iPhone Power Adapter Teardown Reveals a Power Supply and Look at Its Secure Prongs [PICS]

Have you ever wondered about what’s inside the iPhone charger? Its compact size might surprise you as Ken Shirriff’s teardown reveals the impressive technology crammed inside the tiny 1-inch charger:

Disassembling Apple’s diminutive inch-cube iPhone charger reveals a technologically advanced flyback switching power supply that goes beyond the typical charger. It simply takes AC input (anything between 100 and 240 volts) and produce 5 watts of smooth 5 volt power, but the circuit to do this is surprisingly complex and innovative.

Moreover, the teardown reveals how Apple was able to securely strengthen the prongs during its 2008 safety recall. Some defective units had prongs snap off and get stuck in the outlet. Apple updated new chargers with a green dot sticker on the back to indicate the latest revision.

Below is an image of how new thicker prongs were embedded into the thick plastic of the case. A Dremel was required to open up the case to get to the prongs, compared to a knockoff charger and a Samsung charger that only required pliers:

The teardown is in-depth and very technically detailed. Check it out here.

[via Hacker News]

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