The latest crop of iPhones which include the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X are finally supporting wireless charging using the Qi standard. At the time of launch, it only supports the standard 5 watt (5V 1A) output which is pretty slow when compared to Samsung’s Fast Wireless Charging support that does 9 watt (9V 1A).
Fortunately, there’s a way to speed that up and you can enable it with Apple’s upcoming software update.
According to MacRumors, several accessory makers will be supporting faster 7.5 watt wireless charging very soon and this will be enabled on iOS 11.2. The current iOS version is 11.1.1 and the newer 11.2 update could be rolled out in the next few weeks or months to come.
They mentioned that an iPhone X can charge from 46-66% in 30 minutes with the 7.5 watt fast charger, while the standard 5-watt charger does 46-60% in the same 30 minutes. Obviously, you’ll need to make sure that your charging dock/mat supports the higher 7.5 watt output.
While the 6% extra battery charge in 30 minutes doesn’t sound much but that’s almost 50% faster than what it can do right now. A morphie wireless charging base that’s listed on the Apple Store in the US has mentioned high-speed wireless charging support of up to 7.5W but this will be enabled with a software update.
If you really need to juice up your iPhone quickly, it is still faster to do so via cable. The charging brick that came with the iPhone is only 5 watt (5V 1A) but you can charge it quicker with an iPad charger that pushes 10 watt (5V 2A).
For an even faster charge, the iPhone 8 and iPhone X do support fast charging but you’ll need to use/buy a separate USB C PD power adapter. On Apple’s online store, getting a MacBook USB-C charging adapter and a USB-C to lightning cable would cost you a total of RM348. With this setup, Apple claims you can get 50% charge in just 30 minutes.
