Apple’s ‘It’s Glowtime’ event was jam-packed with new announcements, with the iPhone 16 range making its debut alongside the Apple Watch Series 10, new AirPods models, and a whole lot more. With so much being unveiled, it would have been easy to miss that Apple is bringing a major charging upgrade to the iPhone 16 lineup.
Skimming through the specs pages for the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro, you’ll find a small but important change coming to the charging and battery life of these devices. That’s because these products now support MagSafe wireless charging up to 25W (providing you have a 30W power adapter or better), almost double the previous 15W limit. And it will work with the Qi2 standard for better compatibility, too, although this only goes up to 15W.
The new 25W MagSafe limit could make a major difference to your device’s charging times. According to Apple’s own figures, you’ll now be able to power up your iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro to 50% within 30 minutes. This is true for both wireless MagSafe and wired USB-C charging, providing you use a 30W or 20W adapter for each, respectively.
Compare that to the iPhone 15 range, which were capable of fast charging up to 50% within 30 minutes, but only using a cable. On those devices, MagSafe charging was limited to 15W, the same power output limit MagSafe has had since it was introduced in 2020.
Flying under the radar
Apple barely mentioned this charging speed boost during its event keynote, with company marketing chief Greg Joswiak simply saying that the iPhone 16 range will come with “a new MagSafe charger for even faster wireless charging.” Joswiak didn’t mention any specific power output or charging time figures, while Apple’s press releases buried the detail in their footnotes.
That means it would be very easy to miss this significant update. If you want your iPhone to juice up as quickly as possible, it could be a tempting reason to upgrade.
Phones have offered fast charging for some time now, with many of the best Android phones coming with extremely rapid charging times – the Realme GT 3, for instance, boasts 240W fast charging. Yet that requires a cable (the Realme GT 3 doesn’t offer wireless charging at all, in fact), and wireless charging hasn’t managed to offer anything near the same speeds. While Apple’s 25W MagSafe upgrade is far below the best wired charging speeds, it’s still a welcome improvement.
There were plenty of other upgrades announced with the iPhone 16 range, including a new Camera Control button, faster chips, improved cameras, and more. While the charging uptick didn’t get as much time in the sun as some of the other new features, it could prove to be just as important.
For our first impressions of one of the new iPhones, do read our hands-on iPhone 16 Pro review.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
