Apple increases iPhone 16 USB-C charging to 45W

With the right AC adapter and cable, the iPhone 16 will recharge much faster over USB-C than the iPhone 15, with all 2024 models able to charge at up to 45 Watts.

During Monday's "Glowtime" Apple Event, it was revealed that the MagSafe charging of the iPhone 16 range was upgraded to run at 25W. It now seems Apple updated the wired charging capabilities as well.

According to a Weibo post spotted by serial leaker ShrimpApplePro, all of the iPhone 16 models are capable of charging at up to 45W when using a USB-C connection. The charging rate was found in reports from the China Quality Certification Center, discussing the batteries in use.

At 45W, this is considerably more than the recharging options offered by the iPhone 15 Pro models, which could manage about 25W in testing over USB-C.

Apple doesn't publicly specify how its iPhones charge over a cable, aside from mentioning the fast-charging option. As usual, Apple says the iPhone can recharge from empty to 50% in around 30 minutes when used with a 20W or higher adapter using USB-C.

For 2024, this line also mentions that the fast charging also works on MagSafe with a 30W adapter.

The upshot for consumers is that the iPhone 16 family of devices will be able to take advantage of being plugged into chargers with higher wattages, at least to 45W.

8 Comments

ITGUYINSD 547 comments · 5 Years

About 2 months ago

Knowing Apple, 45W charging will require an overpriced proprietary Apple charger and "special" cable.

avon b7 8008 comments · 20 Years

ITGUYINSD said:

Knowing Apple, 45W charging will require an overpriced proprietary Apple charger and "special" cable.

Unfortunately, that would be very Apple.

Any increase is to be welcomed, but for the price of an iPhone, charging speeds have always lacked and even with this increase they still lack.

More drip feeding.

It's incredible too that the screen refresh rate on the base model is also woefully behind.

Pancake 45 comments · 2 Years

ITGUYINSD said:

Knowing Apple, 45W charging will require an overpriced proprietary Apple charger and "special" cable.

The current cable in the box supports up to 60W

StrangeDays 12959 comments · 8 Years

ITGUYINSD said:

Knowing Apple, 45W charging will require an overpriced proprietary Apple charger and "special" cable.

Rather dim take, considering nothing like that exists in current iPhone charging -- go onto Amazon and you can buy a million different PD chargers and cables. It's an open standard.

When it comes to MagSafe, that achieved faster charging rates than Qi due to better engineering. And thankfully, they released those improvements to enable Qi to do the same.

So yeah, not a bright take by either of you.

StrangeDays said:

ITGUYINSD said:

Knowing Apple, 45W charging will require an overpriced proprietary Apple charger and "special" cable.

Rather dim take, considering nothing like that exists in current iPhone charging -- go onto Amazon and you can buy a million different PD chargers and cables. It's an open standard.

When it comes to MagSafe, that achieved faster charging rates than Qi due to better engineering. And thankfully, they released those improvements to enable Qi to do the same.

So yeah, not a bright take by either of you.

Wasn't Qi already on route to faster speeds without Apple being involved?

Yes, of course it was.

Apple was very late to wireless charging (no surprises there) and their engineering for faster speeds has always been behind others (and remains so even under Qi2). No surprises there either.

My guess is that Apple offering Magsafe to a standards consortium had more to do with regulatory considerations. And it seems they got more influence over authentication decisions too. Something Apple wants in on as there is monetisation to be had with that.