The fastest way to charge your iPhone: Is wireless charging worth it?

Smartphone owners constantly contemplate about the right approach for charging their devices. There is the option of traditional wired charging and new wireless charging technology. Even though most newest phones have wireless charging, only 29 percent of people use it. Wireless charging sounds great as you can easily put your phone on a stand or furniture with built-in wireless charging. With growing popularity, majority of the manufacturers (Samsung, LG, etc) offer wireless charging in their flagship smartphones. Even Apple has started to offer wireless charging in iPhone 8 and iPhone X models. With Apple on-board, we can be sure that wireless charging is here to stay. However, is wireless charging a true replacement for wired charging? Let’s find out if the wireless charging is worth it or not. Be sure to check out our recommendations at the bottom of this post.

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How does Wireless Charging work?

Wireless charging allows you to charge your phone without connecting the power cable. The wireless charging requires a power transmitting pad (i.e. charger) and a receiver. The receiver is usually built-in to your smartphone but it can also be part of the phone case. Wireless charging works based on inductive charging, which creates power by passing electric current through coils of charging pad to create electromagnetic field. The receiving magnetic plate creates magnetic field and generates electric current when the device comes into contact with charging pad. There are two main standards for wireless charging: Qi (pronounced “Chee”) and Powermat. Luckily for you, Qi wireless charging standard has been adopted by majority of smartphone manufacturers so the choice is simple.

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What is the fastest way to charge your iPhone?

It is commonly believed that wireless chargers are slower than wired chargers. However, we can only determine the fastest charging method by looking at the facts and data. Wireless charging uses electro-magnetic induction, which transfers energy from the charging pad to the receiving device. Most wired chargers have a power rating that ranges from 5 watts to 18+ watts and most wireless chargers range form 5 watts to 12 watts. It is safe to assume that the smaller the wattage number, the longer it will take to charge the device. With multiple ways of charging the phone, every method is different as some are faster, more expensive, while others are more convenient. A study by macrumors tested several charging accessories to figure out the fastest way to charge the iPhone X. The test used the same iPhone X, without a case, and same outlet was for consistent power delivery. The phone battery was drained to one percent and while charging, the percentage was checked every 15 minutes. During the test, the iPhone X was placed into airplane mode with no apps running and display was turned off.

Looking at the test results, USB-C power adapter and Lightning cable was the absolute fastest way to charge an iPhone 8, iPhone X, or iPhone 8 Plus. The USB-C charger activates a “fast-charge” feature, which charges the iPhone to around 50% in 30 minutes. The slowest methods were found to be 5W wired and 5W wireless charging with the standard iPhone adapter. The 7.5W wireless testing was faster than 5W wireless charging. When comparing the charging speed at 12W with iPad charger, it was found to be very close to the 18W+ chargers. If you prioritize fast charging speed and lower purchase cost, then charging at 12W with the iPad charger is the best option.

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Problems with Wireless Charging

As wireless charging uses two physical coils, the alignment of induction coil in the charger and the receiver coil in the phone is very important. If the two coils are not aligned on top of each other, the device won’t charge correctly. If you have a bulky case on your phone, it will charge slower and in some cases it might not even work at all. Some wireless chargers do have a fast charging capability but it will only work with phones with the same manufacturer. For instance, a Google Qi charger might fast charge a Pixel phone but not a Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

For the most part, you can’t use your phone while it charges wirelessly. If you take your phone off the wireless charger, it will stop the charging as it needs to be constantly in touch with the charging pad. You can’t text comfortably without lifting your phone off the charger, you can’t sit on you couch and scroll through Instagram, and you can’t even take a phone call properly. There is also a risk of damaging the phone’s battery if there is excessive heat generated by the wireless charger. For instance, Apple recently announced that it is cancelling the AirPower wireless charger, which was speculated to have an issue with overheating. Lastly, most of the wireless chargers are expensive compared to wired chargers. You can purchase almost four wired chargers for the price of one wireless charger, which means that it is not an affordable solution to place multiple wireless chargers throughout your home.

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Things to consider

When shopping for a wireless charging pad, there are few things that you need to consider. Normally, the first thing you would have to consider is the charging standard (Qi vs Powermat), but we don’t need to worry about this because Qi has been adopted as the default standard in any smartphone. With Qi wireless chargers, the first thing to consider is the charging speed and power output as it can be slower than wired charging if you don’t pick the right one. For fast charging, you need to buy chargers that offer 10W (or 7.5W for iPhone) power output to reduce charging time.

The other thing to consider is whether power adapter (QC 3.0) is included in the box as some cheaper options will require you to purchase the power adapter separately. The last thing to consider is the price as there are many options available and you can get all of the required features at different price points. For the purposes of this comparison, we will consider chargers that are affordable ($50 or lower) while offering the above mentioned features. For a comparison of different wireless chargers, check out our post here: Mophie vs Belkin vs RavPower vs Anker: Which is the best wireless charger?

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Recommendations

The entire debate around the charging method depends entirely on the users’ preferences. To make it easier for you, we have listed our recommendations based on key preferences of the users.

Charging Speed at affordable cost: If you prioritize fast charging speed and lower purchase cost, then charging your iPhone at 12W with the iPad charger is the best option. Best Option: Wired Charging

Convenience: If you are not looking for a fast charger or you are only charging your phone at night, then a wireless charger will be more convenient for you. However, during the day, if you are looking to use your device while charging then wired charging is more convenient. Best Option: Draw

Compatibility: As Qi wireless charging standard has been adopted by majority of smartphone manufacturers, it removes the issue of compatible charging cables. Wireless charging is the best option if you have multiple devices from different manufacturers. Best Option: Wireless Charging

According to an IHS report, it is expected that by 2023, there will accumulative shipment of 2.7 billion wireless chargers and 6 billion devices with wireless charging capabilities. For wireless charging to become the norm, companies will have to figure out ways to make wireless charging more practical. Some third party companies like Pi have already started to offer products with improved functionality. Pi is world’s first contactless wireless charger.