is a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. He’s been a tech journalist for 20 years.
Alongside its new iPhone 17 lineup, Apple casually launched what looked like a world’s first charger with support for the USB PD 3.2 AVS protocol last week inside the very dull-sounding “Apple 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max.” Only it’s not: Google beat them to the punch with its equally mundane “Pixel Flex Dual Port 67W USB-C Fast Charger,” as noted by the Verge community.
AVS — which stands for Adjustable Voltage Supply — provides granular voltage options, allowing the power source to offer more precise and efficient charging of devices like smartphones and laptops. You can see it listed on the charger specs from Apple Insider’s hands-on and the Pixel charger’s support page.
For reasons of safety, efficiency, and longevity, the batteries in our phones and laptops do not charge at their maximum possible input for the entirety of the charging cycle. Instead, it’s regulated at predefined voltages to slow down charging as the battery fills. With AVS, the power source can provide a very specific voltage that is closer to the ideal needed for the device being charged, speeding up charging without overheating.
However, unlike a true 60W charger, Apple’s little 40W GaN charger can not maintain that peak 60W rate forever — only 18 minutes, as demonstrated by Privaterbok over at the r/UsbCHardware subreddit.
That makes it more suitable for fast charging a new iPhone 17 than a MacBook Pro, which is why Apple sells it as a 40W charger “with 60W Max” and not a 60W charger. The Reddit hands-on also notes that it will enable using a Switch 2 with the TV-out feature enabled, which requires a 60W charger, although it’s unclear how long they tested it that way.
So, will you need Apple’s $39 Dynamic Power Adapter or Google’s $59.99 dual-port model to match Apple’s fast charging claim for the iPhone 17 models (“up to 50 percent in 20 minutes”)? We’ll need to do hands-on testing to know how much impact is due to the new spec, and how much we’ll be waiting for Anker and others to provide a USB-PD 3.2 AVS charger of their own.
Update, September 15th: Added mention of Google’s Pixel charger.
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