With Android phones, we’re seeing the inclusion of fast-charging technology where each company seems to have created its own solution to fast-charging (along with slightly slower USB standards). Unfortunately, when it comes to the iPhone, things can be more confusing, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do it.
If you own an iPhone and would like to find a way to speed up the charging process, check out the steps below that will highlight the different ways you can boost the charging speeds of your iPhone.
Hardware
The simplest and most straightforward way to speed up the charging process of your iPhone is by changing the charger. The bundled iPhone charger gets the job done, but if you truly want to speed up the charging process, you might want to consider a charger with a higher output (in Watts). This includes:
- Apple’s iPad charger (on Amazon) – The iPad charger offers 12W of power output, which is faster than the iPhone’s 5W charger.
- Apple’s MacBook charger – Depending on the MacBook model you’re using, the charging brick that comes with it can offer power output starting at 30W going all the way to 87W (overkill), considerably faster than the iPhone’s 5W charging brick. The downside is that you will need to use a Lightning to USB-C cable.
- Standard USB Power-Delivery (USB PD) charger: USB-PD is a standard that the iPhone X (and beyond) is compatible with, and can roughly double the charging speed when compared to the iPhone’s basic 5W charger. A charger like the Anker Dual USB Wall (a great, much cheaper, alternative) can top 24W and you will need a full-size USB to Lighting cable, or simply use the cable that came with your iPhone.
- Note that beyond 30W, it’s unlikely that a more powerful charger will help since it is likely to exceed the maximum charging speed of the phone.
Software
If you’d rather not buy a new charger, there are certain things you can do on the software front to help speed up the charging process. This includes:
- Turning your phone off completely – Since the phone is no longer running, it will no longer use any power, which should help charge faster.
- Turn on AirPlane mode – If you don’t want to turn your phone off completely, turning on AirPlane mode will also help. AirPlane mode essentially disables the iPhone’s cellular capabilities, which in turn also reduces the amount of energy it uses.
- Turn on Low Power mode – Low Power mode is a feature of iOS that was introduced a while back. It basically reduces or disables certain features that are considered more energy-intensive. The idea is that it will help you save battery life, but in turn, it can also help speed up the charging process.
It should be noted that unlike companies like Qualcomm or OnePlus who have their own fast-charging systems, Apple does not. However, the company did previously claim that devices like the iPhone 8 and beyond do support faster charging, albeit using the hardware methods we mentioned above.
We should also point out that while fast-charging does help you reduce the time you spend waiting for your phone to charge, there are downsides to it. For starters, rapidly charging a battery means that there will be more heat produced, which in turn can affect the lifespan of your battery. Despite that, Apple has experienced battery endurance issues with the “battery gate” outrage in 2017.
Also, with lithium-ion batteries, there are a finite number of cycles it can take before it starts to lose its charge. By being able to hit 0-100% in a short amount of time means that you go through one cycle considerably faster than normal. Repeat that a couple of times a day and you could find yourself with a battery that no longer lasts as long as it used to.
These are things that you definitely need to take into consideration when it comes to certain fast-charging techniques. While we won’t discourage you to adopt some of these methods, perhaps try not to rely on it too often.