You can charge your iPhone by plugging a cord into the iPhone and plugging the other end either into a USB port on a computer or by plugging the other end into a USB power adapter that is plugged into the wall. Which charges more quickly?
Justin Horn of the When Will Apple? blog ran some tests two years ago and found that his iPhone 3 charged in 90 minutes when plugged in to a wall outlet and in 140 minutes when charging over USB. He recently ran similar tests on the iPhone 4, and his results are described in a post on Justin’s blog and shown in the following graph, which Justin gave me permission to republish here:
In his test, it took Justin an extra 30 minutes (130 minutes versus 160 minutes) to get a full charge on USB versus plugging it into a wall outlet. And perhaps just as importantly, his tests show that you get more charge along the way using a wall outlet, so if you only have 30 minutes to spare, in Justin’s test you’ll go from zero to 25% over USB and zero to almost 35% with a wall outlet.
Different computers have different USB charging capacity, and the latest Apple computers provide more power over USB than earlier models. Thus, I expect that if you expanded this chart to cover different Mac and PC computers, you’d see different results charging over different USB ports. Having said that, I think that it is fair to say that if you want the fastest charge, use a power outlet.
There is a similar issue (as to power over usb) with iPads. If your iPad doesn’t get enough power, it shows a “not charging” status (when it is charging — just slowly).
The fastest way to charge an iPhone is with an iPad charger. It’s so fast that I’d recommend springing for the 30 bucks even if you don’t have an iPad.
It always seemed slower through the computer…
I believe car charging is the slowest
http://www.twitcy.com/fastcharge.html quickest way of all 😉
you are so right! it takes me hours to charge my iphone onto the computer
It depends on the charger. My charger has two outlets, one of them provide more amps than the other and thus charges my phone much faster.
I agree. I hate charging my phone through a usb, its so slow
I have a 2012 model macbook air and i charge my iphone 4 with it. It is pretty fast, I look at it and it says 14 percent and like 15 seconds later it says 17 percent.
I agree, I have an iPad charger and it only takes about 35 minutes to get a full charge on my iPhone 4S
I know the feeling I love charging mine through the wall it works really fast.
Rubbish!!
I have a Mac and it charged my iPhone via USB in 45 mins!!!
Yeah nice way to fry your battery too!
No, it is safe to use an iPad charger with an iPhone.
-Jeff