New iPhones charge faster but nowhere near 45W

When the iPhone 16 handsets were unveiled last month, there weren’t many surprises. Most of the upgrades had been leaked long before, or accurately guessed by well-informed analysts. But not everything we heard before the event proved to be correct.

One theory, supported by seemingly robust evidence, was that the new phones would bring a substantial increase in wired charging speed, all the way up to 45W if the power brick and other accessories supported it. (The 15-series iPhones deliver wired charging up to 29W.) This claim was made by a credible leaker and based on a Chinese regulatory filing.

Technically, the pre-event rumor was that the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max would support 40W wired charging, but this was extended to an apparent 45W across both Pro and non-Pro models when the filing was spotted a few days after the phones had been announced and before they had been tested by reviewers.

Now that independent testing has been conducted, however, it’s emerged that even the iPhone 16 Pro Max cannot deliver such charging speeds in practice.

Chargerlab, which includes detailed charging tests in its review of the new premium handset, reports a maximum sustained speed of 30-31W even when using adapters as powerful as 140W. As MacRumors notes, Chargerlab’s photos appear to show the phone running at 37.06W with Apple’s own 140W charger, but it wasn’t able to sustain this speed and the site’s results suggest it didn’t manage it for long.

In other words, the new iPhones deliver slightly faster (and perhaps on occasion substantially faster) wired charging than the previous generation, but in reality they don’t come close to the 45W that was expected. For a detailed analysis and testing of the new handsets, read our iPhone 16 Pro review.