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10.5 iPad Pro Fast Charging

iF34R said:
Yep. They were. They were discounted by $6 (usd). $19 for the 1M and $29 for the 2M cable. Now they are back at $25 and $35 respectively. Discount was there until April 1.
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Ah yes. I think it was the USB-C to USB-C @ $19 that didn't get a drop.
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macnmac said:
how much output do you get with that?
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Should get 10.5w out of a Mac.
 
penajmz said:
I would. It has been found that the iPad Pro is designed to be charged at 29W, Apple just wants an extra $50 plus $25 out of us.
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Not from me. I have the original 12.9 iPP and never felt the need to buy that big charger. It maybe only a dozen times when I run out of battery over the day in 1.5 years and than I just connected the small and light charger as I would with the big one. Finally the iPP can charge over night and it is at 100% the next morning, regardless how long it takes....
 
I ran some tests comparing the standard 12W charger vs the 29W charger with a USB-C to lighting adapter (10.5 inch pro)

Standard Fast Charge
0-50% 1h 33m 42m
0-80% 2h 29m 1h 18m
0-100% 3h 37m 2h
 
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These numbers are with the screen off, only turning on to check the progress, from 5% to 100% using the 29W

0 min - 5%
23 min - 30%
40 min - 43%
55 min - 56%
67 min - 66%
77 min - 74%
90 min - 83%
100 min - 88%
110 min - 93%
120 min - 96%
130 min - 98%
135 min - 99%
144 min - 100%
 
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OK, so here are the results of my testing tonight:

iPad Pro 10.5 LTE 256GB w/70% battery remaining. Anything battery over 80% will be weird/inconsistent due to Apple's power management behavior.

Test gear:
  • P3 Kill-A-Watt meter
  • Apple 12w USB-A charger
  • Apple 29w USB-C charger
  • Apple 61w USB-C charger
  • Apple USB-C to Lightning cable
I first measured the power draw of the 12w brick, figuring the iPad would pull the full amount from this (included) charger. The Kill-A-Watt read a draw of 13.3w. If we assume a 10% "loss" through the brick, this means the iPad is receiving the full/expected 12 watts.

Then I measured with the 61w Apple USB-C charger. The Kill-A-Watt registered ~20.1w. With the 10% loss, we can equate that the iPad must be drawing ~18watts, because this charger can output 9v @ 2A (18watts), per the USB-C power delivery spec.

Finally, I measured with the 29w Apple USB-C charger. The Kill-A-Watt registered ~20.0w. Assuming 10% loss, we can only conclude that the iPad Pro 10.5 is only able to negotiate 18watts of charging via 9v @ 2A. This is disappointing as we know the 12.9" Pro model can negotiate the (not-technically-USB-C-compliant) 14.5v @ 2A (29 watt) power delivery spec.

So, if we take Apple at its word (from their support page), "fast charge" for the 10.5 model really means 18watts (with either the 29w, or 61w and presumably 87w chargers), not 29watts of fast charging, like the 12.9 models get.
 
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BeatCrazy said:
Finally, I measured with the 29w Apple USB-C charger. The Kill-A-Watt registered ~20.0w. Assuming 10% loss, we can only conclude that the iPad Pro 10.5 is only able to negotiate 18watts of charging via 9v @ 2A. This is disappointing as we know the 12.9" Pro model can negotiate the (not-technically-USB-C-compliant) 14.5v @ 2A (29 watt) power delivery spec.

So, if we take Apple at its word (from their support page), "fast charge" for the 10.5 model really means 18watts (with either the 29w, or 61w and presumably 87w chargers), not 29watts of fast charging, like the 12.9 models get.
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Thank you for the detailed analysis! It's unfortunate that the 10.5" doesn't charge at 29W... perhaps for some reason the smaller size means it's not electrically safe to support 14.5V? Still, 18W is a decent 50% improvement over 12W.

As a side note - how do you quickly drain the battery for testing? I'm still looking for an fast way to drain the battery.
 
penajmz said:
Where did you get the cable from? I tried one from Amazon and it didn’t work.
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My cable is an official Apple one but from an eBay seller.

It’s boxed and seems legit when looking at apples documentation for spotting a fake (it has printing along the able itself)

Charging from 20% its charging at about 1/2 the rates that others quote on here as fast charging.

(I’m getting about 5% in 10 minutes)
 
KrisLord said:
My cable is an official Apple one but from an eBay seller.

It’s boxed and seems legit when looking at apples documentation for spotting a fake (it has printing along the able itself)

Charging from 20% its charging at about 1/2 the rates that others quote on here as fast charging.

(I’m getting about 5% in 10 minutes)
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Since you got the 29W adapter straight from Apple (right?) I would say is the cable.

I don’t think anyone answered your original question. I am on iOS 11 on my iPad 10.5 (Also works on my first gen 12.9”) but I got both the adapter and cable straight from Apple.
 
masotime said:
Thank you for the detailed analysis! It's unfortunate that the 10.5" doesn't charge at 29W... perhaps for some reason the smaller size means it's not electrically safe to support 14.5V? Still, 18W is a decent 50% improvement over 12W.

