[euroderf]

Which begs the question: if I charge my new Mac with an iPhone charger (8W), will it lengthen the battery life ?

[euroderf]

Answering peer comments: oh but it DOES work.

I forgot my charger in another town so I bought a USB-A/C cable and tried it out. Again, the iPhone charger is 8W. This is also the value reported by '/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPowerDataType | grep Wattage'

When the Mac is open and in use (2023, M2) the iPhone charger can just about keep the charge level level, depending on usage.

But then when I close the Mac, it can easily take 10 hours to reach a full charge... but it does hit 100%.

So I am wondering if this is in fact a gentler way to charge the battery.

[Izkata]

My crude understanding is the charging speed wouldn't directly have an effect, but the heat generated by faster charging would.

[euroderf]

Also if it takes hour and hours to charge with 8W, then it becomes easier to unplug it at or around 80%. So maybe it's the best way to charge the Mac - a way that all the cool kids will be doing :)

[hrrsn]

Probably not, seeing as that's not enough power to charge it up.

[ponector]

I don't think so. You need 20V to charge a laptop