Updated July 16 with more information about charging speeds and how each iPhone will be affected, especially in comparison to Android’s fastest options.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro: will the iPhone 16 Pro have faster charging?
When Apple releases the iPhone 16 this fall, there will be a lot of changes. And now, it looks like one of the great twenty-first-century malaises, battery anxiety, will be partially allayed by the introduction of significantly faster charging.
The new speeds will be faster than any iPhone has previously had, and by quite a distance. It’s worth noting that some Android phone users will scoff at the upgrade, with phones like the OnePlus 12 supporting much faster speeds, for instance.
Other Android users will also be laughing at this development when they compare what their phones can do. Faster than the OnePlus 12 mentioned above are the Oppo Reno 12 Pro and Xiaomi 14 Pro which have wired fast charge options of 120W—three times what Apple may be about to deliver—and Motorola goes even further.
Its Edge 40 Pro reaches 125W. Apple won’t even be as fast as Samsung, whose Galaxy S24 series charge at up to 45W, but at least the gap is closer there.
Bear in mind also that some Android phone manufacturers include a fast charging plug in the box, but as you know, Apple hasn’t included a charging plug for years now. So, even if you want the new, faster 40W charging, you’ll have to buy a new plug to make the most of it. There are several Mac laptop chargers which can deliver more than enough charge, so if you have one of those, that’s an option.
Apple will be pleased, at least, to overtake the charging speeds offered by the Google Pixel 8 series which matches Apple’s 27W maximum—but who knows what Google will reveal when the Pixel 9 phones are released in August, one month ahead of the next Apple devices.
The battery sizes of the new phones will play a part in the charging capabilities—which has an interesting knock-on effect for the iPhone 16 Plus.
That’s because while there have already been reports of the battery sizes increasing for the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, the iPhone 16 Plus is thought to have a battery that’s smaller than the iPhone 15 Plus.
A drop in battery size by 8.6% is predicted, as pointed out by Britta O’Boyle at T3. Match that with support for faster charging and it seems possible that the iPhone 16 Plus will charge faster than the rest of the range.
For the other iPhone 16 models with their larger batteries, there’s still going to be a benefit thanks to the faster charging speeds, wired or wireless.
There have already been reports of new updates to the iPhone 16 range. These include different displays on some models, wider implementation of the exceptional tetraprism camera, a new strategy for its new-generation processors, more advanced camera lenses, noticeably more efficient OLED displays, a new thermal design to prevent overheating and an improved main camera sensor.
But this new report addresses battery life, the key metric for all of us. It’s not just that the battery will be different, though a recent report says it will, but that when it’s run down, it will be much faster to recharge.
That’s down to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max supporting 40W wired charging speeds, according to a report from IT Home and spotted by MacRumors. And it may apply to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, too.
Right now, all phones in the iPhone 15 series support wired charging speeds of up to 27 watts, assuming you have a powerful enough charging plug. That means that you can charge your iPhone 15 from flat to 50% in about 30 minutes. That’s not bad, but faster would be better.
Support for wired charging of up to 40W would really reduce that charging time, again assuming you have a powerful enough charging plug. Theoretically, it could mean that you could charge the iPhone 16 from nothing to 50% in little more than 15 minutes.
In reality, it’ll probably be longer, if the rumor is right that most of the iPhone 16 series will have larger batteries which, therefore, will take a little longer. Even so, reaching 50% charge in around 20 minutes could be on the cards.
How about wireless charging, that supremely convenient but slower way of juicing your battery? Currently, that maxes out at 15W but the report predicts support for 20W wireless charging, too.
Expect more revelations before the iPhone 16 series is released, likely in mid-September.