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Apple’s next wave of iPhones will reportedly address one of its biggest competitive drawbacks — an excruciatingly slow pace of charging, wired or otherwise. According to anonymous sources cited in a 9to5Mac report, “at least some of the new iPhone 15 models can be recharged with up to 35W.” Given Apple’s history of keeping upgrades locked to the pricier “Pro” models in the initial phase, it’s not hard to guess that the fast charging will first make its way to the iPhone 15 Pro and its Max sibling set for a Fall season debut.
The iPhone 14 Pro duo maxes out at 27W, while the iPhone 14 and its Plus version can only go up to 20W. Yes, iPhones are known to offer a dramatically better battery life compared to Android phones, and that has been the status quo for the past few years. But Apple hasn’t really made any strides when it comes to fast charging, be it wired, or the wireless route.
On top of that, the company also decided to yank the bundled charging brick out of the retail package, which further adds to the sting of a luxe asking price. But it appears that the iPhone 15 series will make some amends. Aside from faster charging, the upcoming iPhones are heavily rumored to embrace the USB Type-C standard, and the “Pro” trims might even support Thunderbolt class perks.
Still far behind the Androids
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Apple’s rumored upgrade to 35W charging is a step in the right direction, even though it comes painfully late to the party. However, Apple is still far from catching up to the competition. Take, for example, OnePlus, which just launched the OnePlus Ace 2 Pro in China. This phone costs around $410 — half the price of a regular non-Pro iPhone — but supports 150W fast charging.
The rest of the Chinese smartphone makers, such as Xiaomi, now offer up to 120W charging on budget phones that cost as little as $250. The only other Android smartphone maker that sits in the same “charging league of shame” as Apple, is Google, with its Pixel series smartphones. But then, they are a few hundred dollars cheaper than iPhones.
The iPhone 15 series is also rumored to embrace a titanium frame, which is lighter but more resilient. Camera upgrades are also said be to in the pipeline. alongside the jump to a 3nm-based processor. Apple is also rumored to adjust the design of the mute switch on the iPhone 15 line-up, but they likely won’t turn into pressure-sensitive solid-state buttons this year, it seems. All these changes have fanned rumors of an almost-certain price hike for the iPhone 15 quartet. Apple is expected to reveal its new smartphones at an event in the second week of September, alongside a refresh to its iPad line-up, new Apple Watch models, and possibly a few M3 generation Macs, too.
