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Testing Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter and iPad Pro Fast Charging

Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Nov 14, 2011
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Damn Apple needs to include this in the box. Of course we know they never will. Sigh. According to Marco Arment on Twitter the 9.7" pro can't be charged using the 29W adapter.

https://www.macstories.net/ios/testing-apples-29w-usb-c-power-adapter-and-ipad-pro-fast-charging/

2016-03-29-151023.jpeg


As you can see in the chart above, the results are clear: fast charging with the new 29W adapter trumps regular charging with the 12W model in every test. Here are a few more notable tidbits to further put the two adapters in perspective:
  • It'd take 1 hour and 33 minutes for the 29W adapter to charge an iPad Pro from 0% to 80%; the 12W model would need 3.5 hours.
  • In 10 minutes with the screen turned off, the 29W adapter charged the iPad Pro by 9.7%; the 12W adapter charged it by 2.9%.
  • When playing Oceanhorn (a graphically intensive game) at full brightness, the 29W adapter charged the iPad Pro by 5% (from 45% to 50%); the 12W one charged the device by 1.2% (from 27.2% to 28.4%).
  • At full brightness while on the Home screen, the 29W adapter charged the iPad Pro by 7.5% (21.9% to 29.4%) in 10 minutes; the 12W adapter charged the iPad by 1.1% only.
  • Changing the intensity of Night Shift from 50% to 100% didn't affect the 29W adapter; the 12W one was slower in charging with Night Shift at 50%.2
  • I couldn't chart this, but charging with the 29W adapter while normally using the iPad (switching between apps with Split View, Picture in Picture, etc.) ranged from 4% to 8% increases in my tests.
  • It takes 1 minute and 40 seconds for the 29W adapter to turn on a fully drained iPad Pro (from turned off display to Apple logo).
 
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Good info, makes me a feel just a little bit better with the additional $80 that it added to my iPP 12.9 order I placed last weekend. When you're paying around $1000 for an ipad you would think this would come stock...
 
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magbarn said:
Good info, makes me a feel just a little bit better with the additional $80 that it added to my iPP 12.9 order I placed last weekend. When you're paying around $1000 for an ipad you would think this would come stock...
Click to expand...
Yeah, I sent an email to Tim Cook about that. The 12W charger is a joke.
 
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I think they go with the lowest common denominator which is most people charge once a day so overnight who cares if its 1.5 hours or 4.

Same reason you can charge an iPhone 6S/6S Plus with an iPad charger but they dont' include that in the box.

Same reason as always, extra cost.
 
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Rogifan said:
Yeah, I sent an email to Tim Cook about that. The 12W charger is a joke.
Click to expand...
Eventually Apple will cave, shipping the 29w charger with new iPad Pro 12.9 as well as some sort of rebate / trade in program for buyers who got stuck with a wimpy charger.
 
Rogifan said:
Yeah, I sent an email to Tim Cook about that. The 12W charger is a joke.
Click to expand...

Everything nowadays is potential profits margins for apple. You include this 29w adapter in you have to cover the margin loss somewhere. I'm still mad they don't even give me any type of headphones anymore. At least I get a SIM card ejector. 1m cable + 29w charger = $75 + tax.

That's quite a margin for apple to cover - you know this is Tim's idea.
 
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Fast charging is a nice option but it is very unnecessary. I think it's good that Apple has made the option available to customers by way of a reasonably priced accessory. There's really no need to include it in the iPad Pro box. If people want it, they can pay for it.
 
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When I get my iPP 12.9 this Friday I'm going to try syncing videos via my wife's rMB to see if I'll be able to get USB 3.0 speeds with it. That would be great with the rumored rMBP 2016 with USB-C/TB3 ports...
 
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dumastudetto said:
Fast charging is a nice option but it is very unnecessary. I think it's good that Apple has made the option available to customers by way of a reasonably priced accessory. There's really no need to include it in the iPad Pro box. If people want it, they can pay for it.
Click to expand...
Hmm...I believe the adapter + USB to lightening cable comes $74. Not sure you can call that reasonably priced.
 
Rogifan said:
Yeah, I sent an email to Tim Cook about that. The 12W charger is a joke.
Click to expand...

