to charge with the Apple 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2016) but at a much lower power than when using its own Nintendo Switch AC Adapter in this review. With this low wattage, it will take a longer time for the Switch Console to charge but better than nothing when on the road.
