The latest iPads are the 9.7″ iPad Air (5th Generation) and 7.9″ iPad Mini 2. In terms of charging from solar, we prefer the original iPad Mini over the 2 as the Mini (1) provides significantly more runtime per hour in the sun. We’ll take the iPad Air over the Retina as it uses power more efficiently than the 3rd and 4th generation iPads.
Connection: Connect to either iPad using the lightning cable that comes with the device directly to the USB port on any one of our batteries. Although their are lightning adapter knock-offs, we don’t carry them.
Charging from External Battery: The Mini 2’s battery is 23.8 Watt hours vs. 16.7 Watt hours for the Mini first generation. The iPad Air is 32.4 Watt hours vs 42.8 Watt hours for the previous retina. While we haven’t tested on these models, we generally see about a 25% loss in total capacity going from one battery to the next.
% Charge From 3 Voltaic Batteries
| Model | iPad Battery Capacity (Watt Hours) | V15 (15 Watt Hours) | V39 (39 Watt Hours) | V60 (60 Watt Hours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPad Mini (1) | 16.7 | 67% | 175% | 269% |
| iPad Mini 2 | 23.8 | 47% | 123% | 189% |
| iPad Retina (4) | 42.8 | 26% | 68% | 105% |
| iPad Air | 32.4 | 35% | 90% | 139% |
Charging from Solar: The more Watts in the solar panel, the more runtime you will get for each hour in the sun. Here are the runtimes in minutes for each of our panels. We’re assuming that you are going from our panel to a battery (like the V15, V39 or V60) to the iPad. Shop our full range of solar chargers.
Runtimes (minutes) per Hour in the Sun Based on Panel Size (Watts)
| Model | 3.4 | 4 | 6 | 6.8 | 8 | 10 | 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPad Mini (1) | 46 | 57 | 82 | 93 | 109 | 136 | 218 |
| iPad Mini 2 | 26 | 32 | 45 | 51 | 60 | 75 | 120 |
| iPad Retina (4) | 16 | 20 | 28 | 32 | 37 | 47 | 17.4 |
| iPad Air | 19 | 23 | 33 | 38 | 44 | 55 | 88 |
Read more about tablet charging from solar on our tablet guide.
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