Apple traditionally includes a different charger with the iPhone than the iPad. Until Apple recently released a 12-watt adapter, the iPad received a grounded 10-watt adapter, whereas the iPhone and iTouch got a 5-watt affair in the iconic cubic shape. However, the early reports indicated iPad Mini seems to be shipping with a normal, 5-watt adaptor, as opposed to the 10 or 12-watt adapters that charge the iPad much faster.
You can use any of the chargers with any iOS product, but if you plug an iPad into a iPhone charger, it will charge more slowly. Apple claims that if you plug an iPhone into a iPad adapter, it is incapable of drawing more than 5 watts, but whenver I’ve used my 10-watt iPad charger with my iPhone, it sure seems to charge faster, even though I haven’t run a sophisticated test. Making things more complicated, it seems that older iPads are more than capable of maxing out the new 12-watt version.
So here’s the major question: does the smaller charger included with the iPad Mini mean that the iPad Mini is only capable of drawing 5 watts? Or did Apple just cheap out on the most expensive 7.85-inch tablet on the market? If you’ve got an iPad mini and a 10 or 12-watt charger, let us know what you’ve seen.