Redesigned 16″ MacBook Pro Will Come with a Powerful New Accessory
Credit: MacRumors
The rumor comes from Chongdiantou, the Chinese-language sister site of ChargerLAB. The site apparently received a blurry photo of the text on an alleged Apple power adapter from an anonymous source on WeChat.
According to Chongdiantou’s source, the 96W USB-C power adapter is meant to be packaged with Apple’s upcoming 16-inch MacBook Pro redesign.
Additionally, the source said it has a model umber of A2166 and would be similarly sized to the current 87W adapter that’s bundled with 15-inch MacBook Pros.
It’s worth noting that the image itself is pretty blurry, only shows some text and doesn’t reveal anything else about the alleged power adapter. That may be cause to file it under the “sketchy rumor” category, were it not for some other related information.
For one, Chongdiantou has a pretty decent track record of sourcing power adapter information from within Apple’s supply chain. Back in 2018, the site shared accurate images of what turned out to be Apple’s new 18W USB-C power adapter for its iPad Pros that year.
Also, Apple has actually confirmed that its upcoming Pro Display XDR would be capable of up to 96W pass-through charging. Essentially, that means you’ll be able to plug in a device that requires 96W power and charge it through the display.
Taken together, this all could suggest that Apple’s upcoming 16-inch MacBook Pro will come with a 96W power adapter and may be optimized to work with the new Pro Display XDR.
As far as why the upcoming laptop would need a higher-wattage wall plug, we can only speculate. But it’s possible that the device needs the additional power for better cooling systems, a much beefier processor, or significantly upgraded internal graphics.
Well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted that the new 16-inch MacBook Pro is also expected to sport much slimmer bezels and the same footprint as the 15-inch model, as well as a new scissor-switch keyboard.
The device has previously been rumored to launch sometime this year, perhaps after a second fall keynote later this month.
