Fastest ways to charge an iPhone

If you don’t have much time but need to get as much juice as possible into your fading iPhone, you need to know the fastest way to quickly charge an iPhone. Here we list the fastest ways to charge an iPhone from using a Lightning cable to clamping on a magnetic battery pack.

Since the iPhone 11, the battery life of the iPhone has increased significantly every year, but Apple made the biggest leap in 2021: The capacity of the built-in battery increased by up to 19 percent and, in conjunction with the continuous optimization of the power-draining components, this meant noticeable improvements in battery life for iPhones.

The 13 and 14 Pro Max iPhones, which have the biggest battery of all due to its size, can power through up to 25 hours of streamed video playback (according to Apple’s tests). When streaming video the battery life of the 12 Pro Max was only 12 hours.

Our own tests, which put a significant strain on the processor, also prove that the latest iPhones are battery monsters. The iPhone 13 Pro Max ran for 11 hours 41 minutes (701 minutes). This was three hours longer than the iPhone 12 Pro’s time (8 hours and 41 minutes, or 521 minutes), which was already very good. The iPhone 14 Pro Max‘s battery is slightly less powerful but still offers around the same capacity.

But no matter how large and durable a battery is—sooner or later it has to be charged. And this can take a long time, especially with large batteries. However, you can minimize the time required if you make the most of the iPhone’s fast charging function. This means using a charger that takes full advantage of the maximum charging speed. How fast the iPhone charges depends on the model and the charging technology used. Many users prefer wireless charging, but the fastest way is still with a cable.

Method 1: Charge by cable - the fastest way to charge an iPhone

The fastest way to charge your iPhone 13 is via the Lightning port and a wall charger. But in order to benefit from the maximum charging speed, you need an appropriate power supply (aka charger).

All iPhones since the iPhone 8 have supported up to 20 watts of charging power, although you need to purchase a 20W adapter or higher (as one isn’t included in the box). You can buy a corresponding charger yourself from Apple or another manufacturer. Read: Best iPhone charger

• Apple’s 30W USB-C Power Adapter: $39 in the US and £39 in the UK
• Apple’s 20W USB-C Power Adapter: $19 in the US
• Apple’s 20W USB-C Power Adapter (Folding Pins): £19 in the UK

When choosing your power adapter consider the following: It needs to support at least 20W of charging power. It needs to come with the correct port—if you want to charge your iPhone with the included Lightning to USB-C cable, the power adapter must have a USB-C port.

Undoubtedly you own an old power adapter from a previous iPhone that will most likely be able to use this with your new iPhone. However, how fast your iPhone charges will depend on the performance of the power supply—your iPhone will not charge as fast if you are using a power adapter with an old rectangular USB-A port, for example.

You don’t need to do anything special to activate iPhone fast charging. Just make sure you are using at least a 20W USB-C charger with a decent USB-C to Lightning cable.

Make sure you buy a quality cable, not the cheapest one you can find online. The cable should be MFi (Made for iPhone) certified. To help out, we’ve rounded up the best Lightning cables.

For the fastest possible iPhone charging, you should turn the phone off but this will be impractical for most situations. nearly as good is to put your iPhone into Airplane Mode, enable Low Power Mode, turn down your screen brightness, and stop using it while it’s charging. That way, the phone isn’t draining its battery as fast as you are filling it. Remember that in Airplane Mode, your iPhone’s cellular data will be disabled.

Disabling a feature called Optimized Battery Charging will speed up charging an iPhone to 100%. Apple’s Optimized Battery Charging is a feature that will help preserve the long-term life of your phone’s battery by pegging back charging once it reaches 80%, but if you need everything you can get, disable this feature before charging. You’ll find it in Settings>Battery>Battery Health & Charging.

Foundry

Switching to Dark Mode can also preserve your iPhone’s battery power.

Finally, remove your iPhone from a case, as this will stop overheating that can also impair battery charging.

iPhone Pro Max charges even faster

While officially all iPhone 13 and 14 models charge with a maximum of 20 watts, idropnews.com have found that the iPhone Pro Max can charge at up to 27 watts. If you own this model, a third-party power supply with 30W could offer more than the official 20W charger from Apple.

You could even consider a beefy MacBook charger. It won’t charge your iPhone at 100W but you’ll get the maximum possible charge into your phone.

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Method 2: Charge with MagSafe - fastest wireless charging for iPhone

With the iPhone 12 Apple introduced a new charging product for the iPhone. MagSafe is a new standard that allows accessories to be attached to the iPhone via magnets on the rear. This not only works with cases and wallets, but also with chargers. The MagSafe charger is magnetically attached to the back of the iPhone and charges the device via induction. MagSafe has several advantages over classic wireless chargers, including that the charging performance is higher and because of the magnetic clamp the charging is up to 50% more efficient than with normal Qi wireless charging.

Via MagSafe, all iPhone 12, 13 and 14 models can charge with a maximum of 15 watts. This is twice the 7.5W speed offered by wireless charging via the Qi standard.

We have tested the best MagSafe chargers to recommend the fastest and best value. The simplest is just a magnetic pad, and you can get multi-device MagSafe chargers that can simultaneously charge an iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch.

Method 3: Charge with a Qi charger - convenient but slow

Like almost every current high-end smartphone, recent iPhones also support wireless charging via the Qi standard.

Compared to MagSafe, the charging process takes noticeably longer. The maximum charging power is 7.5 watts, which is half as fast as with MagSafe.

However, there are benefits: Qi chargers are compatible with almost all devices that support wireless charging. So you can provide a power source for your other devices and for your Android friend. Qi chargers are also available from many different manufacturers, here are some recommendations:

As with the latest MagSafe chargers, if you want to charge an Apple Watch and/or AirPods in addition to your iPhone, there are special Qi charging stations where you can charge several devices at the same time.

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Method 4: Charge with a power bank - portable convenience

When out and about and running low on juice, a handy power bank (a battery pack with a cable port) is your saviour. These can be either wired so you get a fast connection via a Lightning cable, or wireless, with the same limitations as listed above.

With MagSafe, you get the option of a wireless power bank that clamps onto the back of your iPhone magnetically. This is a fast and much more convenient method of charging an iPhone on the go, and we have rounded up the best MagSafe power banks so you can choose the one that best suits your charging needs.