Apple drops limits on 15W wireless chargers for iPhone 15

A new rumor claims that Apple will no longer require wireless chargers to be approved before they can deliver 15W fast charging for the iPhone 15 range.

Apple's MagSafe has been capable of wireless charging up to 15W since it was first introduced with the iPhone 12 range. It also works with Qi chargers, but is limited to delivering a maximum of 7.5W.

To use fast charging, Apple specifies that users must use its own power adapter, or a "comparable third-party USB-C power adapter that supports USB Power Delivery (USB-PD)." Now an unsubstantiated rumor via leaker "yeux1122" says that the company is dropping its requirement for those "comparable" adapters to be approved by Apple.

"The Apple iPhone 15 series is said to be capable of open 15W wireless fast charging even if it is not a certified wireless charger," writes the leaker in a blog post.

This detail is accompanied by an unidentified screenshot showing the news in Chinese. In machine translation, the Chinese original source says that the news comes from "charging head network," presumably the manufacturing supply chain.

If correct, the change to allowing 15W fast charging from more adapters may be related to the Qi2 standard. In January, it was revealed that Apple provided its MagSafe specifications as a basis for the forthcoming updated standard by the Wireless Power Consortium.

Leaker "yeux1122" most recently claimed that Apple will reserve its always-on and ProMotion features for the iPhone 15 Pro models — which is not much of a stretch.