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iPad Do you need the transformer?

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puma1552

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Original poster
Nov 20, 2008
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Curious, the iPad of course comes with an actual power brick/transformer and not just the little two prong outlet adapter the iPhone comes with.

Presumably this is just to protect against power surges on a $500+ iPad, and the iPad can be charged just fine with the two prong adapter that comes with the iPhone?

Just curious if there's a reason beyond the above for why the iPad comes with the power brick, and if it's safe to use just a regular two prong adapter to charge it.
 
The Apple Powerbrick provices the 1.2A required to charge the iPad at full speed. The iPhone cubes only provide about 500mA, so it will take much longer to charge the iPad.

TEG
 
puma1552 said:
Curious, the iPad of course comes with an actual power brick/transformer and not just the little two prong outlet adapter the iPhone comes with.

Presumably this is just to protect against power surges on a $500+ iPad, and the iPad can be charged just fine with the two prong adapter that comes with the iPhone?

Just curious if there's a reason beyond the above for why the iPad comes with the power brick, and if it's safe to use just a regular two prong adapter to charge it.
Click to expand...

Have you tried using the regular two prong on a full size ipad?
 
I assume the iPad wall adapter is larger to accommodate the higher current it draws.
Bigger battery needs a larger current to charge at the same rate as a smaller battery, so inversely, a smaller current (ie: the smaller adapter) will charge the iPads battery more slowly.
 
Maybe I need acquire patience, but at my age life is too short to charge any iOS device with the little five-amp chargers that come with the iPhone. All the iPhones and iPads will draw current at the rate they can accept, up to the capacity of the transformer to deliver. Consequently, all your devices will charge faster using the highest wattage Apple iOS charger available. Theoretically, the five-watt charger will take 2.4 times longer to charge your device than the 12-watt charger provided for the retina iPad. Since it takes some six hours to charge the iPad 3 using the 12-watt charger, waiting the 14+ hours to recharge it with a 5-watt charger seems excessive.
 
Just use the charger the device came with. Works great and quite quickly. If one insists on using the incorrect charger for lord knows what reason, expect poor charging rates.
 
Not to mention the fact that it will eventually burn out the charger if it isn't powerful enough to adequately charge the device.
 
Mdwall said:
Not to mention the fact that it will eventually burn out the charger if it isn't powerful enough to adequately charge the device.
Click to expand...

No it won't. The device doesn't overdraw the charger, it just charges slowly.
 
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