Apple's mini 18W USB-C charger may be real after all

Rumors of a more powerful 18-Watt USB-C wall charger supposedly being bundled with this fall's iPhone releases have been bolstered, with the surfacing of photographs appearing to depict an engineering sample of the alleged accessory.

Photographs published by Chongdiantou and spotted by Macotakara show the charging plug from three different angles. Along with showing the side and plug prongs in one shot, a second simply shows the USB-C connection at the top of the device, where the USB-C to Lightning connector would be inserted.

The third photograph is blurry but readable, showing it to be an engineering sample. At the bottom the output data claims it can provide up to 5 Volts of power at 3 Amps, equating to 15 Watts delivered to the iPhone, or for 9V to be delivered at 2A, namely 18W.

While this is one of the first credible photographs of the rumored charger, there is no guarantee that it is genuine. A May report included alleged renderings of the European version of the iPhone charger, again offering 18W of power.

Currently, iPhones ship with the same 5W USB-A charger, despite the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X all supporting Fast Charging, using a USB-C to Lightning cable and a charger with a higher wattage. Fast Charging allows an iPhone to charge to 50 percent of capacity within 30 minutes, which is currently possible using the USB-C wall charger supplied with the MacBook or MacBook Pro, albeit at a relatively high cost.

If Apple does include a USB-C charger with future iPhones, it could also allow third-party accessory producers to create more cables. Apple currently does not allow other vendors to create USB-C to Lightning cables under the MFi certification program, but this stands to change if the rumored charger is included in the iPhone package.

33 Comments

melgross 20 Years · 33622 comments

About 6 years ago

As the batteries in the iPhone and iPad have increased over the years, the only concession to that was going from 10 Watts to 12 Watts for the iPad. Fortunately, we’ve bought so many iPads over the years, that we never use the iphone 5 watt chargers. I’ve got a bunch in a draw, and give them away to people who lose their chargers.

i bought the 29 watt Macbook charger along the long cable for it, but it’s not a real solution for most people because it costs $49 for that charger, and cost, when I bought it, $39 for the long Lightning to USB C cable.

sometimes Apple takes years to do something they obviously needed to do.

nunzy 6 Years · 662 comments

About 6 years ago

Why should Apple give these away for free when they can make a good margin selling them? I guess they think that they will sell enough of additional iPhone to make up the profit and even make some more.

MplsP 8 Years · 4047 comments

About 6 years ago

nunzy said:

Why should Apple give these away for free when they can make a good margin selling them? I guess they think that they will sell enough of additional iPhone to make up the profit and even make some more.

You could ask the same question about including headphones or even make the argument not to include an adapter or cable at all because 'virtually everyone has one already and this let's people only pay for what they need.'

Apple sells premium phones at a premium price. As such, I don't expect to get a crippled, underpowered adapter that doesn't take advantage of the phone's capabilities. It's kind of like paying for first class and then having the flight attendant saying you need to pay for a drink.

Why couldn't they do fast charging with USB A? The big problem with switching to a USB C to lightning cable is that it would be incompatible with virtually every charging port in the world right now without an adapter. (Although based on the lack of USB A ports in the MacBooks, convenience & compatibility are not high on Apples list of priorities.)

melgross 20 Years · 33622 comments

About 6 years ago

nunzy said:

Why should Apple give these away for free when they can make a good margin selling them? I guess they think that they will sell enough of additional iPhone to make up the profit and even make some more.

Because it would be stupid to sell them. Apple’s charging times have been behind most Android phones for years. There’s no excuse for that, particularly at the prices. Those chargers were used with the first iPhone 10 years ago. The batteries are several times as large in the big models, and so charging times have gotten longer.