As a side note - how do you quickly drain the battery for testing? I'm still looking for an fast way to drain the battery.
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Yes 18w is indeed better, subjectively as well. At least the 10.5 has great battery performance, better than the 9.7 IME.

I just ran a long YouTube video in the browser in order to drain the battery a bit for testing purposes.
 
penajmz said:
Since you got the 29W adapter straight from Apple (right?) I would say is the cable.

I don’t think anyone answered your original question. I am on iOS 11 on my iPad 10.5 (Also works on my first gen 12.9”) but I got both the adapter and cable straight from Apple.
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Thanks, I’ll get a cable from an Apple Store.

I’ve a MacBook so the 29w charger is an official Apple one.
 
penajmz said:
Since you got the 29W adapter straight from Apple (right?) I would say is the cable.

I don’t think anyone answered your original question. I am on iOS 11 on my iPad 10.5 (Also works on my first gen 12.9”) but I got both the adapter and cable straight from Apple.
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I’ve been to the Apple Store and got a new cable. Works fine now....
 
As noted in my posts earlier, I was having issues getting fast charging to work.

Turns out the USB-C cable was a fake.

The packaging is identical, it’s only when comparing against the thickness of the official cable and the adapters on it that show the difference.


The fake even has the right text printed on the cable itself.

9b4d312c8f5213b41e4deff93aaf61dc.jpg


f54d71bba1c2325df49cc8d5bd87f6aa.jpg
eff7bf735bdc543fcd0d4bf5d05b153e.jpg
 
masotime said:
Wow.... where did you get the fake cable from?
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It was from eBay but the feedback suggested they were legit.

Given that it charges fine at 12w I guess most customers would never know it wasn’t an official one.

I read Apple’s support article for spotting a fake and that page has no specific info on the USB-C cables. The lightning connector is the right size and has text on the cable itself when compared to what a USB-A cable should have.

It has all the usual Apple leaflets inside the box too.

I’m waiting to see what the seller says but given the cable thickness and lightning connector aren’t right and Apple Genius Bar took it away and inspected it, I’ll not be using it again.
 
Just spent some time yesterday testing out the iPad Pro. I tried charging the device from dead to 100% with a 29W Type-C charger I bought from Apple, plus a C-to-Lightning cable. I compared that to the results from the 12W charger that comes in the box.

For the 29W MacBook Type-C charger with C-to-Lightning cable: the total charging time from dead to 100% was just 2 hours and 15 mins. That’s 48% less charging time than the 12W charger that comes with the iPad Pro!
- Battery dead: 5V@2.4A
- 0%-~60%: 14.5V@1 to 2A. Once the iPad is charged enough to boot iOS, it sucks max 2A but at 14.5V after a Power Delivery contract is in place, then it gradually decreased to about 1A over time when reaching ~60% full.
- ~60%-~80%: 14.5V@1A to 0.5A. The charging current decreased further to 0.5A over time as battery approached ~80% full.
- ~80% - 100%: 14.5V@ 0.5A. The charging current stayed at 0.5A and the charging time was noticeably longer than that of when it charged from 0%-60%. It stayed at 0.5A at 100%.

For the 12W in-box Type-A charger, the total charging time from dead to 100% was 4 hours and 20 mins.
- Battery dead: 5V@2.4A
- 0%-~80%: 5V@1.4A to 2.4A. Once the iPad was charged enough to boot iOS, the charging current remained at 2.4A, then gradually decreased to about 1.4A over time when it reached ~80% full.
- ~80% - ~95%: 5V@1A to 1.4A. The charging current dropped quickly from 1.4A to 1A when ~95% charged.
- ~95% to 100%: 5V@1A. The charging current stayed constant at 1A and the final 5% charging time was noticeably longer, then dropped to a steady state 0.7A when 100% full.

I saw the iFixit teardown also mentioned this fast charging feature too, which is enabled by USB Power Delivery. https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad+Pro+10.5-Inch+Teardown/92534

Despite the extra cost, it definitely seems worthwhile to charge the iPad Pro so much faster.
 
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KrisLord said:
It was from eBay but the feedback suggested they were legit.

Given that it charges fine at 12w I guess most customers would never know it wasn’t an official one.

I read Apple’s support article for spotting a fake and that page has no specific info on the USB-C cables. The lightning connector is the right size and has text on the cable itself when compared to what a USB-A cable should have.

It has all the usual Apple leaflets inside the box too.

I’m waiting to see what the seller says but given the cable thickness and lightning connector aren’t right and Apple Genius Bar took it away and inspected it, I’ll not be using it again.
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What seller? I just bought an 'OEM overstock' from ebay for $11, - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Ap...&s=ci&page=main:email&cal=babe87f035949&cust=
I picked this up @ Target tonight, so now I needed a cable to go with it.
 

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slvrscoobie said:
What seller? I just bought an 'OEM overstock' from ebay for $11, - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Ap...&s=ci&page=main:email&cal=babe87f035949&cust=
I picked this up @ Target tonight, so now I needed a cable to go with it.
Click to expand...


I’m in the UK so it’s a different seller.

However the 2nd picture showing the barcodes on the side is an exact match of the fake I received.

i can’t tell from the 3rd picture whether the cable is thicker than a normal USB cable, but overall I’d avoid it and just buy it from Apple.
 
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