find out everything about their real recharge speed

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The iPhone 16s do not offer a major revolution in terms of fast charging. Contrary to rumors, Apple is not introducing 45W fast charging on its new iPhones. However, the Cupertino giant is making improvements to the charging of its smartphones. Very moderate, these improvements do not allow the iPhone to compete with competitors under Android.

Ahead of the keynote, several rumors suggested that the iPhone 16 could benefit from a more efficient wired charging system. Rumors claimed that all models in the range would have45 W charging. Chinese certification bodies have even helped solidify the rumor of up to 45W charging speed over USB-C.

45 W is much more than the range of the iPhone 15. In fact, the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro do not exceed 23 W. For their part, the iPhone 15 Pro Max and 15 Plus climb around 29 W. It It therefore takes almost two hours to charge an iPhone, which places Apple light years ahead of the competition under Android.

True to form, Apple did not wish to raise the issue of recharging during the keynote. The Californian group did not elaborate on the technical sheet of its new high-end smartphones. As always, Apple focuses on flagship features and use cases, rather than technical specifics. Following the same logic, Apple has not disclosed the size of the batteries or the amount of built-in RAM. The brand only mentioned MagSafe charging, which goes from 15 W to 25 W.

Also read: Apple limits Wi-Fi 7 speeds on iPhone 16s

Nothing has changed… or almost

Unfortunately, the iPhone 16s ultimately cannot climb to 45 W. According to tests carried out by 01Lab, all models in the range stagnate at a maximum speed of 31 W. Our tests show that not all iPhones exceed this threshold during wired charging, even if we use a 67 W Apple charger. No model exceeds a maximum power of 31 W. The 16 and 16 Pro versions, in more compact format, are limited to around 23 W. At first glance, there is therefore no notable improvement, but things are more complicated than that.

During experiments carried out with our iPhone 16 Pro Max, we noticed a power peak at 41 W. In fact, it is possible to increase to 41 W in certain very specific conditions. According to our tests, all iPhone 16s can temporarily increase their power consumption by 3 to 7 watts when charging, especially when performing tasks requiring a lot of power, such as booting or launching certain power-intensive apps. For its part, the iPhone 16 Pro Max can deliver up to 10 additional W under the required conditions.

THE iPhone 16 can therefore, in certain situations, consume more energy temporarily during charging. This only happens when resource-intensive tasks are performed while the battery is charging. In these cases, the power consumption of the device increases, which can reduce the impact of using a power-demanding application on the charging process.

Apple confirms the changes

Contacted by PetaPixelApple confirms that it has not made any real changes to the wired charging performance of the new iPhones. On the other hand, the group claims to have “improved the iPhone’s ability to charge normally while being used simultaneously”. If you charge your iPhone 16 while you use it for use a greedy appthe charging speed will therefore be higher than that of the iPhone 15 in the same scenario.

In the scenario in which a iPhone 15 Pro and one iPhone 16 Pro are both at 50% battery and plugged in, they will charge at more or less the same rate. However, if both devices are running demanding games in parallel, the iPhone 16 Pro will take the lead in unlocking additional power. For its part, the 15 Pro will suffer more from increased consumption, and its charging will slow down.

Aside from this peak, the average wired charging speed remained around 13W on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. After the first ten minutes of recharging, the percentage of battery recovered is more or less similar to that observed on its predecessor, the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The energy peak does not indicate that charging is faster at the start of charging, as is the case on smartphones with fast charging. Over the first 10 minutes of charging, the iPhone 16 Plus is the most efficient, with more than 20% recovered. The differences are nevertheless not significant. On all models, the gain can be estimated at around 20%.

It’s better, but it’s not crazy

In summary, the iPhone 16s offer slightly faster charging speeds than their predecessors. Apple has made improvements, but they are rather minimal, especially compared to expectations. The group does not offer charging that can be considered fast. Performance is only inflated in very specific scenarios. There’s no 45W fast charging, or even 40W charging.

On the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, we find charging around 23 W, compared to 31 W on the Pro editions. For their part, the two large format versions, the Plus and the Pro Max, go up to an average speed of 31 W. This is slightly better than the iPhone 15, whose charging speed oscillates between 20 and 29 W depending on the editions. We also gain a few additional percent during the first ten minutes of recharging, as our graphs show.

From one year to the next, the charging speed showed a slight change, despite larger batteries. Apple has in fact increased the battery size of all models of the range. The standard iPhone 16 has a 3,561 mAh battery, compared to 3,349 mAh for its predecessor. The Plus version benefits from a 4,674 mAh battery, larger than the 4,383 mAh accumulator in the 15 Plus. It is the 16 Pro which benefits from the biggest leap forward with a 3,582 mAh battery, almost 10% larger than that of the 15 Pro (3,274 mAh). Finally, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has a 4,685 mAh battery, more than 5% more generous than the 4,422 mAh battery in the 15 Pro Max.

Charging still too slow

Despite this undeniable improvement, the charging of the iPhone 16 remains long… too long. To fully charge an iPhone 16/16 Plus or 16 Pro, it takes almost two hours. The duration of a full charge actually varies between 112 and 119 minutes with an Apple 67W charger. The 16 Pro Max, with its larger battery, even takes just over two hours.

For comparison, it is possible to fully charge a Galaxy S24+ in just over an hour. Despite the optimizations made, the iPhone remains very far from the competition. The gap is very noticeable in the first ten minutes of charging. According to our tests, the iPhone is easily left behind by a Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus or an S24 Ultra.

The rumors circulating before the presentation keynote were therefore unfounded. We will have to wait until September 2025, and the presentation of the iPhone 17, to hope for an improvement in the charging speed of iPhones. In the meantime, Apple remains well below other smartphone makers, which have gradually adopted charging speeds of 65W and above.