Vision Pro Battery & Power - Questions and Discussion (MERGED)

[JPack]

Do we know yet if the AVP can charge faster than the 30W adapter they're including? Like if I buy Apple's 70W adapter, will it charge the AVP battery faster?

We won't know until we see the international regulatory label or it gets analyzed by ChargerLab.

 

[WilliamG]

There is a commenter on Marques' video that states that you can't take the 3166 mAh at face value. He says you have to know the voltage. He points out that the AVP battery is notably heavier than a smartphone with 5000 mAh. I don't claim to understand any of this. So, any clarity helps.

The mAh is the total amount of energy stored in the battery. 3166 mAh is at the small end of phone batteries these days, and presumably the AVP draws more power than a phone, so it uses energy at a faster rate. The AVP lasts 2 hours with that battery while a phone with that size battery lasts 8 hours screen on time.

It’s frankly a shockingly small battery capacity for this thing.

Without knowing the voltage, we know absolutely nothing. That's why Ah and mAh are utterly useless metrics without knowing the voltage. Voltage x Amp Hours = Wh, and Wh is the only useful metric.

 

[WilliamG]

It's not "total energy." Common mistake. That's the whole of point of the posts on this page. Nobody uses mAh.

mAh only measures current. Same reason why nobody asks how many mAh is their Tesla or BYD.

Total energy is only measured using Whr.

This. It's funny and obvious that most people here know very little about battery capacity measurements and how to provide useful information about it.

 

[Timo_Existencia]

This. It's funny and obvious that most people here know very little about battery capacity measurements and how to provide useful information about it.

Perhaps in part because mAh is so commonly used. If I look for power banks on Amazon, that's almost universally the metric that is being used. For years, this has been the dominant metric presented to me when talking about batteries.

 

[WilliamG]

Perhaps in part because mAh is so commonly used. If I look for power banks on Amazon, that's almost universally the metric that is being used. For years, this has been the dominant metric presented to me when talking about batteries.

It's utterly nonsense, though. It's only because most USB power banks are 3.7V that people got overly used to using mAh because of an assumption. For pretty much everything else it's not helpful at all (power tool batteries, electric scooter batteries etc etc).

 

[LiemTa]

Settling this once and for all

3166 mAh
35.9 Wh
Output 13V 6A max

 

[TLewis]

(This was sitting in my drafts — I hope it’s not a duplicate.)

Perhaps in part because mAh is so commonly used. If I look for power banks on Amazon, that's almost universally the metric that is being used. For years, this has been the dominant metric presented to me when talking about batteries.

While mAh is commonly used, it's really used incorrectly and is misleading in many cases. It's like being given the length and width of a car's gas tank, but you're not being told the height and so you can't figure out how many gallons it can hold. "Wh" or "Watt-hours" is basically the battery's equivalent of "how many gallons". However, Amazon listings and the like talk mainly about mAh, and so comparing batteries is difficult. Many manufacturers seem to convert their USB battery's capacity from Watt-hours to mAh using a voltage around 3.6V-3.7V, and that's what they seem to stuff into Amazon listings.

(Side note: batteries for power tools will give numbers like "5.0 amps" or "9.0 amps" but these use other voltages like 18V or 20V.)

For example:

The MacBook Pro 16" battery is 8700mah at 11.4v,

Since we have 8700mAh (or 8.7Ah) at 11.4V, we can calculate the battery capacity: 8.7Ah * 11.4V ==> 99.18Wh (just under the FAA limit, as an aside).

Let's take a "20,000mAh" (20Ah)USB battery as an example. Anker USB batteries seem to use 3.6V as the nominal voltage, and so we can calculate the battery capacity as 20Ah * 3.6V ==> 72Wh. Because the USB battery's capacity (72Wh) is less than the Macbook's (99.18Wh), there's no way the USB battery can even provide a full charge (0-100%) to the Macbook.

While the Wh values for USB batteries may not be listed on the Amazon listing, the Wh value is often found in seemingly microscopic, difficult-to-read printing on the battery.

 

[JPack]

Settling this once and for all

3166 mAh
35.9
Output 13V 6A max

Seems legit. So basically the same capacity as two iPhone 15 Pro Max or half an M3 MacBook Pro 14.

