M4 Mac Mini running on battery (Omni charge 20+)

Disclaimer: Yes… I know, in most cases for most people, a MacBook Pro is more convenient; not for my use case. I will explain at the end if you’re interested (with that out of the way).

Initial testing with the battery has been successful. It only drained 20% in 2 hours (about an hour streaming youtube and web browsing and then another hour on idle). Then I tested passthrough charging and it is able to be charged via usbc at about 45w (keeping the machine running and the battery recharging at the same time, essentially creating a mac mini that runs on usbc).

This was done with the mac mini in low power mode. I will try other modes and workloads in the coming days/weeks. I’ll post more as I do. But I’m sufficiently impressed with this set up so far, and is exactly what I was hoping for.

I bought the battery from Amazon, a little more expensive for what it is as there are cheaper ones available, but this particular one is the exact same form factor (5in x 5in) as the Mac mini so I paid the premium for it.

My use case: I’m coming from an M1 MacBook Air. I recently got into the split ergo keyboard game with a lily58. After learning and loving it, I can’t go back to a normal laptop keyboard, I’m spoiled. The majority of my use case is to use virtual display with an Apple Vision Pro, but I already have the 15.6 inch travel monitor and the Magic Trackpad. So, the mac mini was a better option for me than to pay over $500 more (even after buying the battery) for a MacBook Pro with a keyboard I won’t use and a screen I don’t need. I also don’t need to run on battery power often, just want the ability to when the rare occasion arises. Like I said, rare use case, but viable if anyone is interested.