iPhone 13 Pro Max supports faster 27W charging, but only temporarily

Apple's new iPhone 13 Pro Max can temporarily support higher wattage charging than its predecessor, allowing for the device to reach full battery more quickly.

According to tests conducted by ChargerLAB, the iPhone 13 Pro Max can receive up to 27 watts of power when plugged into the right charging adapter. Previously, the charging speeds capped out at about 22 watts.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max won't stay at 27W of power the entire time, however. Testing cited by Twitter user DuanRui indicates that it'll maintain the higher wattage for about 27 minutes. In testing, the device took a total of 86 minutes to fully charge.

iPhone 13 Pro Max uses a 30W PD charger, which can maintain 26W power for about 27 minutes, and it takes 86 minutes to fully charge. pic.twitter.com/qN67104Sem
— DuanRui (@duanrui1205) September 25, 2021

In other tests, including some performed by AppleInsider on Wednesday, it appears that the 27W charging only kicks in when a battery is at about 10% capacity and rising. If the battery life is above 40%, it'll charge at around 23 watts.

The higher charging speeds appear to be limited to the iPhone 13 Pro Max model, since DuanRui said that the base iPhone 13 Pro caps out at 20W. The faster charging isn't available with MagSafe or Qi wireless charging, which only supports 15W of charging at most. Users will also need a power adapter that supports charge rates of 9V at three amps.

Users can take advantage of the higher charging speeds with most modern 30W or higher charging bricks.

26 Comments

sflocal 16 Years · 6140 comments

About 3 years ago

It's my understanding that even with Apple's battery-saving tech, charging batteries that fast tends to degrade them faster. I don't understand the difficulty in just charing them with a humble 5-watt charger overnight while one is sleeping. I have an external battery pack to charge my devices when traveling when there are minimal charging options.

JFC_PA 7 Years · 947 comments

sflocal said:

It's my understanding that even with Apple's battery-saving tech, charging batteries that fast tends to degrade them faster. I don't understand the difficulty in just charing them with a humble 5-watt charger overnight while one is sleeping. I have an external battery pack to charge my devices when traveling when there are minimal charging options.

This: though I try and restrict my charge to between 20-70% so I charge while I’m awake. I’ve got the Apple MagSafe pack and an older Anker stick if needed. Either is casually pocketable though I’m coming to really like the no cable of the MagSafe pack if not it’s inefficiency and slowness.

Does the strategy work? Well my bought at release iPhone 12 Pro Max currently has a battery health reading of 92%…

nadriel 5 Years · 92 comments

So, it works pretty much as intended? Doesn't all fast charging gizmos start to limit the wattage after 50% or so? Due to how li-ion batteries reach peak voltage around that point and after that there's diminishing returns, also batteries heat up etc. I'm not an expert, but I think this is just the nature of battery chemistry and not just a Apple thing. Other than they seem to be more aggressive in saving battery lifetime with smart software limitations.

dk49 9 Years · 285 comments

sflocal said:

It's my understanding that even with Apple's battery-saving tech, charging batteries that fast tends to degrade them faster. I don't understand the difficulty in just charing them with a humble 5-watt charger overnight while one is sleeping. I have an external battery pack to charge my devices when traveling when there are minimal charging options.

..................................................

That's fine if iPhones can run through the entire day on a single charge. But unfortunately, that's not the case. I have used 3 iPhone models in the past 10 years, and I have always found myself charging my iPhone multiple times in a day, even though I don't have heaviest of the usage.

StrangeDays 8 Years · 12988 comments

dk49 said:

sflocal said:

It's my understanding that even with Apple's battery-saving tech, charging batteries that fast tends to degrade them faster. I don't understand the difficulty in just charing them with a humble 5-watt charger overnight while one is sleeping. I have an external battery pack to charge my devices when traveling when there are minimal charging options.

That's fine if iPhones can run through the entire day on a single charge. But unfortunately, that's not the case. I have used 3 iPhone models in the past 10 years, and I have always found myself charging my iPhone multiple times in a day, even though I don't have heaviest of the usage.

Counterpoint: iPhones last all day with normal use.