Apple’s charger sprawl is bananas

By

Jason Perlow

for Tech Broiler

| September 17, 2021 — 11:30 GMT (12:30 BST)

| Topic: Hardware

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As I noted in my immediate follow-up to Apple’s fall 2021 “California Streaming” event, the charging standards situation with the company’s mobile and computing device line-up has now become completely untenable.

Let’s review all the different ways you can juice up your Apple devices.

Look what a mess we have

Lightning

Long in the tooth

Introduced in 2012 with the iPhone 5 as a replacement to its legacy 30-pin connector, the Lightning connector can transfer both power and data. It has about a 30W capacity (the upper end isn’t known, but the maximum speed the iPhone charges is about 18W, iPads with Lightning charge higher) and can transfer data at the upper-end of the USB 2.0 standard, around 480Mbps/60MBps per second. Lightning is currently used on all iPhone models, the entry-level 9th-generation (and legacy) iPads, Apple Magic Mouse, legacy Apple Pencils, and for wired charging of AirPods cases.

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USB-C

Industry standard for everyone else but Apple

The industry-standard connector is used with multiple Apple products for charging using different data transfer technologies. It includes current models of the iPad Air, iPad Mini, iPad Pro, and the current generation of MacBooks. For charging, Apple uses the USB Power Delivery (PD) standard. It is an industry-standard open specification that provides high-speed charging with variable voltage up to 20V using intelligent device negotiation up to 5A at 100W. It scales up from smartphones to notebook computers, provided they use a USB-C connector or a USB-C power controller on the client and host. Data transfer using USB-C connectors, and Apple products vary, as the company uses USB 3.0, which can transfer at about 5Gbps/640MBps, or 10Gbps using USB 3.1, and Thunderbolt 3, which is a superset standard developed by Intel and Apple, which has a maximum transfer rate of 40Gbps. Older models of iPad Pro (2018-2020) use USB 3.0, whereas the 2021 M1 iPad Pro and all current M1 MacBooks use Thunderbolt.

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MagSafe

Apple’s newest charging standard

The round magnetic connector introduced with the iPhone 12, which is present on the entire iPhone 13 line, is a superset of the Qi standard, which has a maximum charging speed of 15W, slightly less than Lightning. Because it is Qi-compatible, it works (without magnetic attachment, strictly as a pad) with the wireless charging standard introduced since iPhone 8, with AirPods cases and Android phones, at slower charging speeds. MagSafe has no provision currently for data transfer; it is strictly a charging technology. While it operates similarly to the Apple Watch connector, it is much larger in circumference and doesn’t work with the Apple Watch.

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Apple Watch

Like MagSafe, but smaller

This is the round magnetic connector introduced with Apple Watch in 2015. While it operates similarly to MagSafe, it is much smaller in circumference and doesn’t work with the iPhone. The Apple Watch Series 7 recently introduced USB-C to Watch charging cables so that the device can charge 33 percent faster than its predecessor. 

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AirPods Wireless Charging

But can’t attach magnetically

Technically, supported AirPods cases can charge with standard Qi charging pads from any manufacturer. However, 3rd-parties (such as Mophie and Belkin) have built specialized cradles/stands for it combined with connectors for MagSafe and Apple Watch so a single bedside charging solution can be used for all three devices once. And although AirPods can charge with a MagSafe cable as a Qi Pad, they cannot magnetically attach to it, so you need to use a Lightning cable for an in-bag solution.

Also: AirPods battery going bad? Here’s an inventive fix

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Apple Smart Connector

For Pencil and keyboards

This is a proprietary interface specific to charging the Apple Pencil, the Magic Keyboard, and other 3rd-party accessories connected to the iPad. The data transfer method and speed are unknown but it is likely slower than USB 1.0.

Also: MacBook buyers: This $32 accessory can save hundreds

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So, depending on how many Apple products you own, you may have up to 5 types of charging connectors to deal with and multiple variants of cables and docks that you need to need to own as well, depending on your use case.

It’s a mess.

Cleaning it up requires a desire to fix the situation

Indeed, the low-hanging fruit here for change is iPhone. There’s no technical reason why USB-C cannot be used for iPhone, iPad, and the MacBook, at least from a charging connector perspective. So why doesn’t Apple consolidate this, finally?

Related Topics:

Apple

PCs

Servers

Storage

Networking

Data Centers

By

Jason Perlow

for Tech Broiler

| September 17, 2021 — 11:30 GMT (12:30 BST)

| Topic: Hardware