Not all Apple and Samsung battery chargers built the same

If you've bought a few Apple or Samsung phones in the past few years you may have noticed different chargers bundled with your phone.  But what exactly is the difference?

Here is a comparison of the various current Apple power adapters:

Model	Short Description	Connector	Power Output	Quick Charge	Packaged with
A1265	5W Small square iPhone charger (older model)	USB	DC 5V, 1 A	No	iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4
A1357	10W Block iPad charger	USB	DC 5.1V, 2.1 A	No	iPad, iPad 2, iPad mini
A1385	5W Small square iPhone charger (newer model)	USB	DC 1V, 1 A	No	iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPhone 6S
A1401	12W High power large block iPad charger	USB	DC 5.2V, 2.4 A	No	iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Pro

Here is a comparison of the various current Samsung power adapters:

Model	Short Description	Connector	Power Output	Quick Charge	Packaged with
ETA-U90	Blocky low end charger	USB	DC 5V, 0.7 A	No	Galaxy S2
ETA0U61	Cube low end charger	USB	DC 5V, 1.0 A	No	Galaxy S3
ETA0U80	Cube low end charger	USB	DC 5V, 1.0 A	No	Galaxy Note 2
ETA0U81	Cube low end charger	USB	DC 5V, 1.0 A	No	Galaxy Core
EP-TA10	Blocky charger	USB	DC 5.2V, 2.0 A	No	Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 and Galaxy Note Pro 12.2
EP-TA12	Blocky charger	USB	DC 5V, 2.1 A	No	Galaxy S5, Tab 8.9, Tab 10.1
EP-TA20	High end blocky charger	USB	DC 5V, 2.0 A	Yes, 2.0	Galaxy S6, Galaxy S7

All this information can be found in small text on your power adapter. The output indicates the amount of power sent to the phone.  Both Apple and Samsung power adapters provide a USB connector to a microUSB cable.  Generally Samsung follows the Model number with "J" for Canada, US, Japan or "E" for Europe.

Using a lower output charger than the one included with your device may not work or charges your device very slowly.  For example the iPad Air charges very slowly with the A1385 and even drains faster than it charges if you're playing CPU/GPU intense games.

Using a higher output charger can charge your device faster such as charging an iPhone 6/6S using an iPad charger will charge from empty to full in about 2 hours.  However, be aware that using a charger that has a higher power output than the charger that
came with your phone may overheat your battery and may degrade the
life of the battery

Quick charging in newer devices make a big difference.  Charging the Galaxy S6 took 50% longer to charge with the EP-TA12 compared
to the bundled EP-TA20 with Quick Charge turned on.  So if you're looking for a phone that charges quickly make sure you get one that supports Quick Charge 2.0 or higher.

Which uses more power? WiFi or 3G?

I had that same question on my mind after Ziostilon posted that question on HowardForums. Fellow HoFo member jessi3k3 showed that WiFi consumes a little more energy than EDGE. Another HoFo member, RogerPodacter, brought up some good points to suggest that WiFi should consume less power than 3G because the cell towers are further away and it'd require more energy to move the same amount of data in longer distances. But an argument against that is WiFi was developed without mobile devices in mind so power consumption wasn't of the highest concern which is why Bluetooth was developed and that 3G is designed with mobile devices in mind so it should be optimized for limited power consumption.

So we ran Nokia Internet Radio at 128kbps and used Nokia Energy Profiler just to see for ourselves what really consumed more power...

802.11G with WPA-PSK (WiFi):

Test #1


Test #3

AT&T 3G:

Test #2


Test #4

From my test with Nokia Energy Profiler, it shows that 3G does consume more power than WiFi in streaming the 128kbps.

This is how I tested (so you can try it too):
I'm using the same Nokia E71-2 running firmware 100.07.76 for all the tests. I used a Linksys WRT54G with 802.11G WPA-PSK. According to this map of AT&T's 3G network from this summer, I'm in the blue area so I have strong 3G support. I wish I knew where the tower is so I could write a better post.

Software used:
Nokia Energy Profiler 1.1 (1-May-08)
Nokia Internet Radio 1.06 (or get it through Download! on your device)
Screenshot for Symbian OS (S60) 3.01 (just to take those pretty screenshots)

1. Open Energy Profiler
2. Turn on Internet Radio
3. Options > Settings
4. Set access point (if you change this value, you need to restart Internet Radio for the change to take effect)
5. Set all the bitrate to Best Quality (128kbps)
6. Choose a radio station and wait for it to finish buffering
7. Go to Energy Profiler and click Options > Start

I alternated tests between WiFi and 3G (which is why the screenshots go from Test 1, 3, 2, 4) to rule out the case that earlier runs might produce more favorable results than later tests and tested each connection more than once because one test is never enough.

This test really changed my perception that WiFi is a power hog. Even with the burden of WPA-PSK, WiFi consumed less power for me. HoFo member oddsocks gives a pretty good explanation on why 3G consumes just by the specs. I guess this explains why Steve Jobs of Apple added WiFi to the iPhone and complained about 3G chipsets not being ready for mobile devices.