The iPhone 15 series might be able to charge faster than Apple suggests

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27W charging, not 20W

iPhone 15
The iPhone 15 (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Apple is more secretive about some of the specs of its phones than most other companies, and one of those specs is charging speeds, with Apple simply claiming that the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max all support “up to 50% charge" in either 30 or 35 minutes "with 20W adapter or higher.”

Now, you could interpret that as meaning they top out at 20W charging, but the wording is a bit ambiguous, and indeed tests of the iPhone 14 line (which includes the same quoted text from Apple) found that they could charge at between 25W and 27W, depending on the model.

It seems that similar might be true for the iPhone 15 line, with Japanese blog Macotakara (via MacRumors) claiming that the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro can charge at up to 27W. It’s likely, then, that the iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro Max will also support 27W charging, though the auto-translated text makes it a bit unclear whether Macotakara is making the same claim about those two phones.

A believable claim

It’s also unclear where the site got its information, so we’d take this report with a pinch of salt, but it’s certainly believable.

There were reports prior to launch that at least some iPhone 15 models would support 35W charging, but if that was the case, we’d think Apple would be talking about 30W chargers in its quote above, not 20W ones.

If this is accurate and applies to all four models, then it would mean a negligible charging power increase for the iPhone 15 compared to the iPhone 14, which charged at 25W in independent tests, but would see the iPhone 15 Pro Max simply match the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s charging power.

These aren’t overly exciting or impressive numbers, especially when the likes of the OnePlus 10T support 150W charging, but it is slightly better than the impression Apple’s own specs list provides, so it’s odd that the company doesn’t get more specific.

Still, these charging speeds aren’t among the reasons to buy one of these phones, but there are plenty of reasons you might want to, and you’ll find lots of them in our hands-on iPhone 15 review, hands-on iPhone 15 Plus review, hands-on iPhone 15 Pro review, and hands-on iPhone 15 Pro Max review.

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James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.