Recently, several reports citing the China Quality Certification Centre (CQC) mentioned that the iPhone 16 series supports up to 45W fast charging. However, we got our hands on an iPhone 16 and an iPhone 16 Pro Max and tested their charging speeds ourselves. The results tell a different story.
In our testing, the regular iPhone 16 pulled a maximum of 19.9W at times. Generally, it hovered around 13-15W. Note that this wasn’t at higher battery levels, where you’d expect slow charging, but rather at a mere 50-60% charge.
These results indicate that the iPhone 16 supports a maximum of 20W charging, the same as last year’s iPhone 15. This is surprising considering that MagSafe charging has been bumped up to 25W this year, making wireless charging—at least theoretically—faster than wired charging.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max, on the other hand, displayed a reading of approximately 27W on the charging meter. Although it momentarily touched 37W, it ultimately settled back to around 27W and fluctuated between 22-27W. Importantly, this observation was made at a 40% battery level.
Therefore, we can conclude that the iPhone 16 Pro Max does indeed support 27W fast charging, which is consistent with last year’s iPhone 15 Pro models.
The Chinese media outlet iFanr recently corroborated our findings, observing that the iPhone 16 Pro Max can indeed reach 39W, but only for a very brief period before falling back to around 27W. They cited the CQC certification data, explaining that it merely specifies the maximum input current and voltage, not the actual sustained charging performance. This aligns with our own test results.
It’s worth noting that Apple’s official website states the iPhone 16 can be fast-charged up to 50% in 30 minutes with a 20W/30W or higher charger. This charging speed remains unchanged from last year’s models.
In conclusion, our tests indicate that the regular iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will typically charge at around 15W, with a maximum fast-charging speed of 20W. The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, on the other hand, will peak at 27W in everyday use. This suggests that there’s no actual upgrade in wired charging speeds for the iPhone.
- If you’ve bought an iPhone 16 or 16 Plus: use a 20W USB-C Power Delivery charger.
- If you’ve bought an iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max: use a 30W USB-C Power Delivery charger.
We recently compiled a list of the best charging adapters for iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, considering both the phone’s specifications and our test results. If you already have a charger from your iPhone 14 or 15, you can continue using it with your new iPhone 16.
