Some people wonder why some Apple accessories are so expensive. An Apple iPhone charger for example costs $29, when you can get one from other manufacturers for as a little as $6. The answer, as Ken Shiriff found out in his teardown, is on the inside. Predictably, the components and circuits are of much higher quality than the other chargers, hence the difference in price.
If you’re the uber geek, then by all means read the complete post with details about transistors, circuit boards and more, but Shiriff sums it up nicely at the end:
“Apple’s power adapter is clearly a high-quality power supply designed to produce carefully filtered power. Apple has obviously gone to extra effort to reduce EMI interference, probably to keep the charger from interfering with the touchscreen. When I opened the charger up, I expected to find a standard design, but I’ve compared the charger to the Samsung charger and several other high-quality industry designs, and Apple goes beyond these designs in several ways…
“Apple’s design provides extra safety in a few ways… the super-strong AC prongs, and the complex over-temperature / over-voltage shutdown circuit. Apple’s isolation distance between primary and secondary appears to go beyond the regulations…
“Apple’s iPhone charger crams a lot of technology into a small space. Apple went to extra effort to provide higher quality and safety than other name-brand chargers, but this quality comes at a high cost.”
So while the difference in price is considerable, it is justified in that you’re not going have something that breaks in three minutes. You have a durable bit of kit, and what’s more, the exterior looks and feels a lot nicer.
