Cannot read the ratings on a new Apple iPad USB-C power supply

[Konkedout]

Yesterday we bought my wife a new iPad.  A little while ago I made a (not so serious yet) effort to read the power ratings on the AC prong side of the power adapter.

The text size AND the contrast seem to be the minimum that Apple could get away with.   I am a farsighted electrical engineer.  Using my normal progressive bifocal glasses, and close under the 60W equivalent CFL lamp over our kitchen table, I was far from being able to read the marking.  I could barely see that it was there.

I can (and probably will during the next few days) take this effort up 2-3 notches.  I have some (close and closer) bifocals for electronics work, a Florescent tube style LED worklight over my workbench, an illuminated magnifier, and also a USB microscope.   I am curious to see whether with these tools I will be able to read the marking.

The main thing:  I wonder why Apple would intentionally make it so hard to read.  The only thing I can think of is that they want consumers to buy any replacements from Apple and not from some other suppliers.  USB-C is supposed to be a universal power solution, and I think that Apple was pushed by the EU to use USB-C (instead of "Lightning") so as to reduce the amount of electronics junk.  But I am not certain that any USB-C power adapter (if it is powerful enough) will work without damaging the iPad.  I am guessing that good name brand stuff ought to be OK.

Right now this is only curiosity.  I am not in a hurry to buy anything...

Anyone have any further insight on this?

[mtwieg]

Sounds typical for Apple's product design team. Text is ugly and useless to most users. They likely wouldn't even put the illegible text if they could get away with it.

I also encountered the same thing for the charger which came with an iPad. Was able to find the model number for the charger by looking at the listing for the iPad itself, and then found the specifications for that charger on Apple's website.

[GLouie]

I guess if you run with Apple you have to accept their foibles.
One reason might be that their printing method is hard to counterfeit. Apple gets a lot of counterfeits, sometimes you can see a misspelled word or difference in the text layout.

At least a few years ago, a fellow took apart some Apple adapters and some clones, revealing that most clones were poorly made, even dangerous. [http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and-why-you.html]

But I think any USB-C that meets specs like power delivery should be fine, like many power banks.

Here's my Macbook Air 35W adapter, with photo enhancement. I have old eyes anyway, and always have magnifiers and lights around.

[IanB]

Not the best lighting, but this is how I do it. Take a picture, then enhance the image in a photo editor to improve the contrast.

[Someone]

The only thing I can think of is that they want consumers to buy any replacements from Apple and not from some other suppliers.  USB-C is supposed to be a universal power solution, and I think that Apple was pushed by the EU to use USB-C (instead of "Lightning") so as to reduce the amount of electronics junk.  But I am not certain that any USB-C power adapter (if it is powerful enough) will work without damaging the iPad.  I am guessing that good name brand stuff ought to be OK.

Running two different things into each other there:
a) the power adaptor shipped with an item may not be the "full" capability of the user device (true of some Apple products), you may gain with a larger capacity adaptor than you already have. Read the user manual for the device for what it supports.
b) Apple were going to USB-C supplies even while lightning was a thing, and had USB output adaptors early on the market (unlike the captive chargers other mobile brands had historically pushed). Even firewire! (A1003, A1070 early 2000) The original iPhone shipped with a USB output adaptor, only the USB to 30-pin/lighting/usb-c cable changed (once every 10 years or so).

[IanB]

It's true, Apple has been using USB power supplies for a very long time. The earlier ones had USB-A, but that was limited to, I think, 12 W (5 V, 2.5 A) on the biggest adapters. When they wanted more power for faster charging, they switched up to USB-C. According to reviews, the Apple power adapters are of high quality and justify the higher price charged for them.

On the other hand, other brands of USB-C power adapters should also work, if they are properly standards conforming.

[Berni]

Compatibility is the whole point of USB-C charging.

Any USB-C charger should be able to charge any USB-C device to some extent. The USB PD protocol will sort things out so that the fastest possible charging mode is chosen. So the now these new Apple USB-C chargers can charge other non Apple devices at full speed, and other non Apple specific chargers can charge iPhones at full charge speed.

That being said original Apple chargers, while expensive are built very well, so you do get quality in exchange for your money. But that is not to say all cheap Chinese chargers are bad. I found a few good ones on AliExpress. Mainly a good rule is to avoid very small compact chargers, these tend to force the chinese to take unsafe shortcuts.