$199 for Apple's battery pack means they're charging 4-5X more than a similar non-Apple pack. The non-removable cable and 13V suggests Apple wants to keep the accessory market for itself.

 

[TLewis]

So for people getting their AVP on Friday: there should be a “Wh” (Watt-hour) rating in fine print on the battery. Can someone tell us what the value is? That would conclusively settle the matter of battery capacity.

 

[WilliamG]

Seems legit. So basically the same capacity as two iPhone 15 Pro Max or half an M3 MacBook Pro 14.

$199 for Apple's battery pack means they're charging 4-5X more than a similar non-Apple pack. The non-removable cable and 13V suggests Apple wants to keep the accessory market for itself.

Yep 13V and non-removable means nothing is going to work properly except spending $199 on another Apple one. Sigh.

 

[Timo_Existencia]

Yep 13V and non-removable means nothing is going to work properly except spending $199 on another Apple one. Sigh.

Meaning a 3rd party power bank plugged into the Apple battery won’t work?

 

[gerald.d]

Settling this once and for all

3166 mAh
35.9
Output 13V 6A max

What is the 35.9? Don't see how it can be Wh since 13x3166 = 41.2.

Maybe there is some accounting for thermal inefficiency or other losses?

Regardless, 3166mAh at 13V would be equivalent to just a 11,400mAh at 3.6V nominal. Really quite hard to believe this given the comments about the things size and weight, but...

Plenty of third party power banks should be able to provide a charge to the connected battery. The 25,600mAh Shargeek Storm 2 would be up to the job I'm sure, and if the regular battery provides 3 hours of use, then this would add a further 6+ hours on top.

 

[JPack]

What is the 35.9? Don't see how it can be Wh since 13x3166 = 41.2.

Maybe there is some accounting for thermal inefficiency or other losses?

Regardless, 3166mAh at 13V would be equivalent to just a 11,400mAh at 3.6V nominal. Really quite hard to believe this given the comments about the things size and weight, but...

Plenty of third party power banks should be able to provide a charge to the connected battery. The 25,600mAh Shargeek Storm 2 would be up to the job I'm sure, and if the regular battery provides 3 hours of use, then this would add a further 6+ hours on top.

It’s Whr and it sounds about right to me. The 13V is not cell voltage, but boost converted. Similarly constructed Xiaomi 37Whr banks with aluminum chassis weighs about 250g. The Apple pack is fully enclosed in aluminum (including top and bottom). The 350g weight of the Apple pack includes the non-removable cable.

小米充电宝10000mAh 22.5W立即购买-小米商城

小米手机官网正品小米充电宝10000mAh 22.5W推荐，小米手机小米充电宝10000mAh 22.5W最新价格，有多种颜色可选，另有小米充电宝10000mAh 22.5W详细介绍及图片，还有用户评价，售前咨询等。

www.mi.com

 

[TLewis]

If the battery really has a capacity of 35.9Wh with 3166mAh (3.166Ah), then the overall voltage is 35.9Wh ➗ 3.166Ah ==> 11.34V. If you assume 3 cells in series, you get 3.78V per cell, which is in the realm of possibility for the nominal cell voltage.

 

[gerald.d]

It’s Whr and it sounds about right to me. The 13V is not cell voltage, but boost converted. Similarly constructed Xiaomi 37Whr banks with aluminum chassis weighs about 250g. The Apple pack is fully enclosed in aluminum (including top and bottom). The 350g weight of the Apple pack includes the non-removable cable.

小米充电宝10000mAh 22.5W立即购买-小米商城

小米手机官网正品小米充电宝10000mAh 22.5W推荐，小米手机小米充电宝10000mAh 22.5W最新价格，有多种颜色可选，另有小米充电宝10000mAh 22.5W详细介绍及图片，还有用户评价，售前咨询等。

www.mi.com

Thanks.

Minor point - possibly a US/UK thing, but "Wh" was most definitely the abbreviation when I did my Physics degree.

 

[4sallypat]

Meaning a 3rd party power bank plugged into the Apple battery won’t work?

