ZMI No. 10 Power Bank and the Xiaomi 45W Charger

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2017 runs on USB Type C power, so your average charger won’t cut it — it needs PD support.

Which also means that Type C port can take a power bank. Not a normal one, obviously. A special kind.

High wattage, PD charging and output. So are there any cheap-but-decent chargers and power banks that fit?

I refreshed Twitter and saw a post from Miboy Wu Lao’er, which reminded me of a brand: Xiaomi.

Turns out there really are. Long story short, two products: the Xiaomi 45W charger, and the ZMI No. 10 power bank.

Both claim they can charge a Nintendo Switch, and both also work with the GPD Pocket and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2017.

Once they arrived I tested them and yeah, they work great. Though there was a bit of a problem: the first ZMI power bank I got had obvious coil whine whenever it was outputting over PD, so I filed a JD replacement.

The new one still whines, but much less. It’s loudest at full charge and gets quieter as the battery drains — and only when charging over PD. I figure it’s just a common flaw.

Anyway, this is probably the cheapest combo that actually works.