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Through USB Power Delivery technology the Apple 15" MacBook Pro (2018) is able to charge with third party Power Delivery based chargers such as the AUKEY PA-Y12 Amp 60W PD 3.0 USB-C Wall Charger. The Aukey charger enables 20V charging using USB Power Delivery 3.0 over USB Type-C supporting both standard PDO (Power Data Objects) protocol and PPS (Programmable Power Supply).

We observed charging after plugging in the AUKEY PA-Y12 Amp 60W PD 3.0 USB-C Wall Charger to a Thunderbolt 3 based USB-C connector on the  Apple 15" MacBook Pro (2018) using the Mac's own supplied Apple USB-C Charge Cable (2m) accessory. As the voltage quickly stepped up from initial 5 volts to around a 19.8 volts rail, it took only about 1 second later for the Mac to start pulling current. The current could be seen to spike up to 3.1 amps for about 62 watts (20 volts @ 3.1 amps) charging which was the highest power drawn by the Mac. This then followed by a sudden drop of current down to near .5 amps leading to a series of rapid changing current from .3 amps to below 2 amps. At random times the Mac could be seen to pull around 1.8 amps to max out charging at about 35.6 watts (19.8 volts @ 1.8 amps) with the Aukey charger. Click here to download the trace captured by the GRL-A1 power analyzer to see more details.

The Mac could only briefly achieve max 60W charging with the Aukey charger in the initial stage where subsequent charging dropped to almost half the power. This doesn't allow the Mac to charge as fast as using its own shipped Apple 87W charger which we observed here or even with a Apple 61W charger in this review. Similar with both these Apple chargers, the Mac also uses aggressive power management schemes with the Aukey charger such that even while the charger was connected to the Mac, the current repeatedly went up close to 1.5-1.8 amps at repeated intervals.

Download the A1 software from Granite River Labs to view the trace.