iPhone SE (2016) Need Help With Chargers

[davedapsirules]

I am awaiting delivery of the new SE and am returning to Apple after 5 years with Android phones. I understand that the SE has a Lightning cable and it comes with the 5W "slow" charger. If I want fast charging, do I simply buy the 18W brick (wall plug) and use the Lightning cable that ships with the phone or do I need a new cable that supports fast charging? I see that the $49 fast charger that Apple sells includes the 18W brick and a USB-C connector which doesn't fit into the iPhone SE, correct? So, how do I use the USB-C connector with the SE...do I need an USB-C to Lightning adapter or is just buying the 18W brick sufficient to get fast charging? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[compwiz1202]

I am awaiting delivery of the new SE and am returning to Apple after 5 years with Android phones. I understand that the SE has a Lightning cable and it comes with the 5W "slow" charger. If I want fast charging, do I simply buy the 18W brick (wall plug) and use the Lightning cable that ships with the phone or do I need a new cable that supports fast charging? I see that the $49 fast charger that Apple sells includes the 18W brick and a USB-C connector which doesn't fit into the iPhone SE, correct? So, how do I use the USB-C connector with the SE...do I need an USB-C to Lightning adapter or is just buying the 18W brick sufficient to get fast charging? Thanks in advance for any help.

You need at least an 18W charger and a USB-C to Lightning Cable. SE comes with USB-A to Lightning.

 

[oVerboost]

Just buy an 18w genuine Apple charger off eBay they’re pretty cheap and brand new, and should come with the cable you need too.

 

[now i see it]

Any cable that has a lightning plug on the end of it can be used to charge that phone. But (from experience) it's best to use either an Apple lightning cable or a high quality name brand lightning cable. There's lots of Chinese lightning cables (on eBay & Amazon) that don't work properly after a short span of time.

The USB C end of a cable is to plug into the USB C port of a charger if it has one.

Fast charging will heat up the battery and phone. Not an issue during the cooler months but during the summer it can overheat the phone if it's being charged at 96°+ air temperature

 

[bodonnell202]

Fast charging is nice when you need a quick top off, but fast charging all the time will ultimately wear out the battery faster. As a middle ground you could pickup a 12W charging block which you can plug the cable that comes with the phone into - it will charge faster than with the 5W block for sure, but now quite as fast as the 18W block.

 

[Arctic Moose]

This 18W Anker charger is practically the same size as the slow Apple charger:

Anker

We created Anker® to make the smart life simpler; tackling first-world problems like low battery and slow data access to make life better.

www.anker.com

 

[rui no onna]

Do you have an iPad? You might be better off just using your existing 10-12W iPad charger in conjunction with normal USB-A to Lightning Cable.

The iPhone SE doesn't seem capable of USB PD (18W) charging anyway. I've seen reviews mentioning ~13-14W power draw from the wall and factoring in adapter efficiency, that points to the SE charging at ~12W.

 

[jakeuten]

Do you have an iPad? You might be better off just using your existing 10-12W iPad charger in conjunction with normal USB-A to Lightning Cable.

The iPhone SE doesn't seem capable of USB PD (18W) charging anyway. I've seen reviews mentioning ~13-14W power draw from the wall and factoring in adapter efficiency, that points to the SE charging at ~12W.

Does that mean the 12W will charge at 8-9W? Why not go for the fastest charging possible?

 

[rui no onna]

Does that mean the 12W will charge at 8-9W? Why not go for the fastest charging possible?

No. The 12W iPad charger is able to provide the full 12W rated output to the iPhone SE (2020) and will draw ~13-14W power from the wall.

Why not go for the fastest charging possible?

I expect 12W is already the fastest charging possible for the SE.

Spending an extra $20-40 for USB PD charger + USB-C to Lightning cable likely isn't gonna improve charging speeds beyond what you get with 12W iPad charger + USB-A to Lightning cable.

