Computers have historically been difficult to charge; they often use weirdly specific cables, which allows the companies to make lots of money selling them. MacBooks don’t use the most standard cables in the world, but there are lots of replacements available—often for not all that much money.
Newer MacBooks, including the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, use a form of a standard port. This port is both a USB-C and Thunderbolt 3; it’s confusing, because they’re the same shape and any Thunderbolt 3 port can use both a Thunderbolt 3 cable and a USB-C cable. But Thunderbolt 3 delivers much more power, which is needed for an item with a huge battery, like a laptop.
A MagSafe connector is held to the laptop with a strong magnet, meaning that if you accidentally trip on the cable, it’ll be safely disconnected from the port. With other cables, kicking a cable could result in serious damage to your computer. While MagSafe is not the standard for charging anymore, any MacBooks produced before 2017 use it.
The nice thing about Thunderbolt 3 is that it can also charge USB-C devices, which are more and more becoming standard. Gadgets including tablets, speakers, gaming consoles, smart home devices, and even phones (though not iPhones) all use USB-C, and you can use a Thunderbolt 3 cable to charge those too. But when shopping for a new MacBook charger, make sure it uses Thunderbolt 3 and not simply USB-C; many USB-C chargers aren’t powerful enough.