As for the text... well this is what a lot of companies do (Not just Apple). Covering the product in text is ugly and 95% of users will never read it anyway because they have no idea what Amps even are. This is common for things like CE logos too. The EU law forces them to put a CE logo on the product and even specified the minimum size of the logo. So what they do is just outline the CE logo with a very light and thin line. This makes the logo near invisible unless you are looking for it while fully fulfilling the legal obligations of having a CE logo that is at least 5mm big.

Personally i am not too bothered by the tiny text. I keep jewelers loupes around or use my phones flash to illuminate the text from an angle that shows up well. As long as they actually write the specs on there i am happy. It is worse when they don't

[wilfred]

It is not just Apple. But in order to read this sort of text only once with difficulty I routinely label power supplies at least with what the supply came with and the output specs. Sometimes I'll put the date I purchased and the warranty duration so if it fails I at least know whether I should bother looking for the receipt. This later is particularly good for hard drives.

[Konkedout]

Thank you everyone for this discussion.

"USB output adapters..."  Just to be clear, I think that all of the power adapters of concern use a USB (A or C) connector AT THE POWER ADAPTER.  But I am focused on the connector on the iPad.  The oldest ones had a "30 Pin Dock" connector (I just Googled it.  We have one but I did not know what it was called.)  Then they went to "Lightning", and now USB-C.  It looks to me like this is the first power cable (for Apple) which has the same connector on both ends.

[Berni]

The only reason the USB-C charging cable has an identical connector on both ends is that the official "USB Implementation Forum" organization wrote a USB standard that specifies that (tho Apple likely voted on their decisions too).

The more technical reason is that the USB-C connector has more pins. Most of the new pins are for the higher speed modes, but the important pins are CC1 CC2. These pins carry communication that negotiates the higher power output on chargers. Hence this does not work on USB-A connectors as they are missing these pins.

They could have modified the USB-A connector to have extra pins (like the USB-A 3.0 has more pins than USB-A 2.0), but since they already made a USB-C connector that has the pins... just put it on both ends and you don't need to invent another connector. This also has the bonus for smaller laptops where the same USB-C port can be used for charging or as a USB port on the same connector.

Similarly on a iPad you can plug in a charger, or a USB device into that USB-C port. Now that USB-C thumb drives are catching on, you can just directly plug it in.

And most of all. You Apple users can now borrow the more standard USB chargers from everyone else (Not just Android users)

[IanB]

The more technical reason is that the USB-C connector has more pins. Most of the new pins are for the higher speed modes, but the important pins are CC1 CC2. These pins carry communication that negotiates the higher power output on chargers. Hence this does not work on USB-A connectors as they are missing these pins.

But we can clarify that later Apple devices like the iPhone 12 can do PD negotiation to achieve fast charging over a Lightning to USB-C cable. So the switch to a cable with USB-C on both ends was not the thing that enabled that.

Thank you everyone for this discussion.

"USB output adapters..."  Just to be clear, I think that all of the power adapters of concern use a USB (A or C) connector AT THE POWER ADAPTER.  But I am focused on the connector on the iPad.  The oldest ones had a "30 Pin Dock" connector (I just Googled it.  We have one but I did not know what it was called.)  Then they went to "Lightning", and now USB-C.  It looks to me like this is the first power cable (for Apple) which has the same connector on both ends.

Ultimately it should not matter what kind of cable is used. Apple chargers should work to charge non-Apple devices, and Apple devices should be chargeable from any USB compliant charger, if you have the correct cable.

Concerning charging cables, some are "charging only" and some are "power plus data". If you are paranoid, you might want to carry and label a charging only cable in the event you want to plug into any public charging points.

[tooki]

Anyone have any further insight on this?

An iPad with USB-C will charge from any proper USB charger. There is absolutely nothing proprietary about Apple’s USB-C implementations.* If it’s overpowered the iPad will just take what it needs. If it’s underpowered it will just charge slowly, or may be unable to charge while being used simultaneously.

My everyday chargers are multiport chargers from Anker. I actually don’t own any Apple-branded USB-C chargers. I’ve also charged my iPad just fine using HP and Lenovo laptop chargers, as well as the USB-C ports on my Dell displays.

I also use an Anker power bank with USB-C output.

It also works with USB A-to-C cables, just at reduced charging speed.