It is a joke but you have to remember 99.9% of computers don't have USB C ports and it's not recommended to use type A cables with that high power rating. Apple would have had to supply two cables in the box if they only supplied the Type C charger. that would be fine for us but doesn't match Apple packaging and design ethos.
[doublepost=1459281148][/doublepost]
Speedy Gonzalez said:
I tested it after 80% it will take an extra hour to complete 100% charge it's pretty impressive if you ask me
Click to expand...
Same here. That last twenty percent is really slow.

I also tested charging with a USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 port. Not as fast as the 29W charger but still about 20% better than the USB 3 type A port.
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
It is a joke but you have to remember 99.9% of computers don't have USB C ports and it's not recommended to use type A cables with that high power rating. Apple would have had to supply two cables in the box if they only supplied the Type C charger. that would be fine for us but doesn't match Apple packaging and design ethos.
[doublepost=1459281148][/doublepost]
Same here. That last twenty percent is really slow.

I also tested charging with a USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 port. Not as fast as the 29W charger but still about 20% better than the USB 3 type A port.
Click to expand...
Did you check transfer speeds?
 
I don't have the room to plug another charger in at my home. Therefore, I have to charge my iPads via my Mac mini. Works fine as I sleep.
 
Here are my data transfer results on my Skylake PC. My 12 Core Mac Pro only has USB 2.0 so I'm not testing that.

PC SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
Base model iPad Pro 32GB
File: 1.9GB video file.
Test : Copy to VLC library from iTunes.

USB 2.0 : 1:24
USB 3.0 (front ports) : 1:24
USB 3.0 (rear ports) : 1:23
USB 3.1 Type A : 1:17
USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 Type C : 1:16

So far not impressive. The bottleneck is somewhere in the iPad. I decided to try a 300MB video file.

USB 2.0 : 12.6 seconds
USB 3.0 (front ports) : 12.6 seconds
USB 3.1 Type A : 12.1 seconds
USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 Type C : 12.1 seconds

So in both tests USB 3.1 was faster but not by much. Either the iPad is doesn't have enough write speed or iTunes is slow at copying.
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
Here are my data transfer results on my Skylake PC. My 12 Core Mac Pro only has USB 2.0 so I'm not testing that.

PC SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
Base model iPad Pro 32GB
File: 1.9GB video file.
Test : Copy to VLC library from iTunes.

USB 2.0 : 1:24
USB 3.0 (front ports) : 1:24
USB 3.0 (rear ports) : 1:23
USB 3.1 Type A : 1:17
USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 Type C : 1:16

So far not impressive. The bottleneck is somewhere in the iPad. I decided to try a 300MB video file.

USB 2.0 : 12.6 seconds
USB 3.0 (front ports) : 12.6 seconds
USB 3.1 Type A : 12.1 seconds
USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 Type C : 12.1 seconds

So in both tests USB 3.1 was faster but not by much. Either the iPad is doesn't have enough write speed or iTunes is slow at copying.
Click to expand...

try with this app transfer a large video http://softorino.com/waltr
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
Here are my data transfer results on my Skylake PC. My 12 Core Mac Pro only has USB 2.0 so I'm not testing that.

PC SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
Base model iPad Pro 32GB
File: 1.9GB video file.
Test : Copy to VLC library from iTunes.

USB 2.0 : 1:24
USB 3.0 (front ports) : 1:24
USB 3.0 (rear ports) : 1:23
USB 3.1 Type A : 1:17
USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 Type C : 1:16

So far not impressive. The bottleneck is somewhere in the iPad. I decided to try a 300MB video file.

USB 2.0 : 12.6 seconds
USB 3.0 (front ports) : 12.6 seconds
USB 3.1 Type A : 12.1 seconds
USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 Type C : 12.1 seconds

So in both tests USB 3.1 was faster but not by much. Either the iPad is doesn't have enough write speed or iTunes is slow at copying.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... That's disappointing. The NAND in the ipad Pro should be much faster than USB 2.0 so either it's a hardware or a software limitation.
 
magbarn said:
Hmmm... That's disappointing. The NAND in the ipad Pro should be much faster than USB 2.0 so either it's a hardware or a software limitation.
Click to expand...
The NAND is one thing. The Lightning Port or the software is another. What I noticed in the 3.1 tests was that the copy speed would start noticeably faster and then at the half way mark there would be a slow down as if throttling was occurring.


