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For those thinking this will be enabled in a future software update, don’t get your hopes up. It would’ve been a selling point, and Apple would’ve talked about it on stage.

I'm interested even more now to see what the iFixIt teardown reveals. If it does reveal hardware for bilateral charging, Apple will almost HAVE to make a statement explaining why they chose to abort the feature at the last minute. Talk about bad PR.
 
Many of us don’t want it to charge stuff on the go. It would be a great feature to have when traveling, and not having to carry additional cords to charge a watch or AirPods. Just plug the phone in and rest your watch on it overnight.

That makes sense. Eh I don’t mind plugging in overnight.
 
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I just don’t see the point, just taking battery power from one device to another in the most inefficient way possible. I can kinda see this making sense built into a MacBook or the top of a Mac mini or even an iPad but I’ve never been in a situation where I’m willing to sacrifice my phone battery to charge my AirPods or Apple Watch. I can go about my day without those devices, not so much with my phone.
 
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Does anyone really give a damn about this feature?.

Yes. Way more than you’re not giving credit for. Also, If I could charge my Apple Watch or AirPods for some extra battery life, then yes, this feature serves a purpose for me and plenty of others.
 
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That's probably why we got so much extra battery life in the pros. It was to compensate the sharing of battery to someone else.

I think its more likely Apple realized they were loosing potential Xs / Xs Plus customers to the much cheaper Xr because it had such great battery life in comparison and Apple wanting to fix that profitability drain. Once the Xr came out last year sales of the Xs dived. JMHO...
 
For those thinking this will be enabled in a future software update, don’t get your hopes up. It would’ve been a selling point, and Apple would’ve talked about it on stage.

Then why put the hardware in? Makes no sense.

More likely is the fact they planned to implement it but had a few teething issues after the device was already manufactured, so they software disabled it and left it out of the keynote until the issues can be resolved.

It would be another disaster for them if they promised and then never delivered, so best to not promise and potentially deliver later as a bonus, or to boost waning sales at a later date.
 
If this is true, Apple will most likely hold it for iOS 14 and announce it with that since it was never talked about during the Keynote.
 
Testing for this type of feature would be happening long before the phones were actually manufactured, so I have a hard time believing that it would be green lighted for inclusion and then disabled. Something else besides "inefficiency" would need to happen for that scenario to occur since the relative efficiency would have already been known. In other words, it would need to be a combination of more than one factor.

One guess as to an additional factor would be the battery itself. Wireless charging involves excess heat compared to wired charging and that can have a negative effect on battery life and also potentially battery safety.
 
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Any Samsung users out there who could use it, and have actually used it? How efficient is it? If my phone is 100% charged and a friend's phone is on 10%, how much do I lose to get him to 50%?
Also wondering how long it takes. I’d hate to not have use of my phone for hours....lol.
 
If this is true, Apple will most likely hold it for iOS 14 and announce it with that since it was never talked about during the Keynote.
Apple includes things that never will be used like that radio chip use for listening to radio on iPhones. They probably gave the idea up with battery heating issues. Maybe in 2020 iPhones
 
Many of us don’t want it to charge stuff on the go. It would be a great feature to have when traveling, and not having to carry additional cords to charge a watch or AirPods. Just plug the phone in and rest your watch on it overnight.

It would be a great feature if it worked. How often do you hear a Samsung user bragging about how well it works for them? Never. How many people say they are underwhelmed with the reality on their Samsung? A lot.

It doesn't work. Apple doesn't release half baked products.
 
The charging efficiency is probably very bad. People are complaining about the Samsung Powershare feature as well. Basically, 80% of power is completely lost as heat (Example: one phone loses 15% battery while the other only gains 3%). It might be ok to charge small devices like an apple watch or the airpods but definitely not a phone.

Also, the fact that such a large percentage is lost as heat means that you can't charge things very quickly, or the whole pile will heat up too much and might get damaged.

Heat is bad for batteries. Apple doesn't need a large percentage of customers complaining that their thousand dollar phone's battery is failing in a couple of years.
 
This is actually one reason why the new iPhone Pro is disappointing. Imagine going on a weekend trip with your iPhone and Apple Watch. With this technology you wont need to bring your watch charging cable with you. Just take a shower and put your watch on the back of the iPhone while the smartwatch is being charged by cable.

Easily solved by planning ahead and packing a wall charger and cable for each. Charging cables don't take up that much space.
 
20% is enough. Do this every day and your watch will last more than just two days.
The watch will need at least 2 hours to charge 20% and will discharge the phone at least 20%. Efficiency is at about 16.5% according to people that use Powershare. This basically means that there is a chance that the watch won't reach 100% even after 10 hours (during the night for example).

I mean, of course it's good for this feature to exist either way, but I guess Apple wants to save themselves the embarrassment when people realize that in real world use it's almost worthless.
 
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