Should work as long as the battery pack can keep topping off the Apple battery.
You will be able to tell if your 3rd party pack shows full Apple battery charge while you use it - meaning it's topping it off.

I plan on testing out a bunch of different 3rd party battery packs to see which one is the lightest and smallest I can get away with.

 

[ckurt25]

Maybe a dumb question, but would a 20W battery bank even charge the AVP? I have a 20,000mAh bank and was wondering if that would charge the AVP slowly or not at all?

For reference, it's this Anker from Amazon - LINK

 

[Beau10]

That being said, FAA rules go on to say you can carry up to two batteries larger than that (up to 160wh) in your carry on. I do this all the time with cinema camera batteries and they hardly ever ask

I used to travel with a 30,000 mAh battery and wasn't asked about it on over 50 flights.

Doubtful this comes up unless it appears abnormally large.

 

[JPack]

Meaning a 3rd party power bank plugged into the Apple battery won’t work?

It will, but it means you have to plug a third-party battery into the Apple battery. This means more carrying weight and poor efficiency. That third-party battery bank will only be able to dump around 60% of its energy into the Apple battery due to conversion loss.

E.g. You will need a 60 Whr battery bank to fully charge Apple’s 36 Whr battery.

Under ideal circumstances, third party manufacturers would release a replacement battery. But the non-removable proprietary cable and weird voltage makes this scenario unlikely.

 

[4sallypat]

It will, but it means you have to plug a third-party battery into the Apple battery. This means more carrying weight and poor efficiency. That third-party battery bank will only be able to dump around 60% of its energy into the Apple battery due to conversion loss.

E.g. You will need a 60 Whr battery bank to fully charge Apple’s 36 Whr battery.

Under ideal circumstances, third party manufacturers would release a replacement battery. But the non-removable proprietary cable and weird voltage makes this scenario unlikely.

Or you spend $200 for an extra battery like I did.

Too bad it does not offer hot swappable design.

I'd have to shut down and then restart with the extra battery...

 

[WilliamG]

Or you spend $200 for an extra battery like I did.

Too bad it does not offer hot swappable design.

I'd have to shut down and then restart with the extra battery...
View attachment 2343538

Nothing screams first-gen like Apple basically saying you get ~2.5 hours unplugged and that’s it, - you have to plug in (unless you want to reboot everything). No ifs or buts. Unless you want to use a highly inefficient third party battery daisy chained for a bit, too, I guess. But…. But… no.

The more I read about the AVP the less excited I get, so Friday better bring something I feel is truly special to my front door or this isn’t staying.

 

[4sallypat]

Nothing screams first-gen like Apple basically saying you get ~2.5 hours unplugged and that’s it, - you have to plug in (unless you want to reboot everything). No ifs or buts. Unless you want to use a highly inefficient third party battery daisy chained for a bit, too, I guess. But…. But… no.

The more I read about the AVP the less excited I get, so Friday better bring something I feel is truly special to my front door or this isn’t staying.

I have a feeling that 2 hours wearing the AVP straight will either make my neck hurt (weight) or cause facial sweating that fogs the lenses.

Either way, I typically don't watch over 2 hours without a potty break or adult beverage...

 

[A.R.E.A.M.]

i went with two of ankers 27,650 mAh power banks - so one is always topped whilst the other is running. i carry a lot of tech with me (mpb 16 128gb/8tb machine, mpc Live II Retro, dyson zone, atom SQ controller) and now im adding the AVP and magic kybd, so in my use case id rather have a power bank thats universal and can charge other things vs having two i can ONLY use for the AVP.

 

[kreasu_]

Apple Vision Pro Battery Capacity Reveals Its True Purpose

Apple Vision Pro's battery has an enormous energy capacity, almost double Quest 3, revealing that its true purpose isn't to reduce the headset's weight.

www.uploadvr.com

 

[JPack]

Apple Vision Pro Battery Capacity Reveals Its True Purpose

Apple Vision Pro's battery has an enormous energy capacity, almost double Quest 3, revealing that its true purpose isn't to reduce the headset's weight.

www.uploadvr.com

Had to laugh at that article. The "true purpose" is Apple promoting proprietary connections.