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I have some other devices, Philips Sonicare Toothbrush, Xiaomi Powerbank, and Bose Headphones.

Can I use iPhone's 5W power adapter and/or USB cable to charge these devices? Is it safe for their batteries?

Dan Creţu
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1 Answers1

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The power adapter is a standard 5W USB power adapter that functions identically to any other 5W USB power adapter. All USB devices have circuitry inside of them to turn the USB power into the correct voltage for their batteries, meaning it is perfectly fine to use your iPhone's power adapter with them.

The USB cable on the other hand, assuming it is the same one used to charge your iPhone, is a Lightning to USB cable, where Lighting is the proprietary connecter used on Apple's devices. This cable isn't compatible with your other devices, and won't even physically fit!

Logicer
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  • Thanks a lot !

    Obviously you are right regarding the cable. My bad. I wanted to ask if I can use the USB cable from one of these devices with another device (so not at all the iPhone's cable). I guess the answer is yes :)

     – Dan Creţu Aug 12 '21 at 12:08
  • It might be worth mentioning that not all devices will run or charge on 5W. You can check the chargers that came with them to see what wattage they're expecting. It should be printed on the charger like "Output: 5V 1A" - multiply V and A to get W. It's safe to try with the iPhone charger, but if a device needs higher wattage it may charge slowly or not at all. – Robert Aug 12 '21 at 19:17
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    @Robert, 5V 0.5A is the standard amount of power supplied by a USB 2.0 port; 5V 0.9A is the standard for USB 3.0. Almost anything that can charge off of USB can at least trickle-charge off a standard USB port. – Mark Aug 12 '21 at 20:53
  • @Mark It's not that simple. 5V 0.5A is the minimum for the USB 2.0 standard. But there are other standards that require higher amperage, and some devices require those standards. For example many iPads won't charge at all with less than 10W. While the specific devices listed in the question are probably fine, that's not true for everything. If it's important that a device be charged when you need it (like a toothbrush) then it's probably worth checking its specs. – Robert Aug 13 '21 at 14:31