Apple's iPad Pro now ships with a 20W USB-C charger

iPad Pro (2020) (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Apple appears to be shipping new iPad Pro orders with a 20W USB-C charger.
The same tablets used to ship with an 18W part.
This as Apple stops shipping iPhones with any charger at all.

Apple now appears to be shipping its latest 20W USB-C charger with new iPad Pro orders, replacing the outgoing 18W option.

The news started to appear on Reddit and was then spotted by 9to5Mac, but Apple hasn't confirmed the change itself. Checking the online Apple Store still shows an 18W part as being offered in the iPad Pro box, for example.

Apple iPhone 12 box (Image credit: Apple)

This comes after Apple stopped shipping any charger in the boxes iPhones come in, saying everyone already has them. But that might not be the case, with the latest iPhones shipping with Lightning to USB-C cables – meaning people need a USB-C charger to plug them into.

It's likely Apple is trying to get 20W USB-C chargers into as many homes as possible, ensuring people with iPad Pro tablets can fast-charge their new iPhones as well. That being said, anyone with an older 18W charger should also be able to charge pretty quickly, too.

And let's face it – everything charges like crazy compared to that old 5W charger Apple shipped for far tooling!

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.