iPhone 8 and iPhone X Will Support Fast Charging, But Only If You Buy a New USB-C Charger (9to5mac.com)

One little detail Apple didn't mention at its event in Cupertino, California yesterday was the fact that the new iPhones will support fast charging. According to the official tech specs page, the new iPhones can recharge up to 50 percent of their battery life in a 30-minute charge. The catch? You have to use a USB-C charger and Lightning cable (sold separately). 9to5Mac reports: iPhone 8 battery life is roughly equivalent to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. On a full charge, expect up to 12 hours of internet usage on iPhone 8 and iPhone X, with up to 13 hours on iPhone 8 Plus. With a 50% quick charge in 30 minutes, you are effectively gaining hours of additional battery life during the day, even if you only plug in for a short period. However, to take advantage of fast-charging, you cannot use the Lightning to USB-A cable that is bundled in the box. Fast charging requires a USB-C to Lightning cable and the USB-C wall charger. More specifically, one of three USB-C wall chargers. Apple sells 29W, 61W and 87W variants of its USB-C power adapters. Prices range from $49 to $79. Apple doesn't break out specific numbers on how each model affects charging times, it's not clear if the cheapest 29W model can achieve the advertised 50% recharge in 30 minutes.

Comments

USB PD 2.0

[garote]

Any charging brick that supports the USB PD 2.0 usb power delivery standard will charge a MacBook, new MacBook Pro, or iPhone 8. You don't need to buy a brick from Apple for this.

The only detail to consider is the maximum wattage the brick can put out. That's why Apple sells a larger brick for the MacBook Pro.

Any brick - from any vendor - that can fast-charge a MacBook will fast-charge the iPhone 8 as well. The one I use is the Anker PowerPort+, but there are a number of others.

Re:USB PD 2.0

[garote]

All previous iPhones have been able to pull ~10 watts out of a USB port by looking for a proprietary signal from Apple-brand chargers. (A "voltage cascade" on pins 2 and 3, a.k.a the USB data pins.)

With that signal, the iPhone draws 2 amps (at 5v) out of the connected USB port. Without that signal, the iPhone assumes it's a USB port from some other vendor, and uses the standard USB power negotiation signals to ask for the maximum power available from the port (usually 1 amp).

This "voltage cascade" signal is trivial to recreate in any USB wiring setup by adding two resistors. Put those in, and you signal to any Apple device that your port can supply 2 amps without problems. Many, many manufacturers have sold USB devices with "fast charging" ports containing these resistors over the last ~10 years, from USB hubs to USB ports on laptops to USB chargers that go in cars to USB charging stations at airports, et cetera. They've become so common that there's now confusion over exactly who came up with the voltage cascade signal idea.

Now that the USB spec has given us a good standard for supplying lots of power at lots of voltages, the earlier fast-charging signal can (very slowly) be phased out.

Re:Innovation

[blindseer]

Ah, you seem to forget that the cell phone makers had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into using a standard charging port. If China and the EU had not made the cell phone makers get in a room and come up with a standard battery charging port then you'd be complaining (still) about how every phone maker has a different charger.

Apple uses a USB port to charge like every other cell phone. Sure, you have to buy a cable to plug it in, also like any other cell phone. You don't have to buy cables from Apple either, I found "Apple certified" cables for $8 on Amazon. I'm sure you can find them cheaper too, just like you can get a cheap USB-C cable and take your chances on it not working or breaking your phone. Before the USB port was mandated as a standard a lot of 5 billion dollar construction projects were funded from selling vendor specific chargers.

The transition to USB-C hasn't exactly been smooth either. Lots of cell phone makers couldn't be bothered with complying with the standard. The phone might have a port that *LOOKS* like a USB-C port but plugging in a charger other than what came with it could damage the phone, or limit it to slow charging rates as it reverted to voltage and current that complies with USB 2.0. I seem to recall an article on this website called Slashdot, perhaps you've heard of it, where there was a discussion on Google "suggesting" that Android phone makers comply with the USB standard or lose the Google endorsement.