New iPhone Leak Reveals Apple's Divisive Wireless Charging
While Apple AAPL -2.95% has ‘accidentally’ leaked the iPhone X Plus (twice) and its new features, it has been left to insiders to deliver news about upgrades which may prove more divisive. And we have another fitting that description…
It comes via an interesting report from China Times, which delivers good and bad news for potential buyers of the iPhone X Plus (details), second generation iPhone X (details) and iPhone 9 (details): only one of them may get fast wireless charging.
It comes via an interesting report from China Times, which delivers good and bad news for potential buyers of the iPhone X Plus (details), second generation iPhone X (details) and iPhone 9 (details): only one of them may get fast wireless charging.
Breaking down the news, CT states Apple will introduce faster wireless charging with its new iPhones by switching the current FPC (ferrite polymer composite) charging coil to thicker copper (which has lower resistance) but warns only one of the models is sure to receive it.
Such a statement would appear to guarantee fast wireless charging comes to the (massive) iPhone X Plus, which will be the new flagship iPhone this year. Not only is pricing on its side to support feature differentiation, but its large chassis will be best equipped to dissipate the extra heat generated by faster wireless charging speeds.
Given the second generation iPhone X will be next in line, the obvious candidate for exclusion is the iPhone 9 (which I expect to simply be called ‘iPhone’). Even if this model is known to be packing some surprising differentiators itself.
The important question to ask here is whether such fast charging will be exclusive to Apple’s still-unreleased ‘AirPower’ wireless charging standard. AirPower will surely launch with a performance advantage over third-party chargers, which makes this faster charging an ideal candidate for AirPower-only status.
As it stands, the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus all support third-party Qi-certified charging but only up to 7.5 watts when the Qi standard goes all the way up to 15W. Unlocking speeds of over 15W could, therefore, be what AirPower brings to the table, as well as what is used to justify its proprietary status. Especially if new restrictions on fast wired iPhone charging are introduced.
That said unless fast wireless charging is your number one priority, then thanks to its design ingenuity and sheer value for money the iPhone 9 remains hard to beat…