 

[tt061282]

I just found an 18W Anker charger brick at Walmart last night on clearance. I paid $3 for the brick and I have an Apple lighting to USB-C cable. Works perfect on my SE. Very fast charging.

Honestly if you’re gonna have a phone with fast charging capabilities then why not have a fast charger. The 5W charger that Apple includes in all its non-Pro iPhone models is ridiculous because a charging brick is NOT that much more expensive. It’s just their way of “upselling”. Sad but true. Thus far I have 0 complaints on my SE though.
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No. The 12W iPad charger is able to provide the full 12W rated output to the iPhone SE (2020) and will draw ~13-14W power from the wall.


I expect 12W is already the fastest charging possible for the SE.

Spending an extra $20-40 for USB PD charger + USB-C to Lightning cable likely isn't gonna improve charging speeds beyond what you get with 12W iPad charger + USB-A to Lightning cable.

Doesn’t the iPhone SE support 18W charging? Just going off Apple’s website I believe it does, but does it Top Off at 12W? I legitimately don’t know and was under the impression that it supports 18W charging.

 

[rui no onna]

Doesn’t the iPhone SE support 18W charging? Just going off Apple’s website I believe it does, but does it Top Off at 12W? I legitimately don’t know and was under the impression that it supports 18W charging.

No one's done any comprehensive tests yet but I've seen mention of 13W power draw from the wall. Charging the iPhone XR and 11 with 18W USB PD usually draws ~19.6W from the wall, not 13W.

The thing is with a small 1821 mAh battery, you don't really need 18W to get to 50% in 30 minutes which I'm guessing is Apple's definition of fast charging.

Here is a charging test that MacRumors did for the iPhone X:

iPhone X Charging Speeds Compared: The Fastest and Easiest Ways to Charge Your iPhone

With the addition of both fast charging and wireless charging to Apple's 2017 iPhone lineup, there are more ways than ever to charge your iPhone....

www.macrumors.com

At 30 minutes, the 12W iPad charger charged the iPhone X (2716 mAh design capacity) to 39% or ~1059 mAh. On an iPhone SE, that's the equivalent of 58% charge already.

I do have an Anker USB PD charger (well, PowerPort PD 2 18W+12W plus a couple more with 18-30W USB PD multi-port). One of these days, I'll do a test comparing SE 2020 charging times at 5W, 12W and 18W.

 

[NickName99]

Buy a lightly used Apple 30w USB-C charger for $19 on eBay, can quick charge any iPhone or any iPad at full speed.

18w is sufficient to fast charge any iPhone at full speed, iPhones won’t negotiate higher than an 18w charge.

 

[compwiz1202]

No one's done any comprehensive tests yet but I've seen mention of 13W power draw from the wall. Charging the iPhone XR and 11 with 18W USB PD usually draws ~19.6W from the wall, not 13W.

The thing is with a small 1821 mAh battery, you don't really need 18W to get to 50% in 30 minutes which I'm guessing is Apple's definition of fast charging.

Here is a charging test that MacRumors did for the iPhone X:

iPhone X Charging Speeds Compared: The Fastest and Easiest Ways to Charge Your iPhone

With the addition of both fast charging and wireless charging to Apple's 2017 iPhone lineup, there are more ways than ever to charge your iPhone....

www.macrumors.com

At 30 minutes, the 12W iPad charger charged the iPhone X (2716 mAh design capacity) to 39% or ~1059 mAh. On an iPhone SE, that's the equivalent of 58% charge already.

I do have an Anker USB PD charger (well, PowerPort PD 2 18W+12W plus a couple more with 18-30W USB PD multi-port). One of these days, I'll do a test comparing SE 2020 charging times at 5W, 12W and 18W.

I have a power bank that shows V/A when charging, and it showed 12.88W for my SE2020, while the Pro Maxes are around 18W. They both were around 9V but just less A for the SE2020.
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No one's done any comprehensive tests yet but I've seen mention of 13W power draw from the wall. Charging the iPhone XR and 11 with 18W USB PD usually draws ~19.6W from the wall, not 13W.

