GTrusted

What happens if your Apple MacBook (Early 2015) needs a quick charge and you only have access to a third party charging option like the Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh PD with 27W PD Portable Charger Bundle?

Fortunately the Apple MacBook (Early 2015) uses USB Power Delivery allowing it to stay charged by many different chargers that support USB Power Delivery such as the Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh PD with 27W PD Portable Charger Bundle. However we found issues when charging the Apple Mac on a fully depleted battery with the Anker powerbank.

To see what went wrong, we demonstrate here using Granite River Labs GRL-USB-PD-A1 test software. We can see that the Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh PD constantly declares to support 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps) and 30 watts (15 volts @ 2 amps) USB Power Delivery profiles when connected to the Apple MacBook (Early 2015) over USB Type-C.

The Apple MacBook (Early 2015) is then seen to request 30 watts (15 volts @ 2 amps) from the Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh PD. This 30 watts request is only accepted by Anker after several Vendor Defined Messages have completed.

We further observe that while charging initially happens at a power band of 21 watts (15 volts @ 1.4 amps) to max 30 watts (15 volts @ 2 amps), the Mac appears to draw around a more stable 22.5 watts (15 volts @ 1.5 amps) after the multiple Vendor Defined Messages have occurred. However the current suddenly drops down to 0 amps after only the first 40 minutes of charging with the Mac’s battery being fully drained. This continues on with no charging happening at all between both Mac and Anker powerbank.

 

The Apple MacBook (Early 2015) unfortunately can't be charged using the non Apple based Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh PD with 27W PD Portable Charger Bundle over USB Power Delivery.