I think it is. He showed the phone charging pretty quickly initially, from 0-50 in about 60 minutes, but then the wattage ramped down steadily and it took forever for the last 20%, probably to mitigate heat issues
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Apparently, you HAVE to use Apple’s 20 watt charging brick to get the full 15 watt MagSafe charge
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Then don’t use a fast charger. Wirelessly or not. Then let’s return to topic.
Is it a bad idea to use the MagSafe charger with the 20w brick every night? I don't have any other wall adapter that takes USB-C....
I do kinda wish Apple included a wall adapter that was USB-C compatible with the phones, even if it's a standard wattage.
I do kinda wish Apple included a wall adapter that was USB-C compatible with the phones, even if it's a standard wattage.
Not sure how accurate the Ampere app is, but it measured 23.22w when my phone was below 50% and my MagSafe plugged into my 65w RavPower Charger. I also got 15.48w with my 18w Apple charger that came with my iPad Pro and 6.78w with my Anker Qi pad on my nightstand.
For me personally, not having them include yet another wall plug that would go into a box for storage worked out. I now only have to bring one charger, my RavPower 65w with two USB-C and two USB-A, to charge my work computers (Dell Xps 13 and Surface Pro), iPhone 12 Pro and Apple Watch. I already have way too many stand alone USB C chargers. One consolidated third party charger makes sense for me instead of one OEM laptop charger and separate wall plugs for my phone and watch. And because of GaN technology, my 65w charger is about the same size of two Apple 18w plugs stacked on top of each other. I now can just leave my OEM laptop chargers at the office and do not have to carry any USB C dongles/adapters to charge my other devices.
For me personally, not having them include yet another wall plug that would go into a box for storage worked out. I now only have to bring one charger, my RavPower 65w with two USB-C and two USB-A, to charge my work computers (Dell Xps 13 and Surface Pro), iPhone 12 Pro and Apple Watch. I already have way too many stand alone USB C chargers. One consolidated third party charger makes sense for me instead of one OEM laptop charger and separate wall plugs for my phone and watch. And because of GaN technology, my 65w charger is about the same size of two Apple 18w plugs stacked on top of each other. I now can just leave my OEM laptop chargers at the office and do not have to carry any USB C dongles/adapters to charge my other devices.
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If you didn't buy it in the last week, it will probably be the 18W charger.
You can get the Watt output for the charger by multiplying the volts and amps written in the tiny text on the charger.
For example, my Apple 18W charger that came with iPhone 11 Pro has the following:
5W⎓3A = 15 Watts 9V⎓2A = 18 Watts
My 10W USB adapter that came with an older iPad has the following:
5.1V⎓2.1A = 10.71 Watts
Pretty compelling and authoritative video. Very strange, and kind of messed up, that Apple is choosing to do this.
and in the video none of the third party options could output higher than 7W despite their capability
Apple said the other day (was even in MRs) you can use a MacBook Pro charger so Im pretty sure its just fine.....
This video provides solid, empirical testing, and should be the one people watch, not the opinionated click bait in the OP. That's six minutes I want back.
As for why the results are the way they are, it's not as simple as 96w > 20W, "OMG greedy Apple is out to screw everyone!"
USB charging is far from the simple days when the value between a couple unused pins in a 4- or 5-pin connector determined the supplied current on a 5V supply.
USB PD carries multiple voltage levels and current levels over a 24-pin multi-tasking connector, following protocols that guide active negotiation between the source and the sink.
That's in addition to the wireless negotiation occurring between the device and the charger, governed by the Qi protocols, and whatever extensions are used to facilitate faster charging, which can be proprietary.
There is a lot more going on behind the scenes than what most realize, and at this point, without greater experience and analysis, jumping to conclusions is foolish.
The question is, can Apple do something in the form of an iOS update to correct this in the MagSafe puck or the 20W charger?
If, for example, something is making my iPhone X draw only 3W, can it be told to draw 7.5 or 15?
It's pretty dissapointing to hear this... on the website they say "can be used with third-party adapters"... but its like Apple is throttling the wattage (similiar to cellphone companies with data)... I think I will return all three of my magsafe...
Yes, it's possible that Apple could make changes in a future version of iOS to provide better compatibility for older devices with the MagSafe, though I wouldn't expect to see parity with the new ones in the form of 15W.
It made adjustments in 13.1 to mitigate concerns about potential interference, albeit at the cost of 7.5W charging with non-EPP chargers, which could be perceived as removing a loophole as well.
It's probably unlikely to see changes in the firmware in the MagSafe or the 20W or 18W adapters, if it was even feasible from an end user level. As far as Apple in concerned, those combinations work as intended, sold as a solution for Apple products.
Apple's priority is not to go out of its way to ensure that the MagSafe is compatible with other makers' devices. Read between the lines, and there are no explicit claims of compatibility with anything but Apple products. Others may work, but are unsupported.
Contrast that to Samsung's chargers, or the Pixel stand, which do explicitly claim support for Qi compatible devices.
So, if anything, Apple may tweak iOS to make its iPhones work better with MagSafe, but the rest is not a concern.
As far as MagSafe's compatibility with 3rd party adapters, there are apparently some kinks to be worked out there as well. The accessory makers are the tail, not the dog, so what will probably end up happening is that they will tweak their products for MagSafe compatibility in general, but it will take some time, certainly more than the two weeks that these new products and the new ecosystem has been in existence.
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Outstanding answer and detail. Thank you for taking the time to explain so thoroughly.
Just switched from a 18W to a 20W and the difference is noticeable and honestly a little bit shocking. Charging with the MagSafe nearly as quickly as I do with a wire on a high powered (Anker, Apple, etc) device via USB-C.
I think in this case, you can get a lot higher speed with the screen off. At least in my tests with a Kill-A-Watt. Even the Apple Watch will drop its draw significantly when you turn on the screen.
