GoKawiilApple Silicon Macs offer truly excellent battery life compared to their Intel predecessors, but there are still times when you need to plug in to power.
If I know in advance I’m going to need mains power, then the Chargeasap Zeus is the power brick I normally carry with me. When I expect to be able to work solely on battery but have the MacBook equivalent of range anxiety, I’ve found the Rolling Square Super Tiny to be the perfect solution …
My M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro is heading toward its fifth birthday, and the battery capacity is currently shown as 81%. In general use I’ll typically still get about 10 hours out of it, but for intensive tasks like 4K video editing that can drop to as little as 5-6 hours.
As someone who works from a home office, it’s good to get a change of scenery once in a while. So for things like video editing in my spare time, I’ll often head out to a shared workspace or coffee shop. My favourite borrowed office is one of the British Library reading rooms, which are almost the quietest place you will ever find in London!
I’m reasonably confident when doing this that I’ll be able to work just fine at my desired screen brightness without running out of battery power. However, I really hate to stop work when I’m in the zone, and there is just that little background niggle that perhaps my enthusiasm will last longer than my MacBook Pro’s battery.
I don’t want to have to carry a heavy charging brick just in case, but the Rolling Square Supertiny is so small and light that I can just routinely carry it in my laptop, backpack and have the reassurance of knowing it’s there if needed.
The diminutive GaN power brick delivers 65W of power but measures only 1.7×1.37×1.3-inches (US version) and weighs just 2.5 ounces. (The British plug means that the UK version is a little larger and heavier but still goes completely unnoticed in a side pocket of my backpack.) That plus a USB-C cable provides the peace of mind that I’m never going to run out of power.
While that 65W capacity doesn’t match the massive 140W of Apple’s official power brick for the machine, it has comfortably powered it even when 4K video editing. You do get just a single USB-C port, so it also doesn’t replace my multi-device charger, but its portability makes it the power brick I carry with me routinely.
The only downside I found during testing was that it does get rather warm when used for several hours, but never to the point that it caused any concern.
I’d also be interested in comparing battery health notes with other owners of an M1 MacBook Pro. My machine is docked on my desk throughout most of the working day but is very regularly used on battery power too. Do share your own battery health in the comments.
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