ipad Air vs. previous ipad model chargers 12w & 10w

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ipad Air vs. previous ipad model chargers 12w & 10w

I have two ipad 2's and an ipad Air and have been using the chargers thinking they were the same since they are the same size and shape. They're not. The Air's charger is 12w while previous versions are 10w.

Apple changed the form factor and specs of the ipad Air from previous versions.They should have changed the form factor of the 12w charging brick that came with the Air from the previous 10w ipad charging brick to prevent confusion. Printing "12w" in a tiny light gray font on a white background to indicate the power charger is different is insufficient.

I'd been wondering why my Air is sometimes slow to charge. I've placed a small red dot on the 12w brick to differentiate. I hope this helps someone.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Mar 2, 2014 6:41 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 2, 2014 4:52 PM in response to philowerx

There is a difference between charging with the 10 or 12 watt charger, but it shouldn't be that great.

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Answer 2

philowerx Author

Level 1

14 points

Mar 3, 2014 1:11 PM in response to Stephen Spark

Looks like a 20% increase to compensate for the larger battery in the ipad 4 and ipad Air. Charging with a 10w is noticeably slower than with the 12w.

I just found this article:

Apple Confirms New Power Adapter Will Charge iPads Faster

The 3rd generation iPad came with a built-in 42.5-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery, compared to iPad’s 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. It was a whopping 70% increase in the capacity of the battery.

Apple engineers were forced to pack a significantly larger battery in the iPad 3, which came with a faster dual-core processor, Retina Display and support for 4G LTE networks, to offer the 10-hour battery life.

But the downside was that it took much longer to charge the iPad 3 with the 10W power adapter compared to the iPad 2. Apple seems to have addressed this issue with the launch of the 4th generation iPad, which comes with a 12W power adapter. The 4th generation iPad also comes with a built-in 42.5-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery.

9to5Mac reports that Apple has confirmed that the 12W power adapter will charge the iPads faster than the older 10W power adapter.

When we asked Apple about the 12W adapters, we were told the following:

“We don’t have an exact percentage of how much faster it would charge but you should see an increase in speed.”

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Answer 3

Mar 3, 2014 2:20 PM in response to philowerx

I don't deputed the fact that the 12 watt charger will charge faster than a 10 watt charger, it's bigger. The point is it is not that big of a difference if you normally keep your iPad charged as it should be. It is a fact that the retinal models of iPad did come with a larger battery to compinsate for the higher drain of the display. But it is also a fact the iPad Air also comes with a smaller 32 watt/hr battery too which will also charge faster than the older iPads, even with the 10 watt charger.

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Answer 4

philowerx Author

Level 1

14 points

Mar 3, 2014 3:08 PM in response to Stephen Spark

Perhaps you have an ipad 3 and/or 4 in addition to your "new one" (the Air?), but I can tell you from experience the Air takes close to twice as long to recharge as both my ipad 2's which still have their original batteries. Apple recommends completely draining the batteries. "...be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down)." https://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html

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