Best power bank for a Dell XPS 13?

Hey everyone. I've got a Dell XPS 13 that came with a 61W charger—but I was wondering, would it actually work if I tried using a 45W PD portable charger instead? 🤔

What does it say on the power bank regarding the voltage and amperage output?

wiredotter14 said:What does it actually say on the power bank regarding the V and A output?

For USB-C:
Type C PD output: DC 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 15V/3A, 20V/2.25A

The power bank is a RAVPower RP-PB095—just in case that helps.

Alex Sullivan4 said:for USB-C:
Type C PD output: DC 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 15V/3A, 20V/2.25A

By the way, the power bank is a RAVPOWER RP-PB095.

It should work fine.
The thing is, my MacBook doesn't actually need the full 60W it comes with; that extra overhead is mostly there to power external drives, external monitors (not to run the screen itself, but to power things like an HDMI hub, which gets pretty hot), all while running at full throttle (all 8 cores).

So, for moderate use, this will be plenty. Even if the power draw spikes and becomes insufficient, the Mac will just throttle its core consumption or disable the performance cores—basically switching into a power-saving mode.

Mind you, I can't be 100% certain about any of this since nobody outside of Apple knows the exact technical specs. This is just my take on it. Personally, I have a MacBook Pro M1 and I’ve occasionally plugged it into other chargers (like from a Dell laptop) and it never complained. I’ve also used various PD hubs, which Apple doesn't officially recommend, and again, no issues whatsoever.

What I think is the real critical factor here is your battery. It could overheat if it's being pushed too hard. If you have a high-quality battery with solid voltage and current regulators, you shouldn't run into any trouble.

Alright 👍 this isn't going to be my main way of charging—it’s more about having an extra option ready just in case—while also giving me some peace of mind that I won't end up damaging the battery in my MacBook. 🙂

Alex Sullivan4 said:ok 👍 This won't be my primary charging method; I just want to have it as an extra option if the situation calls for it. My main priority is having that peace of mind, knowing I'm not doing anything to jeopardize the health of my MacBook's battery. 🙂

Times have changed. Voltage regulators are being churned out like junk food these days—there’s an endless supply of them everywhere you look. They're being integrated into almost everything now. It's reached the point where you practically never see a battery being charged directly anymore.
No, you don't have to worry about anything happening to the MacBook battery. It's protected by an entire forest of voltage and current regulators that constantly fine-tune the power levels to meet its exact specifications.
That doesn't just apply to the MacBook; it goes for pretty much any device you plug in. Honestly, these days, the specific voltage you're feeding it or even which power adapter you use isn't really the deciding factor anymore. We have voltage and current regulators built into every single stage of the process—from the charger itself, through the Thunderbolt interface, all the way down to the BMS inside the battery cells.

Oh, right—when I mentioned the risk of overheating, I wasn't actually talking about your MacBook's internal battery. I misunderstood your setup and thought you were planning to plug an external battery pack directly into the Thunderbolt port. My mistake! I was strictly referring to using a portable power bank to charge your MacBook. In that scenario, the only real hurdle is capacity. To be honest, I suspect your MacBook actually has a larger capacity than most standard travel power banks on the market.
I have one large 12 Ah battery and one smaller 10 Ah one. The big one is NiMH, so it’s quite heavy, while the smaller Li-Ion unit was actually a gift I received during an e-learning project. My MacBook only has a capacity of 5.2 Ah. This means that by using those larger external batteries, you could practically charge the laptop twice over.

Yeah, that was my main concern—whether using a portable charger might actually mess with the battery on my Dell XPS 13. Thanks for clearing that up 🙏
My current power bank sits at 72.36Wh, so if I really need it, it should probably handle at least one full charge 👍