I found a battery pack with an AC outlet, strapped it to the Mac mini, and turned it into a portable, headless computer companion for Apple Vision Pro. Here’s how it went.
Portable Mac mini with an external battery pack
Portable Mac mini with an external battery pack
There was never any doubt that the new Mac mini could be turned into a tiny battery-powered Mac, but there were a lot of questions about the execution of such a project. Not all AC outlets are created equal, so I went shopping for the lowest-priced, smallest-sized battery pack that could still provide enough wattage to keep a Mac mini powered on.
I found a no-name Amazon product sold in the Paopaoyu Store, one of those odd brands that don’t seem to have a real website or presence outside of Amazon. Its SEO-optimized listing calls it the “Portable Laptop Power Bank 100W AC Outlet, 72Wh/20000mAh with 65W PD USB C Portable Laptop Charger, External Battery Pack for MacBook, Notebooks, Laptops.”