The thing is with a small 1821 mAh battery, you don't really need 18W to get to 50% in 30 minutes which I'm guessing is Apple's definition of fast charging.

Here is a charging test that MacRumors did for the iPhone X:

iPhone X Charging Speeds Compared: The Fastest and Easiest Ways to Charge Your iPhone

With the addition of both fast charging and wireless charging to Apple's 2017 iPhone lineup, there are more ways than ever to charge your iPhone....

www.macrumors.com

At 30 minutes, the 12W iPad charger charged the iPhone X (2716 mAh design capacity) to 39% or ~1059 mAh. On an iPhone SE, that's the equivalent of 58% charge already.

I do have an Anker USB PD charger (well, PowerPort PD 2 18W+12W plus a couple more with 18-30W USB PD multi-port). One of these days, I'll do a test comparing SE 2020 charging times at 5W, 12W and 18W.

Yea that's really the only claim that it will get to 50% in 30m, which it does even at 12-13W since the battery capacity is like half the Pro Max.

 

[rui no onna]

I have a power bank that shows V/A when charging, and it showed 12.88W for my SE2020, while the Pro Maxes are around 18W. They both were around 9V but just less A for the SE2020.

Thanks for the info. Certainly good to know.

Results for initial testing with Apple 12W charger (included with iPad) and Apple 30W USB-C PD charger.

I still need to do 5W and the Anker. Draining the battery takes longer than expected. With GeekBench 4 battery test, no dimming, 100% screen brightness, it takes over 3 hours to fully drain the battery. First time, I allowed the screen to dim and it took over 4 hours 20 minutes to drain.

Based on these initial results, I don't think it's worth buying a USB-C PD adapter and a proprietary USB-C to Lightning Cable just for the iPhone SE2.

If it was charger only, I'd say go for it but you need both adapter and cable. Lightning is a proprietary standard and even iPads have started to move away from it so not particularly reusable unless you have other devices that can benefit (e.g. iPhone XR or newer, iPad Pro 12.9 1st & 2nd gen, iPad Pro 10.5, iPad Air 3). On iPads, the 18-30W charging makes a huge difference since those tend to have ginormous batteries.

If you don't already have a 12W charger lying around, you'd probably be better served by one of the following (or similar):

iPhone 12 Charger, Anker 30W 2 Port Fast Charger with 18W USB C Power Adapter, Foldable PowerPort PD 2 for, iPhone 12/12 Mini / 12 Pro / 12 Pro Max / 11 / X/XR/XS, iPad Pro, Pixel, Galaxy

Model Number: A2625 PowerPort PD 2 The Two-Port Power Delivery Wall Charger From Anker, America's Leading USB Charging Brand - Faster and safer charging with our advanced technology - 50 million+ happy users and counting High-Speed Charging Equipped with 18W Power Delivery to charge the latest iP...

www.amazon.com

USB C Charger RAVPower 30W 2-Port Fast Charger with 18W Power Delivery 3.0 Wall Charger Foldable Power Adapter for iPhone 12 Mini Pro 12 Pro Max iPad Pro AirPods Pro and Nintendo Switch and More

USB C Charger RAVPower 30W 2-Port Fast Charger with 18W Power Delivery 3.0 Wall Charger Foldable Power Adapter for iPhone 12 Mini Pro 12 Pro Max iPad Pro AirPods Pro and Nintendo Switch and More

www.amazon.com

 

[rui no onna]

Complete set of tests. I think the differences between 12W and 18W charging just falls within the margin of error here.

I remembered to use the Kill-A-Watt for the Anker PowerPort PD2 (last two tests) so I have power draw measurements from the wall for Anker 12W and 18W. I find it interesting that the USB PD protocol dropped off more quickly compared to the Apple 2.4A.

Anker 12W
USB-A to Lightning

Anker 18W
USB-C to Lightning