Can anyone else try similar test?
 
I honestly find it very hard to believe that Apple would have planned this situation as some sort of covert way to get a few extra dollars from customers. When you consider that the iPad Pro 12.9" is a relatively small volume product and when you consider that the people who buy this product are likely to be demanding users, it is not in Apple's interests to do so.

Personally I believe it was due to a shortage of either the charger itself or the high current charging cable. It seems quite clear that Apple released the iPad Pro 12.9" as soon as they possibly could as there were supply chain issues on keyboards and pencils as we know. Since the charger and cable have to go in the box with the iPad itself rather than as a separately packaged item, there would have been a point in the supply process where this decision had to be made.

Yes, this is a bit annoying but for me at least it doesn't take anything away from the product because it is a great iPad. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple do offer some sort of rebate for those who buy a 29w charger and cable but if not then so be it. Personally I would happily go to my local Apple store and swap my 12w charger and cable for a 29w setup if that was an option. Either that or a 50% discount would be more than fair.
 
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I received the cable today. Normally if I watch a 40 minute video with 100% brightness I would perhaps gain 2-3% battery with the 12 Watt charger. 29W charger gave me 22% in the same 40 minutes. Wow!

As mentioned above though, transfer rates are less impressive. Testing from the USB-C port on my Macbook the transfer was only marginally faster with this cable.
 
Rogifan said:
Damn Apple needs to include this in the box. Of course we know they never will. Sigh. According to Marco Arment on Twitter the 9.7" pro can't be charged using the 29W adapter.

https://www.macstories.net/ios/testing-apples-29w-usb-c-power-adapter-and-ipad-pro-fast-charging/

2016-03-29-151023.jpeg


As you can see in the chart above, the results are clear: fast charging with the new 29W adapter trumps regular charging with the 12W model in every test. Here are a few more notable tidbits to further put the two adapters in perspective:
  • It'd take 1 hour and 33 minutes for the 29W adapter to charge an iPad Pro from 0% to 80%; the 12W model would need 3.5 hours.
  • In 10 minutes with the screen turned off, the 29W adapter charged the iPad Pro by 9.7%; the 12W adapter charged it by 2.9%.
  • When playing Oceanhorn (a graphically intensive game) at full brightness, the 29W adapter charged the iPad Pro by 5% (from 45% to 50%); the 12W one charged the device by 1.2% (from 27.2% to 28.4%).
  • At full brightness while on the Home screen, the 29W adapter charged the iPad Pro by 7.5% (21.9% to 29.4%) in 10 minutes; the 12W adapter charged the iPad by 1.1% only.
  • Changing the intensity of Night Shift from 50% to 100% didn't affect the 29W adapter; the 12W one was slower in charging with Night Shift at 50%.2
  • I couldn't chart this, but charging with the 29W adapter while normally using the iPad (switching between apps with Split View, Picture in Picture, etc.) ranged from 4% to 8% increases in my tests.
  • It takes 1 minute and 40 seconds for the 29W adapter to turn on a fully drained iPad Pro (from turned off display to Apple logo).
Click to expand...

That's awesome!! :D

I am wondering can I use the 29W USB Power Adapter to charge my iPad Air 2 with the 1M charging cable Instead of the original 12W USB Power Adapter??

It would charge my iPad Air 2 so much more faster!!
 
Last edited:
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
It is a joke but you have to remember 99.9% of computers don't have USB C ports and it's not recommended to use type A cables with that high power rating. Apple would have had to supply two cables in the box if they only supplied the Type C charger. that would be fine for us but doesn't match Apple packaging and design ethos.
[doublepost=1459281148][/doublepost]
Same here. That last twenty percent is really slow.

I also tested charging with a USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 port. Not as fast as the 29W charger but still about 20% better than the USB 3 type A port.
Click to expand...
Yes I just noticed that last 20% seems to take longer. I was worried it was the non O&M cable I got but was highly rated on Amazon.
 
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