Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPad mini Charging time with new 12Watt Adapter

D

DotCom2

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 22, 2009
6,425
6,025
I ran my own little unscientific test on charging the iPad mini with the Apple supplied 5 watt adapter and the new Apple brand 12 Watt adapter which I purchased seperately.

Both runs were done from the iPad Mini being completely dead.

On the first run I tried the 5 watt adapter and it took it just a tad over 4 hours to charge from dead to 100%

On the second run I used the 12 watt adapter and it took it just a bit over 2 hours to get to 100%

The new 12 Watt adapter does indeed charge the iPad mini much faster.

I plan on running this same sort of test on my new iPhone 5 as well as my iPad 3 but that's going to take me some time.
In any event, the new 12 Watt adapter does indeed charge the iPad mini much much faster.
 
What about the comments that doing so may burn out the battery quicker? I've seen multiple posts about charging these batteries at more power than Apple supplied will wear out the battery more quickly. Does anyone know if there is truth to that or would using the 12w option all of the time yield the tangible benefit shared above with no real downside?

And if so, bring on the 24w (1 hour) or 48w (30 min) option or 96w, etc options.

By the way, if a pot pie cooking instruction recommends 400 degrees for 60 minutes, if I put it in a Kiln instead, can it be ready to eat in a fraction of the time? (just kidding)
 
Good question!
(on the first one anyway lol)

I don't know.
On the Apple specs it does say the 12 watt is compatible with the mini as well as other products so if Apple says it's ok and it doesn't burn up the device then maybe it's ok???
Or is this Apple's way of getting us to buy new products because the old ones burn up!? lol JK.

Someone with more knowledge then I on the matter please post.
 
"Power" isn't pushed to your device, It's pulled. It won't accept more than it can handle.

Totally safe
 
The question is not really about safety. It's about longevity. I've seen a fair amount of posts about burning up battery longevity by using power sources above what Apple supplies. Both would be safe. But would one wear out the battery by charging it too fast?

Else, why not bring on the 24w, 48w, 96w chargers?
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
The question is not really about safety. It's about longevity. I've seen a fair amount of posts about burning up battery longevity by using power sources above what Apple supplies. Both would be safe. But would one wear out the battery by charging it too fast?

Else, why not bring on the 24w, 48w, 96w chargers?
Click to expand...

Maybe the max power the iPad pulls is 12w? Just a logical guess.

That said though... 4 hours is fine for me... I'll just charge it every 2-3 nights a week.
 
Last edited:
Shadowbech said:
Apparently IGM ran a test seen on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC4gPxc89Wg&list=UUHSiMJ7XCsM1-Idetn6YEzg&index=15&feature=plcp that even if you use the 12w to charge your iphone, it will only draw 5W so it's won't charge any faster for the iphone, but will definitely charge faster for the ipads.
Click to expand...
I have seen this with the iPhone 4S. I have a USB power supply which will provide more than 5W and can confirm that the iPad mini will draw closer to 12W (around 10.5W I reckon from my slightly inaccurate tests by measuring the AC power draw rather than the DC side) in my tests while my iPhone 4S never gets over 5W or thereabouts. I normally top my iPad up overnight so don't worry too much but am glad that when I need to I can charge it faster.

For those worrying that the extra power from the charger will somehow damage the battery in the iPad mini, I am not an electrical engineer but I very much doubt this would be the case. As you can see the iPhone will only draw 5W, showing that Apple have put that limit in, whereas the iPad mini will draw closer to 12W which Apple would not permit if it was going to seriously harm the battery. I doubt that if you were to have two iPad minis run side-by-side, one being charged only using a 5W charger and one only using a 12W charger, you'd notice a measurable difference between the two in terms of battery capacity/runtime at the end of a couple of years or more which couldn't be attributed to random battery fluctuations. Ask any MacBook Air mid-2011 owner, the "Health" of the battery varies massively and mind is currently at 91% after 165 cycles after 7 months but can be anything up to 97% depending on when I look. Stop worrying and enjoy your iPad mini ;)

Alec
 
It should be fine. I believe the mini has a 4400mah battery. My GN2 has a 3100mah battery and hat came with a 2amp/10watt adapter. My el cheapo $99 droid tab had a 3700mah battery and came with 1.5amp charger.
 
Using a Kill-A-Watt (Yes, I know it's not the most accurate), my iphone 5 will draw the same amount of power while charging regardless if using 5/10/12 watt apple chargers. The ipad mini will use draw the max 5 watts with stock charger and about 10 watts on both the 10 and 12 watt Apple chargers. My ipad 3 will draw 12 watts on the new 12w charger so it looks like about 20% faster than stock 10 watt charger. Sorry, too lazy to time the charges.
 
The iPad and iPhone control the charge rate. You very well can damage a battery by allowing it to use more power than it is rated to. This won't happen since the device has a circuit(or some program) built in to control this. Now, low quality inverters might have noise that could potentially upset your device...Any decent brand charger will do. I lost my apple charger long ago and use a griffin cube looking thing. Takes all night to charge my iPad 3, but its done when I wake.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back