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Comment by cbr | Hacker News Reader

I've been pretty happy with an Anker 60W for charging my 15" MBP; it doesn't charge as fast as the stock charger, but it's good enough and it's $40 shipped: amazon.com/Anker-Premium-Charger-PowerPort-Delivery/dp/B01D8C6ULO

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Does charging a modern LiPo battery slowly result in extended battery life?

I've thought it would be good if there was a charge-mode selector of some description for when your laptop is low but you know you won't need a full charged battery until tomorrow. Or if you could tell the battery to stop charging at a particular capacity, say by intentionally shifting the 0% and 100% battery levels.

The MacBook already charges slowly by LiPo standards, I'm guessing they picked a charge rate beyond which slowing down further was giving deminishing returns. You'd definitely get more longevity out of it by shifting the 0 and 100% points though. I'm just not sure Apple would ever let you for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is they do want the batteries to degrade and encourage upgrades that way.

ThinkPads allow you to set the charging limits, e.g. "Charge up to 90% but don't start charging if above 80%". Works on Linux, too (e.g. using tlp, which also has a "fully charge it this one time" command when you need it)

I'm on my third ThinkPad. I wasn't aware of that, I'll look in to it.

I didn't specifically buy a new power bank for my new MBP, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out my generic power bank for the mobile phone can actually charge the battery of my MacBook when the MacBook is not being used (5 percent in 30 minutes). When you are using, it says battery not charging though.

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