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Are chargers interchangeable?

It's obvious that of you use a 2.5watt charger to try to charge a mini with retina it will charge a lot slower than with the 10watt charger it came with.
However, I have always heard that a particular device will not pull more watts than it needs. For example, I'm not so sure a 10watt charger will charge an iPad mini 1 faster than the 5watt charger it came with. The article doesn't really address that issue.

The article makes it seem like we should just all buy 12watt chargers and be able to charge all our devices faster. I don't think this is true.
I should run some tests to compare. But I'm guessing that a 10watt charger will not charge my iPhone twice as fast as a 5watt charger.
 
A 10W charger from Apple will definitely charge the original iPad mini (which came with a 5W charger) faster than will the 5W charger. The circuitry inside the original mini will allow faster charging than what can be provided by that stupid 5W charger. Apple just went cheap.

Generally, speaking, for USB devices, you can swap chargers provided the plug fits and the charger can provide the current needed by said device. I do it all the time. Just keep in mind that if a devices can use 2A at 5V and you use a charger than provides 1A (or less) at 5V, then it will take longer than it might if you had used the original charger.

Oh...and Apple is prone to not let other chargers work with their devices, so I usually use my Apple chargers on other devices and not the other way around (so the answer to the OPs question is very likely NO). You can buy third-party quality chargers than can charger both Apple and non-Apple devices.
 
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A 10W charger from Apple will definitely charge the original iPad mini (which came with a 5W charger) faster than will the 5W charger. The circuitry inside the original mini will allow faster charging than what can be provided by that stupid 5W charger. Apple just went cheap.

Generally, speaking, for USB devices, you can swap chargers provided the plug fits and the charger can provide the current needed by said device. I do it all the time. Just keep in mind that if a devices can use 2A at 5V and you use a charger than provides 1A (or less) at 5V, then it will take longer than it might if you had used the original charger.

Oh...and Apple is prone to not let other chargers work with their devices, so I usually use my Apple chargers on other devices and not the other way around (so the answer to the OPs question is very likely NO). You can buy third-party quality chargers than can charger both Apple and non-Apple devices.

Will a 12watt charger charge an iPhone 5 faster than a 10watt charger?
 
Will a 12watt charger charge an iPhone 5 faster than a 10watt charger?

Nope. The iPhone's battery caps at 1Amp/5Volts. It's compatible with the iPhone 5 yes, but won't charge it faster. You may see a few minutes (?) shorter charge time, but that's negligible since it's recommended that you "overcharge" your device a bit to completely cap off the battery as the last several % takes a bit of time.
 
Nope. The iPhone's battery caps at 1Amp/5Volts. It's compatible with the iPhone 5 yes, but won't charge it faster. You may see a few minutes (?) shorter charge time, but that's negligible since it's recommended that you "overcharge" your device a bit to completely cap off the battery as the last several % takes a bit of time.

Thank you. That's what I've read. Is there a way to find out what a particular iDevice's cap is? I'm very interested to find out but never saw these caps listed anywhere.
 

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