I can’t find the Youtube video now, but at one point i looked this up, and some guy tested charging every kind of charger with every kind of Apple device (iPhone, iPad, Macbook, Macbook Pro) and determined the devices are compatible with the larger chargers but won’t draw more than their rated voltages. The only charger that is “universally” better is the 13w iPad charger, which every phone and iPad can use to charge faster; everything beyond that depends upon the device.
I have one. I’ll try it tonight.
You can charge anything with the adapter. I’ve charged my iPhone off my 15" MBP USB-C port. The phone is smart enough to handle the voltage.
Great to hear that the Phone does manages its own intake. Thanks all!
I have been doing it for as long as Apple has been shipping USB-C laptop power adapters (almost 3 years now I guess). It’s the best way to fast-charge an iPhone.
The 8/8+/X are the first models to charge at over the 12w available in an iPad charger. I’ve been using Anker 12w multi-port USB chargers for years.
Only the new iPhones can fast charge with the USB-C. That said, the regular iPhone charges so fast anyway.
The regular 5w “cube” charger really is pretty pokey. 12w from an iPad charger is over twice as fast, and 29w with USB-C PD in the new 8/X is over twice as fast as that.
True, that thing is a blight on humanity.
Doing it all as fast as possible and with only one small-ish wall wart to carry around makes for an appealing solution. With the new RAVPower (and others) battery packs accepting USB-PD to recharge the battery, it’s getting even better.
The iPad Pro has also been able to draw the full 29W of the USB-C adaptor, from the start.
One thing I don’t like is that not all bricks fast charge the iPad. My 87w 15" iPad charger can’t fast charge my iPad. I forget how the math works, but doesn’t give off the voltage in the way the iPad wants it. There’s a good MacRumors thread on fast charging here.
The 12.9" and 10.5" models do, the orphaned 9.7" iPad Pro doesn’t.
And Apple ships them all with the same 12w plug. It takes 5 hours to charge the 13" iPad.
yah, I keep my fast charge in my bag. On my desk I have some sort of Anker USB-A hub that does an OK job at charging.
The USB-A Ankers all deliver 12w, I have them everywhere too.
12w really does charge an iPhone pretty quickly. Not ohmygosh, from 0 to 100% in 15 minutes fast, but if you walk away for a while it’s always full.
Of course now at work I have a Qi charger plugged into that Anker so my iPhone only charges at 5w! But it basically sits there all day while I work, so no biggie. Just getting topped off.
Also, another thread on the 87w fast-charger on iPads.
None of which have anything to do with the MacBook.
That’s interesting – I had no idea. I usually try to only travel with a 29W adapter anyway, regardless of which Mac I’m using it for. It’s so much smaller, and unless you’re actively gaming on the discrete-GPU 15" model (or doing something else that triggers the GPU) it’ll probably keep up with your usage most of the time anyway. Even when it doesn’t, the battery drop is usually slow enough that I can still get through an entire day and then let it charge overnight.
Yeah. The 87w charges time-wise between the 12w and 29w Chargers. The breakdown is:
- The 87W charger will charge 35% per hour, and take about 2hr 50mins from 0 to 100%
- The 12W charger will charge 24% per hour, and take about 4hr 10mins from 0 to 100%
- The 29W charger will charge 56% per hour, and take about 1hr 50 mins from 0 to 100%.
So much of what I do on the 15" can trigger the GPU that I keep the big charger in my bag. I also keep a 29w for the times I need to fast charge my Pro. I’m rethinking that now. Usually I want it to get to a charge level that is good enough and probably not topped off. That said, the 29W doesn’t take up that much space.
Here’s an interesting article. Basically, on the iPhone X, the 12w iPad charger is only 29% faster than the 5w cube. Significant, but nowhere near the 58% faster you would expect. And the 27w USB-C PD charger is only 8% faster than that-- nothing remotely near the 81% faster you’d expect.
However note those are 0%->100% numbers, and phones only really fast-charge up to 50%-70% or so. But she says the 12w charger will get an iPhone 8 to 50% charge in 40 minutes, which is only 10 minutes slower than Apple advertises the 27w “fast charge”.
For plebes without WSJ subscriptions:
I’d love to see someone hook up a kill-a-watt and log current draw by watts over time for the various adapters.
Oh wait, I think I have one around here somewhere. To be continued.