*With the sole exception of the original 12” MacBook, whose USB-C charging was based on the preliminary version of the PD standard, using a voltage that was removed from the final standard, leaving it an orphan device of sorts.

[Berni]

The more technical reason is that the USB-C connector has more pins. Most of the new pins are for the higher speed modes, but the important pins are CC1 CC2. These pins carry communication that negotiates the higher power output on chargers. Hence this does not work on USB-A connectors as they are missing these pins.

But we can clarify that later Apple devices like the iPhone 12 can do PD negotiation to achieve fast charging over a Lightning to USB-C cable. So the switch to a cable with USB-C on both ends was not the thing that enabled that.

Yes you can create converter cables by embedding electronics inside the connector.

Apple is quite a fan of doing that as they require electronics in the connector for even a basic USB-A cable (Mostly so that they can charge the manufacturer a "Made For iPhone tax" on selling them an lightning authentication chip). This is most of the reason that Apple kept using lighting on iPhones even tho their laptops and tablets already got USB-C. Standard USB-C cables don't need an authentication chip inside the connector for most kinds of cables, hence they can't bill manufacturers for that chip.

Even a USB-C to USB-A cable is actually a passive converter, it has resistors embedded inside the USB-C plug to inform whatever it is plugged into about if it should act as a device or host+power (Depending of the USB-A connector on the other end of the cable is a male or female)

Lightning is not a bad connector, it has some technical limitations versus USB-C, but for what most users need from it it is usually irrelevant. Point is that the world has chosen USB-C as the standard connector. There certainly are also flaws with USB-C too, but at least it did unify the world on fast charging standards, rather than having a mish mash of a pile of different incompatible fast charging standards like:
Apple
Xiaomi HyperCharge
SuperVOOC
Motorola TurboPower
Samsung Super Fast Charging
Honnor SuperCharge
Qualcomm Quick Charge v1, v2 ,v3...
...etc

It can now all be simply be;
USB PD

[tooki]

Apple is quite a fan of doing that as they require electronics in the connector for even a basic USB-A cable (Mostly so that they can charge the manufacturer a "Made For iPhone tax" on selling them an lightning authentication chip). This is most of the reason that Apple kept using lighting on iPhones even tho their laptops and tablets already got USB-C. Standard USB-C cables don't need an authentication chip inside the connector for most kinds of cables, hence they can't bill manufacturers for that chip.

I think that assessment of the situation is a bit unfair. A less-conspiracy-theorist explanation is that Apple didn’t want to be accused again of abandoning another proprietary connector after a “short” time. That’s exactly what happened when Apple switched from the 30-pin Dock connector to Lightning. Apple used the Dock connector for 9 years (5 years if we only start counting from the iPhone’s release), and still people whined about them switching so soon. So it makes sense that they didn’t want to abandon Lightning quickly. As it is, Lightning got 12 years. I actually would have liked for them to switch to USB-C a bit sooner, but I totally understand the rationale behind wanting to stick with a connector (and the entire accessory ecosystem around it) for a while.

And of course the reason Apple invented Lightning is because nothing suitable existed before it. The approach it uses — ID chip to configure the port’s output signal type (USB, serial, etc) — is common now but was rare at the time. No standard data connector was reversible. Most were much bigger.

Everyone who enjoys those features in USB-C has Apple to thank for that, since Apple both showed the elegance of the basic design in Lightning, and participated in the USB Forum to get those niceties into USB-C. In a very real sense, USB-C is Lightning 2.

Lightning is not a bad connector, it has some technical limitations versus USB-C, but for what most users need from it it is usually irrelevant.

Well it isn't surprising that USB-C has some advantages over Lightning since it came later and Lightning’s inventor helped create it. They learned what could be better and then helped make USB-C happen.

Point is that the world has chosen USB-C as the standard connector. There certainly are also flaws with USB-C too, but at least it did unify the world on fast charging standards, rather than having a mish mash of a pile of different incompatible fast charging standards…

Well, the world first chose micro-USB, and I’m definitely glad Apple stuck with Lightning instead of switching to micro-USB.

As for the plethora of charging protocols, I can’t blame Apple, Samsung, or anyone else for creating their own USB charging protocols, since at the time the USB standards simply didn’t include what they needed. It’s easy to be “smarter” in retrospect, but those were sound engineering and business decisions at the time.